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Vegetalismo Shamanism Among The Mestizo Population of The Peruvian Amazon PDF
Vegetalismo Shamanism Among The Mestizo Population of The Peruvian Amazon PDF
VEGETALISMO
SHAMANISM AMONG
THE MESTIZO POPULATION
OF THE PERUVIAN AMAZON
BY
Doctoral dissertation
for the doctor's degree in humanities
at the University of Stockholm,
to be publicly examined in English
in room 7, house D, Frescati
on Thursday, June 5, 1986 at 10 a.m.
by
ABSTRACT
In the Amazonian provinces of Peru indigenous shamanistic
practices are preserved among the mestizo population. Prac-
titioners who call themselves vegetalistas (from which the
term Vegetalismo may be formed) believe that certain plants,
which they call doctores (plant-teachers) have spirits from
which knowledge about this and other worlds may be gained,
if these plants are ingested under certain conditions invol-
ving sexual segregation and a diet that may extend from six
months to several years. Several of these plants have pycho-
tropic properties, or contain important biodynamic compounds.
Two of these plants, Banisteriopsis caapi (Spruce ex Griseb.)
Morton and Psychotria viridis Ruiz & Pavon, are used in the
preparation of ayahuasca, a psychotropic brew with the aid of
which vegetalistas contact the spirit world in order to
diagnose and cure illnesses. Other plant-teachers may also be
added to the basic ayahuasca preparation.
27
V E G E T A L I S M O
BY
CONTENTS 5
MAP 8
PREFACE 9
Chapter 1.
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Scope 13
1.2. Shamanism 13
1.3. The term "mestizo" 15
1.4. Ayahuasca and the plant-teachers 15
1.5. Methodological considerations 16
1.6. A survey of the scientific literature 18
1.7. Organization of the material 23
Chapter 2.
VEGETALISMO IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON
2.1. The Peruvian Amazon area................................. 25
2.2. Iquitos and Pucallpa. Historical and
socio-economic considerations 27
2.3. Religious background of the area 29
2.4. Tribal Amazonian shamanism: main characteristics 30
2.5. Vegetalismo and vegetalistas: Amazonian
mestizo shamanism 31
2.6. The informants 36
Chapter 3.
SHAMANIC INITIATION AND THE PLANT-TEACHERS
Chapter 4.
THE SUPERNATURAL REALM
4.1. Spirit world 73
4.1.01. The Chullachaqui 74
4.1.02. The Sachamama 77
4.1.03. The Yakumama 79
4.1.04. The Yakuruna 80
4.1.05. The Sirena (mermaid) 82
4.1.06. The Bufeo Colorado (pink river dolphin) 84
4.1.07. Plants leading to the underwater world 87
4.1.08. The Tunchi 87
4.1.09. Christian elements 89
4.1.10. The Inca motif 89
4.2. The concept of arkana 90
4.3. The helping spirits 94
Chapter 5.
THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRITS: THE MAGIC MELODIES AND
THE MAGIC PHLEGM
Chapter 7.
CONCLUSIONS 157
Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III
REFERENCES 181
PREFACE
"Pues la Ayahuasca encierra toda la ciencia y el arte
del médico aborigen o del curandero popular que se
sirve de aquélla. A ella acuden en demanda de sabidu-
ría, sea por aliviar el dolor de sus semejantes o
descubrir lo desconocido y alcanzar la esencia de las
cosas. " (Gabriel del Castillo 1963: 88)
10
In May 1981, when I was about to leave for Caquetá, I got
news of Don Apolinar's death. I was advised by Terence McKenna
to travel to Iquitos (3°50s 73°15w), a city of nearly 300, 000
inhabitants in the Peruvian Amazon, where I could study the use
of ayahuasca among mestizo practitioners. He gave me the names
of several practitioners he had heard about a year before, in-
cluding the name of Don Emilio Andrade Gomez, whom he had never
met.
11
who from the very beginning has guided me in my studies on
shamanism, and who finally accepted me as his student. I also
wish to thank Dr. Richard Evans Schultes, of the Botanical
Museum of Harvard University, and Dr. Bo Holmstedt, of Karo-
linska Institutet, Stockholm, for their enthusiastic inspira-
tion. Dr. Timothy Plowman and colleagues of the Field Museum of
Natural History, Chicago, have helped me with the identifica-
tion of botanical material, and Dr. Ilkka Kukkonen, Head Cura-
tor of the Botanical Museum of Helsinki University, has suppor-
ted the transport and preservation of voucher and living
specimens. I also wish to thank Drs. Stephen and Christine
Hugh-Jones and Dr. Françoise Barbira-Freedman, for their
hospitality and positive criticism during my visits to Cam-
bridge. I am specially indebted to Terence and Dennis McKenna,
who during years have helped me with good advice and intelli-
gent conversation. I also wish to add the names of Jean Pierre
Chaumeil, Anthony Henman, Jean Langdon, Elizabeth Kramer,
Carlos Pinzón, Guillermo Arévalo, Sinforiano Rodríguez Doldán
and Clodomir Monteiro da Silva, for the interesting conversa-
tions on shamanism and ayahuasca. Many people made my work in
Peru possible. In Lima I wish to thank Dr. Alejandro Camino,
Dr. Fernando Cabieses, Dr. Baldomero Cáceres, and the staff of
CAAP (Centro Amazónico de Aplicación Práctica). In Iquitos I am
indebted to Pedro Felipe Ayala, Dimitri Eftyvoulos, Armando and
Germana Alba, and Gunther and Juanita Schaper for their hospi-
tality and great generosity. Thanks also to Dr. Franklin
Ayala and colleagues of the Herbarium Amazonense, who have
always been most helpful to me, to Alfonso Padilla for trans-
cribing into musical notation some of Don Emilio's icaros, to
Pekka Hako for printing the music, and to Valericio Leppe for
drawing the map. I am particularly indebted to Gurli Barck, who
spent so much effort revising the manuscript.
1.1. Scope
In this book it is my intention to give an account of shamanism
as it is practised by some individuals among the mestizo popu-
lation of the Peruvian Amazon area. My work is based on the
reports of a handful of practitioners, my deductions as a par-
ticipant-observer during five periods of field-work, and the
examination of the scientific literature available on this sub-
ject.
1.2 Shamanism.
The focus of this book is on shamanism. The definition of such
terms as shamanism and shaman have been the subject of consi-
derable debate in scientific literature. In fact, many books
and articles on shamanism begin with a discussion about the
specific characteristics of shamans, and to what geographical
areas these terms can be applied (cf. Eliade 1964: 3-6; Siikala
1978:11-17; Chaumeil 1983:10-21; Merkur 1985:10-40; etc.).
For the above reasons -and I hope that this will become clea-
rer later on-, I believe that the use of the term shaman, when
referring to these practitioners, is justified. In the follo-
wing I will, however, use the term vegetalista, which is one of
the most frequent autonominations of the shamans I have been
working with. This term would mean to any person not familiar
with the belief system of these practitioners an "expert in the
use of plants" (vegetales). This term indicates, however, not
so much the fact that they frequently use plants in their prac-
tice, but refers to the origin of their knowledge: it comes
from the spirit of certain plants (vegetales), which are the
14
shaman's real teachers.
The term vegetalista should not be confused with that of her-
balist, which denotes a person knowledgeable in the use of me-
dicinal plants. All vegetalistas are usually also herbalists,
in that they know a great deal about medicinal plants and fre-
quently use them. But not all herbalists may be called vegeta-
listas.
1
In her study of ayahuasca use in Iquitos Dobkin de Rios (1972:
54, 141) has used the term cholo, meaning a "civilized Indian,
a term of derogation used to described dark-skinned jungle
transitional population". In my experience this term is used
in this area to denote somebody of Amazonian physignomy who
lives like a mestizo. The term cholo or cholita (referring to
women) is used in an affectionate way among equals, but can be
insulting if used by a socially superior person about an infe-
rior. I am going to avoid to use this term as a social catego-
ry.
15
Although, of course, I have limited my work to a handful of
informants, they do not represent an isolated or marginal phe-
nomenon. Practitioners like those I deal with in this book are
probably to be found in the whole of the Amazon area, not only
in Peru, but also in the Amazonian territories of Ecuador, Bra-
zil, Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia. They play a very impor-
tant role in these societies and contribute substantially to
the medical care of both the rural and urban population.
2
ln the Peruvian Amazon this term not only applies to North Ame-
ricans or Europeans, but even to people coming from Lima, who
through their clothes and behaviour reveal that they do not
belong to the Amazon area. Although physiognomically I am a
mestizo, I am considerable taller than the people of that area
(I am 182 cm.), and that alone makes me quite often also a
gringo.
16
dying a subject such as shamanism, one becomes extremely invol-
ved, and it happened to me that I found myself many times iden-
tified with the shamanic quest, while at the same time I tried
to keep an objective look by the systematic gathering of data
through notes, recordings, photos and collection of voucher
specimens. I know that there are colleagues who look with sus-
picion at such an approach. Jean Pierre Chaumeil (1980: 9)
points out that there is the danger of having an incomplete and
static view of the phenomenon (I do not pretend, of course, now
to possess a "complete" view of Amazonian mestizo shamanism).
The fact that I was not able to spend more than between 5 and 8
weeks every year doing fieldwork, and that during the long and
cold winters in Finland I could keep a certain distance to the
concrete events and dedicate my time to the structuration of
the data and to the examination of scientific literature, has,
I hope, contributed towards a balanced view of the subject of
my study.
19
Psychologists and psychiatrists, such as Carlos Alberto Se-
guín, Moisés Lemlij and Mario Chiappe became interested in
what has been labelled as Psiquiatría Folklórica (Seguín 1979:
13), and since 1965 they have produced a series of articles
(some of which have been republished recently: cf. Seguín 1979;
Chiappe et al. 1985), about local healers in several areas of
Peru and their use of psychotropic plants, including ayahuasca.
They present both valuable descriptive and analytical material.
Their emphasis seems to be mostly on healing, and especially
from the point of view of psychotherapy. There are interesting
observations about the conceptions and local nomenclature of
culture-bond illnesses, and about cultural determinants of the
hallucinatory experience. As sources for the study of more eso-
teric aspects of mestizo shamanism, such as initiation and
transmission of shamanic power, their work is limited by the
fact that they deal comparatively little with the religious
aspects, and there is no attempt to study the vegetalistas'
worldview from a wider Amazonian perspective. The ethnobota-
nical information is scarce, and unfortunately, sometimes inac-
curate.
21
In the summer of 1985 a second book by F. Bruce Lamb was pu-
blished, Rio Tigre and Beyond. The Amazon Jungle Medicine of
Manuel Cordoba, a continuation of Wizard of the Upper Amazon,
which is, in my opinion, an important contribution to our know-
ledge of Amazonian shamanism. Although Lamb's book is not an
ethnographical work, as he himself points out, it presents very
interesting material, especially about the use of chants in the
modulation of ayahuasca visions. In this second book there is
also a large appendix, in which Don Manuel's Materia Medica is
reported. 81 species, many of them with tentative identifica-
tions, and their uses are mentioned. For me this was particu-
larly valuable, since I have also gathered ethnobotanical in-
formation about many of these plants.
24
CHAPTER 2.
VEGETALISMO IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON
During the last few decades the Amazon area has witnessed a
great demographic expansion due to various colonization pro-
grams as an effort from the part of Lima to integrate these
territories with "the nation". Two cities, which until not many
years ago were small towns, have experienced enormous growth:
Iquitos and Pucallpa.
3
The Jesuits, for instance, between 1640 and 1768 esta-
blished 152 reducciones gathering along the Ucayali and Hualla-
ga rivers 56. 000 christianized Indians, and in the upper Napo
66. 000 (Costales & Costales 1983: 191).
26
2.2. Iquitos and Pucallpa. Historical and socio-economic
considerations
The city of Iquitos (3. 45s 79. 11w) is located on the left bank
of the Amazon, between the mouths of the Nanay and Itaya ri-
vers. It has its origin in Jesuit missionary activities in the
territories between the rivers Tigre and Napo, in the first
half of the 18th century, particularly those that were carried
out on the river Itaya by the Jesuit Maroni in 1729. The origi-
nal population belonged to the Yameos. After the independence
of Peru in 1821, the settlement was consolidated with native
Christian people of several other tribes, among them Mayoruna,
Pebas and Omaguas.
The Second World War was again to bring changes to the Ama-
zon. In 1941 Japan rapidly advanced through South East Asia,
from where most of the rubber used in the Western world came
from. Old Amazonian jungle tracks were reopened in search of
rubber and jebe fino, attracting immigrants from the rest of
the Peruvian territory.
In November 1971 oil was discovered in the Río Tigre, and a
new period of expansion occurred, bringing about a demographic
explosion. Iquitos plays a central role in the administrative,
economic and cultural life of northeast Peru. It continues to
attract immigrants, not only from jungle settlements in Ama-
zonian territories, but also from other areas of the country.
With them have come their traditional beliefs and practices,
and this city and its vicinity are a rich field for gathering
ethnological and folkloristic information.
Both Pucallpa and Iquitos have airports. There are daily re-
gular flights connecting Lima-Tingo María-Pucallpa and Iquitos.
Three times a week there are flights that connect Iquitos with
Leticia (Colombia)/Tabatinga (Brazil) and Manaus, Brazil.
29
Regan, in his study of the religion of Amazonian people
(1983: II: 165-166), recognizes the uniformity in the religious
beliefs of the whole population of the Amazon area, and the
juxtaposition and re-interpretation of elements due to the mu-
tual influence of popular Catholicism and autochthonous Amazo-
nian religious ideas. Most of the mestizo population are still
nominally Catholic. However, there is an increasing influence
of various Protestant sects, such as Adventists, Pentecostals,
Evangelists, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc., and the Catholic Church
is progressively losing the power it once held. Dozens of syn-
cretic cults are appearing, including messianic-millenarian
movements which incorporate Tupi-Guarani, Catholic and Protes-
tant religious elements (cf. Regan 1983:II:129 ss; Clastres
1978).
4
The seeds of this plant are widely used not only in the Amazon
area, but also in other areas of at least Peru, Colombia and
Ecuador. None of the people I have questioned about this plant
has even seen it. They all agree that it comes from the sierra
(the montaneous area) of Peru.
5
Carneiro (1982:349), who worked with a Campa toero, writes that
"the ayahuasquero is the mortal enemy of a toero and is in
constant conflict with him". This seems to be contradicted,
however, some pages later (372), where we learn that also Zeba-
llos use ayahuasca for the diagnosis of illness. I have never
heard of enmities of this kind between different types of vege-
talistas. In fact, quite often toé is added to the ayahuasca
brew.
32
different people. According to Don Emilio and other people,
banco is a practitioner who lies down facing the floor, enters
into trance, and the spirits descend upon him. Banco in Spanish
means "bench". Banco would then be a "seat of power for the
spirits" (Barbira Scazzochio 1979: 180; Whitten 1985: 15). I have
never witnessed such a practice, but it seems to me to be rela-
ted to some sort of spirit possession similar to that which I
am going to describe in Don José's practice.
6
Seguín also distinguishes between medicine-man and shaman. Ac-
cording to him, two characteristics differentiate a medicine-
man from a shaman: 1) The shaman usually performs his healing
activities out in the open or where he is needed, while the
medicine-man does so only in the place where he lives and where
he receives his patients. 2) the shaman is possessed by spi-
rits, while the medicine-man has to recur to "magic techniques"
and to the use of plants, minerals or animals in his therapeu-
tic treatment. I find this distinction unnecessary. Shamans/
medicine-men operate out in the open, in their homes, or
wherever they are needed. It all depends on the circumstances.
Secondly, a shaman may be possessed by a spirit and still, as
part of the treatment of his patients, use medicinal plants or
other preparations (in fact this is the case of one of my in-
formants). Seguín does not explain in what way the "magical
techniques" of the medicine-man differ from those of the sha-
man. I think that it is more useful to adhere to a more general
definition of shaman as that of Hultkrantz (see 1.2.).
34
occasionally found in literature7.
The people's attitude towards vegetalistas varies. Many
people, especially the well-to-do, regard them with a mixture
of curiosity, fear and scorn. Among the poor there is often
great respect. However, among the clients the vegetalistas one
may find people belonging to all social classes, including the
rich.
7
A lengthy and interesting discussion on the psychology of sha-
mans is found in Merkur 1985:10-40.
7
In a study of folk healing in southeast Colombia, Michel Taus-
sig (1980:237) makes the following observation, which may also
be applied to the vegetalistas of Iquitos:
"All folk healers require the services of a healer
more powerful than themselves, because a healer is
always likely to be stricken with sorcery as part of
the profession of magical medicine. In attempting to
heal victims of sorcery, a healer is liable to become
attacked from the same source that afflicted the pa-
tient, usually another medicine man, and this may
prove more than the healer can cope with alone. This
is one of the leading reasons why a network exists
among practitioners, and why it has a subtle hierar-
chical form extending from less to more powerful hea-
lers"
35
All my informants are men. This does not mean that there are
no female vegetalistas. I heard about a few, but I had no occa-
sion to meet them. I have always had very limited time for
doing field work, and I preferred to concentrate on few infor-
mants. It is usually considered that a women will not be ready
for shamanic initiation during her fertile age. It is after
the menopause that a woman may pursue the shamanic quest.
8
The term cholo is used in several ways in the Amazon area. As a
sociological term, cholo is a non-Indian. But in the way it is
used by many people in the rural areas, it means just having
Amazonian features, and is often used in an affectionate way.
36
When he was 14 years old, and while working by the Amazon
river, near the mouth of the Napo river, he was given ayahuasca
for the first time. He followed, as he was told to do, the ri-
gorous diet and sexual abstinence which are prescribed for an
optimal effect of the medicinal properties of the brew, and
which vegetalistas follow when they want to "learn" from the
plant. It was not Don Emilio's intention to become a vegetalis-
ta. But this time he was "chosen" by the plant, who taught him
magical chants and the use of medicinal plants.
During the time he was in the army, he was sent to the Güepi,
the northernmost outpost of the Peruvian Amazon by the Putuma-
yo river. Even there he continued taking ayahuasca in sessions
attended by commissioned officers and soldiers from other parts
of the Peruvian tropical rain forest. After the completion of
his military service he moved to Quistococha, a small settle-
ment of perhaps 300 persons, about 12 kilometers south-west of
the city of Iquitos, where he married Dona Lucía Gálvez. They
got eleven children. For years he worked in the exploitation of
various jungle products, such as barbasco, rubber, balata,
gold, and the extraction of wood. In Quistococha he held for
some years the office of teniente gobernador (a local govern-
ment representative responsible to the sub-prefects of provin-
ces).
38
accepted me without any reserve. His humble house, consisting
of only two rooms, very primitively built, even by the region
standards, was soon overcrowded. Jorge, Alí and I occupied the
front room. Don José and his wife occupied the little back
room, separated by a door from our room. That very same day two
more persons came to enlarge the community: an old couple in
need of treatment was accepted by Don José. The woman showed a
very bad infection in her face with several abscesses both
outside and inside her mouth. She was sixty years old and very
weak. She was hardly able to talk or eat. Her husband had a
less serious infection in his nose, which was very swollen and
had been like that for many months. They had both been treated,
without improvement, in one of the hospitals of Iquitos.
Another woman, Dona Rosa Teco, arrived some days later. She
was in great pain, and could hardly move, suffering of what
appeared to me as a severe rheumatic disease. We all lived in
one room during the month I spent with Don José. During that
time I was able to learn a great deal about Don José's prac-
tice, and about his patient's worldviews.
40
ners I met in Iquitos. I decided to leave this other type of
practitioners for a future work.
In the summer of 1985, and through phytochemist Dennis McKen-
na, I met other practitioners in Pucallpa. I gathered conside-
rable material, but I have not yet had the time to analyse it
thoroughly. The general ideas are very similar, but they also
represent a variety of practitioners more linked with urban
life, which is reflected in the forms their helping spirits
take and their shamanic journeys. Among the people I met in
Pucallpa was the painter Pablo Amaringo, who opened to me new
roads of future research. He practised as a vegetalista for
five years, but then stopped for fear of the spirits. "Los es-
píritus se me pegan muy fácilmente" (the spirits get attached
to me too easily), he says. He has an remarkable photographic
memory and is able to paint not only very beautiful jungle
landscapes in which every plant and animal can be identified,
but is also able to recall his visions during the time he took
ayahuasca and practised medicine. I have illustrated this book
with a few of his paintings. I am now planning a book in which
several of his paintings of ayahuasca visions will be analysed
in detail, and which will show the extraordinary complexity and
heterogeneity which is found in the spiritual world of some
modern practitioners.
41
life with all that it involves.
43
fection in his ear. In the hospital they gave him injections
and tablets without any effect. The doctor said that he had to
remove his ear. He went to a vegetalista, who gave him ayahuas-
ca, catahua and lupuna colorada (all plant-teachers). He fol-
lowed a diet for a certain time. In his visions he saw the per-
son responsible for his illness. He was cured, and at the same
time learnt how to heal others.
44
"It is just the same thing. Besides, you will cure
your body. And if you want to see your father or mo-
ther or girlfriend, you can see them in mareación (in
your visions)".
I approached the circle formed by the people. In
the center was the ayahuasca pot. The maestros asked
me whether I was going to take the purga. "Yes", I
said. "The woman here has invited me." "Very good.
Take your chance. You won't have to pay anything. If
you take this brew and follow a diet, you will
cleanse your tubería (intestines), and you will learn
many a thing.", they said. I received a little bowl
with the brew and gulped it down. I waited about ten
minutes. Then Don Juan Nina asked me: "Are you ma-
reado" "No, I don't see anything", I said. I drank
another bowl of the concoction, and ten minutes later
yet another. I did not see anything. Meanwhile the
others were singing or throwing up. One of those pre-
sent, Don Salvador, an old man, said: "Do you want
to know why this young man does not see anything?".
"Why?", asked Dona Veneranda Vásquez. "It is because
his stomach is very dirty: it is full of the essence
of all sorts of species, like garlic, and pepper, and
also of pork and other things. Only by following the
diet will he be able to see something."
45
I have been reconstructing Don Emilio's autobiography, and
there is no room, really, for three consecutive years in total
isolation, which he considers the ideal length of time to
become a good vegetalista. I think that a factor that has to be
taken into account is that my informants are not always presen-
ting me with their own experiences. I have a distinct feeling
that some of the episodes they told me happened to them, do
not, in fact, correspond to personal experiences. They rather
correspond to ideal models that are implicit in the cosmology
of that cultural area, a body of knowledge that is tacitly ac-
cepted as plausible, and which is repeated again and again.
9
After listening to so many stories, I have come to realize that
among the devices used to make a story credible there are indi-
cations about the location -such and such a river-, at a cer-
tain hour, a certain type of dialogues. A study of the struc-
ture of oral narrative in this area would probably yield inte-
resting results.
l0
The term muerraya is found among certain Indian tribes (cf.Ste-
ward & Métraux 1948:542; Chevalier 1982:354).
46
During ayahuasca and healing sessions Don José calls through
icaros his various spirits, one after the other. They come and
sit on the top of his head, and take possession of him
(cf.4.3.).
11
Mauritia flexuosa L.f., an arborescent palm which grows in
swampy areas of the forest. The flesh around the seeds is
edible, and highly appreciated by Amazonian people (cf.Vickers
& Plowman 1984:25).
47
the warriors of the tribe had a dream in which he saw
how ayahuasca should be prepared. He took ayahuasca,
and in his visions he understood that he should cut
down the aguaje palm. He painted his body, and danced
around the palm tree. As the palm was falling down,
it became bigger and bigger. The main trunk became
the Amazon, and the branches its tributaries.
48
place (cf.note in 4.1.1.). We made a thatched shel-
ter, and we stayed there for days. I was a little
impatient. I asked him: "When are we going to drink
ayahuasca?" "The moment will come", he said. A month
passed. During that time he taught me many things
about the jungle and about his ideas about life and
death. During all that time I had many dreams, and I
used to tell them to Don Daniel.
49
For three months I lived between two realities.
Sometimes I was with the ant, and sometimes with Don
Daniel. But it became quite normal for me to shift
between these two worlds. For me they were equally
real. To be with the ant was like being with a
friend.
One day the ant told me: "Let us fly". I said: "But
neither you nor I have wings". It said: "Not only
with wings can you fly". I climbed on its back and
the ant jumped from the tree, and we glided down and
landed softly on the ground. The ant gave me a last
look, and its abdomen opened, and from there a tiny
chacruna plant emerged.
50
tion (1964:31) that shamans "if they have cured themselves and
are able to cure others, it is, among other things, because
they know the mechanism, or rather, the theory of illness"
could be applied to these cases.
A second observation is that learning from the plants does not
imply that the person will become a healer. It seems to me that
what has moved some vegetalistas to follow the prescriptions
associated with the ingestions of plant-teachers was more a
philosophical quest -the desire to learn, to understand- than a
humanitarian vocation. Learning how to heal is part of the
knowledge acquired during initiation, not the primary goal.
12
"Among the Apinaye shamans are appointed by the soul of a re-
lative, which puts them in relation with the spirits; but it is
the latter that impart shamanic knowledge and techniques to
them. " (Eliade 1964: 83). "The apprentice shaman of the Conibo
of the Ucayali receives his medical knowledge from a spirit. To
enter into relations with the spirit the shaman drinks a decoc-
tion of tobacco and smokes as much as possible in a hermetical-
ly closed hut." (Métraux 1944:204) (Quoted by Eliade 1964:83).
"In the Apapocuva Guaraní tribe, the prerequisite for becoming
a shaman is learning magical songs, which are taught by a dead
relative in dreams." (Métraux 1944:205).
51
criptions will the spirits of the plants reveal themselves to
the neophyte, either in visions or in dreams, and he will then
be able to "learn" from the plants.
In some cases the spirits themselves appear to the neophyte
and prescribe the duration and character of the diet. A minimum
duration of six months is generally recognized as necessary,
but it may be prolonged to several years. My informants have
told me that they have known vegetalistas who have followed the
diet for twelve years (the Spanish term "dietar" refers not
only to the diet, but to all the conditions prescribed for
"learning from the plants"). The diet can be broken after a
certain period of time -for instance after six months- and
re-assumed later. In fact, learning from the plants, once a per-
son has been initiated, is an open process which can be reini-
tiated at will. From time to time vegetalistas renew their
energies and expand their knowledge by following the diet du-
ring shorter periods.
13
I am indebted to Dr. Sven Kullander, of the Naturhistoriska
Riksmuseet, Stockholm, for the identification of the various
species of fish, based on their common names. Dr. Kullander has
been doing field work in the same area in which I have conduc-
ted my research.
14
Similar practices have been widely reported among Indian
tribes. For example among the Jivaro, fasting and sexual
abstinence is part of the preparation of arrow-poison (Karsten
1964:102-103).
53
tion ceremonies that also imply food restrictions (Karsten
1964: 186) 1 5 . According to Stephen Hugh-Jones (1979: 90) among
the Barasana, a Tukano group of the Vaupés, coca, tobacco, to-
bacco snuff, yagé (ayahuasca) and beer are treated as
"anti-food", i. e. substances which must not be consumed at the
same time as ordinary food. The same author adds: "All of these
substances, except beer are produced and consumed only by men
(and old women) and all except beer are associated with night-
time, the sacred time where men do not consume normal food. " 1 6 .
15
The young girl, confined to a hut called púshuba, "a house of
silence", has to observe not only silence but also a strict
diet: "She is forbidden to eat meat, especially that of swine,
and big fish like the gamitana and paichi, but she is allowed
to eat small fish of the kind most frequently caught in the
river or in the Lake Yarinacocha. She is also forbidden to eat
Indian pepper, salt, and sweet things, but is allowed to drink
masato (manioc beer)" (Karsten 1964:186).
16
Similar diets are also observed by practitioners and their
patients of the Coast of Peru (cf. Chiappe et al. 1985:634)
Eduardo, a curandero who uses San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus
pachanoi) recommends the following food restrictions after in-
gesting the San Pedro beverage: "not to eat any food that con-
tains hot pepper, salt, animal fat, or grease, or anything that
'entangles'; for example, foods that grow on climbing vines,
such as beans, peas, lentils, etc. " (Sharon 1978:44).
54
days before he should complete the period of diet and segrega-
tion, which correspond to a certain plant-teacher. It is said
that women are particularly attracted by men following the
diet. Again, all these stories seem to follow a pattern which
is repeated again and again, as if it were true.
17
For a collection of testimonies on psychotropic plants
mentioned in the Spanish chronicles, see Guerra 1971.
55
It is not my intention to make a detailed survey of the
plants used in a shamanic context in the Americas, nor to spe-
culate why these plants should fascinate the people in the New
World so much. There is already a vast bibliography on this
subject18. If we focus our attention for a moment on the Orino-
co and Amazon basins, we shall find that among many perhaps
even most of the tribes inhabiting these regions preparations
made of one or several psychotropic plants played -and still
play- a central part in their religion, and in their cultural
life.
18
I want simply to refer to some of the basic books on the sub-
ject, which have vast bibliographies: Schultes & Hofmann 1980;
Furst 1972, 1976; Harner 1973; Efron, Holmstedt & Kline 1979;
Emboden 1979; Ott 1976; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975; Völger & Welck
1982, etc.
19
A recent study on ritual enemas and snuffs in the Americas (De
Smet 1985), contains a comprenhensive bibliography.
56
3.4. Ayahuasca: An overview
58
tion was directly correlated with the concentration of beta-
Carbolines. These experiments give support to the mechanism
that has been proposed to underlie the activity of ayahuasca:
The beta-Carbolines would protect the DMT from deamination by
MAO and render it orally active (McKenna, Towers & Abbot 1984:
195). The fact, however, that there are several reports of the
use of Banisteriopsis caapi without any admixtures complicates
the picture considerably20
20
Spruce (1908:415) wrote, for example, that as far as he
could make out Banisteria (previous name of Banisteriopsis)
without admixture was used among the Guahibos, Zaparos, and
other tribes, of the Uaupés. The same author reports that the
Guahibos, on the savannas of Maypures, not only drink the infu-
sion but chew the dried stem, and it is used in the same way by
all native dwellers on the rivers Meta, Vichada, Guaviare,
Sisapo, and the intervening smaller rivers (Spruce 1908:423).
Richard Evans Schultes (personal communication) was told by In-
dians living in the vicinity of Araracuara, in Colombia that
they smoked the leaves of a plant that he identified as Banis-
teriopsis caapi.
59
Ayahuasca has attracted the attention of ethnologists, ethno-
botanists, anthropologists, pharmacologists, neorophysiolo-
gists, psychologists, artists and travellers21. But it still
presents many unresolved problems, both from the point of view
of the social sciences as from that of natural sciences. In
spite of the fact that the bibliography connected which aya-
huasca runs well into 200 references (cf. Luna 1986), there
are, so far, very few monographic studies.
21
There are numerous reports of Westerners who have taken aya-
huasca and described its effects (Villavicencio 1858; Spruce
1908:420; Koch-Grünberg 1909:318; Reinburg 1925:25-42; Brüzzi
1962:230-2; Burroughs & Ginsberg 1963; Turner 1963; Bristol
1966:133; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1972:89-93; Dobkin de Rios 1972:
126-128; Rivier & Lindgren 1972:111; McKenna & McKenna 1975:85-
98; Ayala & Lewin 1978; Deltgen 1978/79: 77-78; Harner 1980:1-
24, etc.). Summarizations of the use of Banisteriopsis based
beverages among various tribes, the botanical distribution of
plants used and the pharmacology of ayahuasca are to be found
in Reinburg 1925:17-32; Maxwell 1937; Ríos 1962; Friedberg
1965; Deulofeu 1967; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1980:25-42; Schultes
1982; Naranjo 1983:47-92; etc.
60
not only in health and sickness, but in relations
between individuals, villages and tribes, in peace
and war, at home and in travel, in hunting and in
agriculture. In fact, one can name hardly any aspect
of living or dying, wakefulness or sleep, where caapi
hallucinogens do not play a vital, nay, overwhleming,
role."
61
in the visual realm. In this connection, and perhaps
in others ways as well, biaxii helps the Sibundoy "to
learn how to live" (Bristol, 1966:123-124).
62
Among ethnic groups plants possessing special properties,
such as narcotic, poisonous (for killing fish or for the use as
arrow poison), medicinal plants, or very important food, are
particularly endowed with spirits. I tried to find the criteria
among the vegetalistas to determine which plants were consi-
dered as doctores.
I found that in the vegetalistas' reports plants they call
doctores or "vegetales que enseñan" (plants that teach) either
1) produce hallucinations if taken alone, 2) in some way modify
the effects of the ayahuasca brew, 3) produce dizziness, 4)
possess strong emetic and/or cathartic properties, or 5) bring
on especially vivid dreams.
63
dizzyness), in which you do not see anything22. other plants
teach only in dreams.
During the period of apprenticeship the vegetalista is con-
fronted with the task of memorizing a large body of information
concerning plants, animals, medicinal recipes, magic chants and
melodies, etc. The vegetalistas attribute to ayahuasca and the
plant-teachers not only their ability to recall such informa-
tion, but insist that the plants themselves teach them about
the flora -which, as it is well known, is particularly rich in
the Amazon- and fauna. Also the magic chants, as we will see in
chapter 5, are learned from the plants. Some of these chants
are in Quechua, Cocama, Omagua or other Indian languages, and
they claim that ayahuasca teaches them the languages23.
The idea that ayahuasca has the effect of increasing the in-
tellectual and artistic skills is quite common among vegetalis-
tas. When I questioned Pablo Amaringo, the painter, about how
he had learnt his art, he referred to ayahuasca. A similar
answer I got from Agustín Rivas, a well known sculptor of Pu-
callpa, who is also a practising vegetalista. During my visit
to Colonia 5000, near Rio Branco, in the Brazilian state of
Acre, they told me that some of the people there had been
22
According to Chiappe et al. (1985:72), the curanderos of Iqui-
tos distinguish between plants that produce mareación (dizzi-
ness) and visión (hallucinations). It is possible that some
vegetalistas make this distinction. In my experience, however,
mareación includes both, dizziness, like that produced by drin-
king tobacco, and hallucinations, like those produced by aya-
huasca.
23
In Lamb's account on Don Manuel Cordoba Ríos, Don Manuel tells
how he had been given Nixi honi (ayahuasca) for the first time
by the Indians that had captured him. He said:
64
taught to play musical instruments by Santo Daime (ayahuasca).
In Iquitos I met several practitioners who, during ayahuasca
ceremonies, recite long prayers they know by heart. They also
claim that it was due to ayahuasca that they were able to memo-
rize whole books of prayers.
65
Ayahuasca is a tool for studying the properties of other
plants. If a vegetalista wants, for instance, to see what ef-
fects certain plant has, he will add a few leaves of this plant
to the brew during its concoction. By perceiving the changes
caused by the additive to the basic preparation, and especially
by interpreting the information conveyed during the visions,
the properties and application of the plants are studied. This
information is also conveyed during the dreams during the fol-
lowing nights 24 .
In this way, they say, they have recognized the medicinal pro-
perties of many plants. Knowledge of the great plant-teachers
and of many medicinal plants comes, of course, from los anti-
guos (the ancestors). I have been surprised that among the me-
dicinal plants they use there are also plants introduced by the
Europeans. There are, I suppose, only two explanations. Either
knowledge of these plants derives from herbal knowledge that
the Spaniards and Portuguese might have brought with them to
the Amazon and other areas, or the vegetalistas found the medi-
cinal properties of these plants by themselves, either by using
a method like the one I just presented -if it works-, or
through other kinds of experimentation. Nothing can be said, of
course, until a comparative study of herbal knowledge of Old
World plants introduced into America has been carried out on
both sides of the Atlantic, and, especially, until we have some
kind of understanding as to what these people are really
talking about, when they say that the plants themselves reveal
their properties.
24
A very good example of how ethnic groups learn about the pro-
perties of an unknown plant with the help of ayahuasca is pro-
vided by Bristol (1966) in a paper on the Sibundoy of Colom-
bia. Bristol's conclusion is as follows:
66
3.7. The plant-teachers
16. H u a c a p ú ( V o u a c a p o u a a m e r i c a n a ( A u b l . ) (Soukup
1970:368). The bark of this tree may be added to the ayahuasca
brew.
17. Huairacaspi (Cedrelinga catanaeformis Ducke (Soukup
1970:74). It is a big tree about 80-90 meters tall and two me-
ters of diameter. It is a tree able to withstand violent
25
One informant told Chiappe (1979:105) that the "little spears"
(the dolmatiae) are there to protect the person against the
bad effects of ayahuasca.
68
stormss, lightning, and strong winds without snapping. It is a
strong arkana (defense)(cf.4.2.). May be added to the ayahuasca
brew. 30 days of diet are compulsory.
69
the Ucayali,26 but referred to the lupuna tree (Karsten
1964: 202-203)
26
Rafael Karsten writes:
70
of Peru. These are: 1) Alcanfor (camphor), a cristallized orga-
nic compound extracted from Cinnamomum camphora, and widely
used in folk medicine all over Latin America. 2) Timolina, a
substance, apparently made of plants, which is used as a
perfume. 3) Creolina, a strong disinfecting substance easily
available.
71
72
Ayahuasca visions
On the left an electric eel and a jaguar protecting the session
In the center the Yakumama and other spirits of the underwater
world. In the sky a UFO, and near the participants in the session
extraterrestial medical doctors.
CHAPTER 4.
73
No doubt, when studying the cosmology of the vegetalistas one
is often confronted by seemingly unconnected elements, the
ruins of buildings that must have had a degree of coherency.
Reading the anthropological literature I have had moments in
which I have envied colleagues working with Indian groups, be-
cause there the elements seem to fit -or at least they make
them fit so nicely.
4.1.1. Chullachaki
The most important spirit of the jungle, known to nearly every
one in the Amazon, and still the subject of many stories, which
are often told in a nervous humoristic way, is Chullachaki.
Chullachaki is a male spirit which is also known under several
other names: Yashingo, Sacharuna (from Quechua sacha = jungle,
and runa = person), Curupira, Shapingo, Shapshico or simply
27
Rafael Karsten (1964:197) has reported this being among the Na-
po and Bobonaza Indians of eastern Ecuador, and among the Shi-
pibo of the Ucayali, under the Quechua name Sacharuna. He
writes that it may be an idea common to all forest tribes in
western South America. Otto Zerries, in his comprehensive mono-
graphy on the spirits of the wild and the spirits of the forest
(Wild-und Buschgeister) among South American Indians, summa-
rizes Koch-Grünberg's (1920:323-4) characterization of the Co-
rupira as follows:
"Demnach ist der Corupira sowohl der Schutzgeist des Wildes als
auch der Wälder, der diejenigen straft, die das Wild vernichten
wollen und solche belohnt, die ihm gehorchen oder deren er sich
erbarmt. Er ist es, der dem Jäger das Wild verbirgt oder es ihm
in den Schuss führt, der die Geheimnisse der Wälder bewahrt,
die Heilkräfte der Pflanzen zeigt und die Erzeugnisse der Wal-
des spendet. Er erscheint als geheimnisvoller und mächtiger
Geist in verschiedenen Gestalten und Stimmungen, bald fantas-
tisch sonderbar, gebieterisch, bald böse, grob, dreist, oft
zuvorkommend und freundlich, ja sogar gutmütig, mitleidig,
schwach, dumm und leicht zu täuschen. Auch kann er dankbar sein
für das Gute, das man ihm tut, legt aber immer Bedigungen auf,
deren Nichterfüllung verhängnisvoll sein kann. Meist tritt er
als kleiner Mann auf, von drei Fuss Höhe, kahlköpfig, aber am
ganzen übrigen Körper mit langen Haaren bedeckt, mit nur einem
AUge, mit blauen oder grünen Zähnen, grossen Ohren, mit Beinen
ohne Gelenke, die Füsse immer nach rückwärts gebogen und von
aussergewöhnlicher Körperkraft. Er wohnt in der Tiefe des Wal-
des in hohlen Bäumen. Er ladet die Leute ein, im Walde zu
wohnen, ahmt alle Vierfüssler und Vögel nach und täuscht so den
Jäger, der glaubt, das Wild zu verfolgen, währen er dem Wald-
geist nachläuft. (... )" (Zerries 1967:9-10).
28
This plant produces what seems to be a natural herbicide, so
that nothing grows within a radius of one meter around its
trunk. Where there are several of these small trees near each
other, it looks as if they were purposely being taken care of,
because no vegetation grows between them. Local people call
these places supay chacra (the plantation of the devil), and
they are associated with Chullachaki.
75
This being has one or both of his feet turned backwards, of-
ten resembling that of a goat, a dog, a deer, a tiger or some
other animal (Chullachaki in Quechua means "uneven foot") (cf.
Valdizán & Maldonado 1922:12; Kuckynski Godard 1947: xxii;
Wagley 1976:225; Huamán Ramirez 1985:349). He may adopt human
form (often that of a close relative of the person he encoun-
ters), or that of certain animals in order to lead astray a
lonely hunter (cf. Kuczynski Godard 1947: xxii; Calvo 1981: 47;
Regan 1983: 1: 90; Huamán Ramírez 1985:345- 362). When people
walk alone in the jungle, they sometimes hear the Chullachaki
thudding against the trunks of the trees with his strange foot.
Sometimes he makes sounds that resemble shots, indicating that
you have entered his territory 29 . He has also control over me-
tereological phenomena. If the person insults the Chullachaki
aloud a storm will gather within few hours, endangering the
life of the imprudent person. Sometimes the person will become
very ill: he will begin to tremble, to vomit, to foam at the
mouth, and he will have convulsions. An encounter with this
being may also cause madness (cf. Valdizán & Maldonado 1922:
11-12; Kuczynski 1947: XXII). According to Don Emilio, singing
the icaro del flautero pishcu, a magic melody inspired by a
bird that makes a long and beautiful nest in which it enters
when there are heavy rains, is the best way of protecting
oneself against this being.
29
Richard Spruce, the English botanist, was for years puzzeled
by solitary shots in the jungle, attributed by the Indians to
Yamadu, Munyia or Curupira, until he found that this noise was
caused by the sudden fall of a palm-trunk, the soft interior of
which had been eaten away by termites (Spruce 1908:438-444).
76
he may take the form of any animal (Calvo 1981:37-38)30.
4.1.2. Sachamama
Sachamama
(Painting by Pablo Amaringo)
30
This being has also been reported from the Amazonian towns of
Brazil. Wagley (1976: 235) writes the following:
"The most famous of the forest spirits, however, is
the Curupira, a small man-like creature whose feet
are turned backward. Curupiras live deep in the fo-
rest, from which their long shrill cries are often
heard. They are said to be especially fond of rum and
tobacco. They attract hunters deeper and deeper into
the forest, until they are lost and never return. The
Curupira can imitate a man's voice. They call out a
rubber gatherer or a hunter who believes the voice to
be that of a companion and thus is drawn off his
path."
See also Galvao 1976: 72-74. For an historical survey of this
belief in the Brazilian Amazonas, see Camara Cascudo (1983:
84-91).
77
Another animal spirit which is also the subject of many sto-
ries, is the Sachamama. The sachamama (mother of the jungle)
is supposed to be a huge boa of 50 meters or more that is be-
lieved to stay in the same place for many years. Vegetation
grows on its body, so that it may easily be taken for a fallen
tree. It is believed that it is able to hypnotize and devour
any animal or human being that crosses a clearance that it
makes in front of its head (cf. Huamán Ramirez 1985:61-66).
According to Pablo Amaringo, the Sachamama can be invoked by a
vegetalista through the appropiate icaro, and used as arkana or
defense against an evil witch (cf.4.2.). The vegetalista calls
her in such a way that it comes from behind his enemy. When the
vegetalista attacks from the front, the witch, when backing,
falls into the open fauces of the animal and will be devoured
by it. In order to be able to use the Sachamama in this way,
the vegetalista has to abstain from salt and follow a rigurous
diet in an isolated place for three years. During this time he
will learn the icaro of the three stones: the flintstone, the
magnet and the piedra de encantar (stone of enchantment), which
I have not identified.
79
yaku = w a t e r , and Spanish lancha = boat)(cf.Mercier
1979: 282) 31 .
4.1.4. Yakuruna
The yakuruna (from Quechua yaku = water, and runa = people) are
believed to be inhabitants of the water. They are sometimes
described as hairy people that abduct human beings and take
them to their underwater world. Other people say that they look
exactly like normal human beings, except that their faces look
towards their backs (Huamán Ramirez (1985:21), or they may have
deformed feet (Regan 1983:176). They live in beautiful cities
often located in the mouth of the rivers.
Being able to travel under the surface of the water and re-
maining there for days is considered to be one of the characte-
ristics of a great shaman (cf. Wagley 1953:227). Many vegeta-
listas report that they are able to travel in the water world
(cf. Calvo 1981:263-264), and are said to be able to bring back
people abducted by the yakuruna. They have to do it as soon as
possible, because when a person is taken to the underwater
world, he gradually changes into a yakuruna. None of my infor-
31
Upp de Graff (1923:217), in his account of his travel through
Jivaro territory, writes the following: "Yacu-mámam possesses
the power of changing from a tapir to an anaconda, from an
anaconda to a frog. His haunts are the rivers and streams, and
he brings on destructive floods or beneficial showers at will.
Thus these three animals are never molested by the Jívaros, for
fear of the anger of Yacu-mámam."
32
The water boa plays a central role in pluvial rituals perfomed
by numerous tribes of the upper Amazon, such as the Yagua,
Huitoto, Bora, Omagua, Cashibo, etc. (Girard 1958: 46, 99, 180,
273). According to a myth, the boa Noi mura had the virtue to
transform itself into human being to copulate with an Ocaina
girl called Amena Kog(oe)n (ibid. 133).
80
mants claim to be able to bring back people stolen by the yaku-
runa, or even travelling with their bodies in the underwater
world, but maintain to have known practitioners who were able
to do so. The underwater world is not very different from ours.
In their descriptions of that world vegetalistas stress not the
jungle environment, as one would expect, but objects from Wes-
tern civilization: such as buses, taxis, airplanes, etc. 33
Don Emilio told me that when a man has been abducted by the
yakuruna, ayahuasca is prepared, adding to the preparation two
leaves of campana toé (Brugmansia suaveolens). Under the
effects of the brew, the shaman sings the icaro del ninacuru.
Ninacuru is, according to Don Emilio, an insect whose eyes look
like the headlights of a car. The shaman becomes like one of
33
In a healing session described by Gebhar-Sayer (1986) the Shi-
pibo shamans descend to the bottom of a lake to recover the
woman's caya (spirit), using an airplane densely covered with
designs. See also Regan 1983:I:144.
81
these insects, penetrates the underwater world, and searches
until he finds the man, who is embracing a yakuruna, a woman
of the water world. Once the shaman knows where the man is, he
returns to earth. He begins to follow a diet for several days,
and invites a shaman friend to take ayahuasca with him, adding
once more two leaves of toe and a few drops of perfume. They
travel together to the underwater world. While the friend is
singing the icaro de la sirena (icaro of the mermaid), to call
the attention of the yakuruna, the shaman calls the man. By
blowing smoke on the yakuruna she is unable to see or hear any-
thing. The man is taken out of the water. He cries, and wants
to go back to the underwater world. The shaman takes a crucifix
and puts it on the chest of the patient. He wakes up, looks
around, sees his family, and then slowly regains his senses. In
order to be sure that he will not go back to the underwater
world, ten pieces of the bark of ayahúman (Couroupita guianen-
sis Aubl.) are crushed, water and a little camphor and perfume
are added. The shaman sings the icaro del ayahúman on the pre-
paration, and the man is rubbed down with it. The spirit of
renaco came (Ficus sp.) is also called, and the spirit of the
man is firmly tied with the spirit of the tree. The icaro del
caucho (rubber tree) is also sung, in order to be sure that the
man will not run away again. The icaro of huaira caspi, another
tree, is sung on the top of the head of the man, to prevent an
evil wind from throwing the man into the water. After a month,
the man fully recovers his senses. He does not remember any-
thing of what happened to him. He will not be allowed to go
fishing again, in order to prevent him from being taken by the
yakuruna.
34
On the relationship between sirenas, love magic and string ins-
truments in the Andean region of southern Peru, see Torino
1983.
35
The power of mermaids to transform themselves into full women
is also found in European folklore, which records marriages
between mermaids and human beings (cf. Encyclopedia Britannica
VI:808 (1982 edition).
82
and the Amazonian female water being 36 .
During my field work I heard many stories of mermaids both
from vegetalistas and from the mouths of fishermen who claimed
to have seen them. This is, in fact, one of the favourite sub-
jects touched upon by vegetalistas during the hours of talks
that usually preceed -or follow- ayahuasca sessions in the ru-
ral rural areas (see later, Cap.6). According to Don Emilio,
among the mermaids there are both fair and blue-eyed creatures
and cholitas (of Indian physiognomy), all of them very beauti-
ful. They are keen on good-looking males from our world, and
often fall in love with them. The chosen ones have to take good
care when they travel by boat, or when fishing, because they
are in constant danger of being kidnapped by a mermaid.
36
I do not share Dobkin de Rios's opinion (1972:82) when she
writes that "No doubt belief in the siren dates from European
contact during the rubber epoch". Torino (1983:111) has indica-
ted that the idea of a being -part human and part fish- did
exist at least in the early coastal culture of Paracas. The
same author, basing his opinions on Andean colonial art and the
musical lore suggests that "a pre-Columbian mythical or reli-
gious figure predisposed the indigenous people to the rapid and
widespread acceptance of the Greco-Roman mermaid" (id. p.113).
Concerning the Amazon, I believe that the role the mermaids
play in the underwater world suggests an amalgamation of Amazo-
nian and European traditions. But even if we accept the exclu-
sive European origin of this belief, it had to occur before the
rubber epoch between 1880 and 1914 (San Román 1975:124).
83
ment from the other people present. Mermaids are sometimes in-
voked by the vegetalista when performing love magic (cf.5.6.).
The rapport of Amazonian people with the mermaids is ambiva-
lent: they are extremely seductive, but also dangerous.
37
According to Regan (1983:I:184), the dichotomy black dolphin/
pink dolphin is interpreted by some people as a bad gringo or
foreigner vs. a good cholo (person with Amazonian physiognomy.
See footnote 1 on page 15).
According to Irene Bellier (1985), among the Maikuna (Orejones)
the world of the water is divided into two areas, one of them
dominated by the dolphin, which is identified with the white
man, while the other is the area of a Maikuna spirit.
38
The belief that pink dolphins may abduct women is firmly esta-
blished in the Amazon area. For an illustrative example, see
Dr. Ulises Reategui's interesting short story Cushushca Yushin.
Bufeo Colorado (1983), based on a case that is supposed to have
happened in Pucallpa, where he has his surgery. On the last
page this book has a photograph of the document that one of
the persons involved in the story presented to a notary public
so as to certify its veridity.
84
1983:I:180-181) 3 9 . people who have sexual relationships with
dolphins are said to become slowly ill. They may also have an
irresistible desire to throw themselves into the river or lake
to seek their partners.
39
Huamán Ramirez, in fact, writes that he had to remove a fain-
ted comrade from a sleeping female dolphin with which the man
had had sexual intercourse. It is believed that men feel an
intense pleasure and are sometimes unable to separate their
bodies from the dolphin.
40
Karsten writes: "The origin of this belief, which is likewise
common to all tribes in western South America, is to be sought
in the peculiar puffing sound which this animal produces when
it comes to the surface of the water to take a breath." (id.).
Roe (1982:168) adds the following commentary:
"Among groups like the Jívaro and the Shipibo, where sorcery
consists of witch doctors blowing magical 'darts', sometimes
over great distances, into the body of his victim, it seems
perfectly logical to fancy that the dolphin is also bewitching
people when it surfaces. This is because, when it opens its
blowhole to expel old air and take in new, the dolphin makes
the same blowing and whistling sound that sorcerers make when
they bewitch their victims. When the dolphin's well-known pro-
pensity for deliberately following close to canoes paddled by
people is taken into account, it is easy to see how such a
harmless animal could have acquired such an evil reputation.
Subjectively there is no sound more haunting than the humanlike
booming cough of dolphins when they breath at night in the
moon-bathed waters of a tropical forest lake."
85
love 41 (cf. Dobkin de Rios 1979:113).
OBSERVATIONS
4l
The bones of a bird called tanrilla (unidentified) are also
used in making love charms. If somebody looks through one of
these bones, as if it were a telescope, at the person he/she
loves, and follows a certain diet, this person will fall in
love with the one who looks through the bone. But if he/she is
discovered by the person whom he is looking at, the magic will
return against the user of the charm (Dobkin de Rios 1979:112;
Chevalier 1982:385).
86
like their kidnappers.
The relationship with the underwater world seems to have an
erotic quality. Angelika Gebhart-Sayer (1986), in a study on
the Shipibo-Conibo, writes that "it is often the ultimate goal
of a malignant spirit to live permanently as man and woman with
the afflicted person's soul, rather than to devour or destroy
it.". The great danger consists in forgetting this world, and
never being able to come back. Perhaps this is reflected in
the belief that the feet and/or face of the people will look
backward: the person is changed, so that he will no longer care
for this world 42 . I have noticed that this idea of one's face
looking backwards is also found in the descriptions of some of
the vegetalistas' patients, when they describe situations in
which they were afraid of becoming mad. This idea is also found
in Don Emilio's descriptions of his first real mareación with
ayahuasca. He was terrified, because he felt that his head was
turning and looking backwards. Don Emilio told me of a case in
which a witch transformed a person into a demonio (a devil),
whose face looked backwards. Feeling that the head and/or feet
pointed in the opposite direction may be a way of indicating
that the person is attracted towards the "other" world, incur-
ring the danger of definitively forgetting this world (which
would be the same as becoming mad).
42
This brings to mind an experience which is often reported by
people who have taken psychedelics: The fear of not being able
to "come back", of becoming mad.
87
173-204, etc.). It may take a human-like or birdlike form. The
most common name given to such a spirit in the Peruvian Amazo-
nas is tunchi 43 . similar ideas are found among some of the eth-
nic groups of the area. For example when a Campa dies his soul
may join the god spirits if he was sufficiently good in his
life time, or may become a malevolent qhost (shirétsi, "unpos-
sessed soul"), revisiting the settlement where it had lived and
attacking the living there (Weiss 1972:168-169). Similar ideas
are held among the Matsigenka (cf. Baer 1979:105)(cf. Karsten
1926:183, 477f.; see also discussion on soul-loss in 6.4.)
43
According to Rafael Karsten, tunchi is the term used among Ji-
varo (Shuar) Indians to refer to the magic arrow (also known
by the name of tsinsaca), which the sorcerers throw at their
enemies. Although it appears in the form of some material ob-
ject, such as a chonta thorn, a worm or an insect, it is at the
same time regarded as a living demonical being. If no other
medicine-man extracts the tunchi, the persons dies:
"After his death, the demon remains in the body and
tries to lay hold of his soul as well, the latter
being then identified with the demon that caused
death. This is the reason why the departed are so
often feared as revengeful spirits, even when they
were, perhaps, respected and loved in life: it is the
spirit of disease and death that the Indians fear,
the demon being supposed to look for fresh victims
a m o n g the s u r v i v i n g r e l a t i v e s . " (Karsten
1964:179-180).
44
Sexual relationship between a shaman and his tutelar spirits
have been reported among the Goldi, the Buryat and the Yakt in
Siberia. A Goldi shaman told Sternberg how he slept with a
tutelar spirit as if she were his wife (see Eliade 1964: 72-76).
88
celosas (jealous), as if they were spiritual wives of the sha-
man. They will punish the person who ingest the plants and do
not follow the prescriptions. So far I have not been able to
learn much about this hidden erotic rapport vegetalistas have
with the spiritual world.
89
circle where ayahuasca is going to be taken (cf.7.1.1.). He
asks the angels to throw into those mountain tunnels any evil
spirits that may approach the circle and block the entrance
with a black stone.
The term arkana is probably a loan word from the Quichua arkay,
which means "to block", "to bar" (Park et al. 1976:27) 46 . It is
used as something that protects the individual, so that nothing
evil may penetrate him. The concept of arkana has to be under-
stood in connexion with the "intrusion" theory of illness,
which coexists, in this area, with the "soul-loss" theory (cf.
6.1.) 47 . It has also to be seen in relationship with a threfold
state in which the body of a person may be: cuerpo sencillo
(indicating that the body is in a normal state, without any
protection), cuerpo cerrado or preparado (the body is armed
with various defenses) and cuerpo danado (the body is ill as a
consequence of the evil doings of a spirit or a witch).
45
Pablo's paintings would be the delight of Jacques Vallee, who
has shown (1975) that many UFO reports often present the same
structural elements as certain fairy tales and legends.
46
The entry in the dictionary is as follows:
90
encounters.
One of these defenses is an invisible shirt which covers the
person and protects him from incoming magical darts. Don Emi-
lio describes it in these terms: "Arkana is a defense of the
body. It is like apliable steel shirt. It is not like a suit of
armour, which makes you feel ill at ease. So nothing penetrates
you. Neither the sun, nor the rain, nor the air will harm you,
because you are well-protected."48.
48
These are Don Emilio's words:
"Arkana es como una camisa de acero, pero que se mue-
ve por todas partes. No es como un casco, que no te
deja ya tranquilidad. Es una camisa bien acerada.
Entonces nada te entra ahí. Te da el sol, nada. La
lluvia, nada. Aire, nada, porque estás bien asegu-
rado"
49
Similar invisible magic garments have been described by Chau-
meil (1983:125-127) among Yagua Indians, and by Harner (1973:
24) among the Jivaro. According to Gebhart-Sayer (1985: 9),
among the Shipibo-Conibo of the Ucayali each individual car-
ries in himself one or several spiritual body patterns. "Before
releasing his patient, the shaman covers the pattern with a
so-called pana, a fixing coat protecting both the pattern and
the individual himself. This protection becomes effective espe-
cially when the person is exposed to the multitude of dangers
outside the tribal sphere." (1985:9).
91
against enemies of the water he is surrounded by a mermaid, a
naca-naca (Micrurus sp., a poisonous snake), a white eel and a
lobo marino or nutria. A shushupi (bushmaster), another very
poisonous snake, will be around his neck with its head beside
his mouth. His last defence, if he is in great danger, is a
school of piranhas, small voracious fish that will devour his
enemies.
Don Emilio has also in his defence a little bird that he calls
with an icaro or magic melody, and a black bull. The spirits
may also adopt anthropomorphic shapes. One of Don Emilio's ar-
kana is a huge winged Brazilian black man with daggers in his
hands and his belt, who will, like the angels with swords he
invokes in ayahuasca sessions (cf.4.1.10. and 7.1.1.), follow
the bad spirits and shut them into dark tunnels in the Andean
mountains.
This took place in the dark. Jorge, one of the two young men
who was following the diet with me during the time I spent with
Don José, was puzzled by the noises both Don José and I made,
and he asked me one day quite frankly if Don José really put
snakes into the pot and I ingested them. I told him the truth,
that it was a theatrical performance, because I had not seen
any snakes at all. Then he confessed to me that he did not
believe in Don José. Although he had been invoking spirits, he
never saw any. He said something like this: "Don Santiago knows
more, because I saw clearly that a spirit came in and sat down
near me when Don Santiago called him. He was there for a long
92
time, so that I could watch him very well." At this point I was
the one who was puzzled, as I had not seen any spirit at all
coming into the house during the session. Jorge was not the
kind of person to invent stories. I questioned him about the
appearance of the spirit. He said that the spirit was a man
wearing a hat and carrying a gun (cf. next section).
50
Rafael Karsten (1964:59) writes that among the birds that may
carry the arrows of sorcerers and thus inflict disease - are,
for instance, the black vulture, the toucan, the great macaw,
the ordinary green parrot, and nearly all nocturnal birds, es-
pecially such as arouse superstitious fear in the Indians by
their strange cries.
94
sions doctores, or he may use the diminutive doctorcitos. Often
he uses the term abuelo or abuelito (dear grand father). These
spirits may be Indian shamans (Yagua, Jibaro, Campa) or the
spirits of doctors that come from other parts of the world,
such as France, England, USA, China, Japan, Spain, Chile, etc.
I found the idea that the spirits may be doctors from other
parts of the world among several other practitioners, both in
Iquitos and Pucallpa. They are called collectively maestros de
la medicina (cf. Castillo 1963:88).
95
96
AYAHUASCA VISION
THE UNDERWATER WORLD
BY PABLO AMARINGO
CHAPTER 5.
97
If we concentrate on Banisteriopsis beverages, we find fre-
quent allusions in scientific literature to music and dancing
in the visions produced by ayahuasca. In 1906 Zerda Bayón, in
his description of the yagé use among the Indians of the Caque-
tá region, wrote:
51
I have often heard similar ideas from Westerners who have taken
ayahuasca. Michael Harner (1980:4) writes that during his first
experience with ayahuasca among the Conibo of the Ucayali, "he
heard a rhythmic sound and saw that it was a giant galley with
several hundred oars moving back and forth in cadence with the
sound". Then he added: "I became conscious, too, of the most
beautiful singing I have ever heard in my life, high-pitched
and ethereal, emanating from myriad voices on board the
galley."
98
I have found the idea that ayahuasca teaches magic melodies
among Indian (Ingano) and mestizo populations of Cagueté, Co-
lombia, and in the provinces of Loreto, Ucayali and Madre de
Dios in Peru. In the state of Acre, in Brazil, communities in-
gesting the preparation Banisteriopsis caapi + Psychotria vi-
ridis under the name of Santo Daime possess himnarios, collec-
tions of songs inspired by Santo Daime and given to certain
privileged members. Some of these communities claim to have
memorized up to 3000 himnos (see Monteiro da Silva 1983).
99
The word icaro seems to be a loan word from the Quichua verb
ikaray, which means "to blow smoke" in order to heal (Parker et
al. 1976:45). This term is used in various parts of the Peru-
vian Amazon, among the mestizo as well as among ethnic groups
of the Ucayali (cf. Karsten 1964:204-205)52. The vegetalistas
of Iquitos and other areas of the Peruvian Amazon also use the
verb icarar, which means to sing or whistle an icaro over a
person, an object or a preparation to give them power 53 .
The icaros are used ritually, but not only in ayahuasca ses-
sions, as has been stated (Katz & Dobkin de Ríos 1971:325; Dob-
kin de Ríos 1972:131). They are also used during the prepara-
tion of certain remedies, during curing sessions, which take
place independently of ayahuasca ceremonies, and even during
activities such as the fishing of certain species. Upon special
52
Guillermo Arévalo, a Shipibo, son of Don Benito, a well known
shaman of that area, a practitioner himself and seriously en-
gaged in the study of the medicinal flora of his ethnic group,
told me that he considered the word icaro as a loan from Qui-
chua: the Shipibo terms for the magic melodies are taquina,
masha and cusho (to work by blowing)
("Icarar means to give back to the things those powers they did
not naturally get in this life. Icarar is to magnetize them
with forces the things did not possess")
Rafael Karsten, in the section of his book on the religion of
South American Indians dedicated to the Shipibo of the Ucayali,
writes:
Icaro is also the name of a special formula of incan-
tation which the demon teaches those who have taken
the narcotic nishí. There is a special icaro for
every animal or, more correctly speaking, every ani-
mal demon conjured." (Karsten 1964:205)
100
request my informants were even willing to perform numerous
icaros during interviews, thus enabling me to record them. The
comparison of several versions of the same icaro taped under
such circumstances and during a ritual, should be of interest
to ethnomusicologists. Most of Don Emilio's repertoire was, in
fact, taped during interviews, not in the actual context in
which they are used 54 .
54
To my knowledge only two papers have been written on the magic
melodies sung by the vegetalistas of the Amazonian provinces of
Peru. Both analyse only the icaros taped during one ayahuasca
session (Katz & Dobkin de Rios 1971; Stocks 1979)
I learned recently that in 1965 Rosa Alarco published a brief
article "Análisis musical de las canciones del ayahuasca usadas
por los brujos de la tribu de los orejones del río Napo y por
los curanderos de Iquitos. Informe.". This article is to be
found in Chiappe et al. (1985:135-136). Until now no attempt
has been made to make a systematic survey of the whole reper-
toire of a mestizo shaman. A. Padilla (1984), wrote a paper on
the melody, harmony, rhythm and expressive features of seven of
Don Emilio's icaros based on the material I gathered during my
first period of field work.
101
his palace, and this is the reason why it is always blossoming.
Emilio says that the icaro of this tree is used both for curing
and as a melody to win the love of a woman.
Icaro de la Catahua
Catahua (Hura crepitans L.) (Euphorbiaceae) is considered to
be a very strong and even dangerous plant-teacher. It is pos-
sible to "gain knowledge" from this tree, if a few milliliters
of its latex are consumed, after a good vegetalista has brought
it to boil carefully and sung a powerful icaro during the pre-
paration. A strict diet of several months is required, other-
wise the tree "may kill the person". Don Emilio explained to me
that a mixture of the latex of this tree, together with pati-
quina (Dieffenbachia sp.), a genus containing very toxic cons-
tituents (Arditti & Rodriguez 1982) and pucunucho (capsicum
pepper) is used to destroy lakes where there are yacuruna or
evil inhabitants of the water (see Valdizán & Maldonado
1922:11; Karsten 1964:197; Dobkin de Ríos 1972:80), often iden-
tified as huge boas, bufeos (fresh water dolphins) and mermaids
(Regan 1983: 176-185).
102
Don Emilio explained to me that it is also possible to
"dietar", a term that means to follow the diet and gain know-
ledge learn from perfumes, certain minerals like pedernal
(flintstone), and even metals such as steel, so that one will
be able to learn their icaros. By adding some drops of a per-
fume to the ayahuasca beverage during its preparation it is
possible to learn huarmi icaros to attract women. By putting a
piece of flintstone or of steel in a glass of water for several
days, drinking the water and following the diet, it is possible
to assimilate certain qualities of these objects. The icaro del
pedernal is used by witches to cause destruction by fire.
The icaro del acero (icaro of steel) makes the body strong
enough to resist rains and heavy winds. In Yarinacocha, near
Pucallpa, by the Ucayali river, Guillermo Arévalo told me that
he believes that it is also possible to learn from gasoline and
certain acids, not by ingestion, but by inhaling them, and fol-
lowing the prescribed diet.
103
Invocations of other animals are frequent. Animals such as
the eagle, the condor, the boa, the eel and the jaguar are
called upon for healing, for protection, or even, in the case
of evil shamans, to cause harm. Each of these animals is able
to transport the vegetalista to its particular domains in the
underwater world, the forest or the sky.
104
By calling through an icaro the spirits of two persons, a man
and a woman, they may be attached emotionally. Don Emilio told
me how a man in love with a woman who does not return his love
will go to visit him to ask for his help. In an ayahuasca ses-
sion Don Emilio whistles the icaro de la piedra, by which he
can call the spirits of the man and the woman. A black stone
rotating very rapidly on an axis also made of stone then ap-
pears. He will then attach the spirits of both the man and the
woman to the stone so that the woman will feel dizzy and afraid
and will embrace the man who stands at her side. The icaro will
unite them for ever.
105
that vegetalistas are masters of synesthesia55. This is one of
the most admired qualities in a good vegetalista: Being able to
"show" to people beautiful or impressive visions. Competitions
and tacit rivalries may sometimes arise during sessions in
which several vegetalistas are present, when two or more, so
to say, try to "monopolize" the quality of the visions.
During the ceremony the first icaros sung or whistled are
usually for subir mareación (for increasing the hallucinations)
(see appendix III, icaro No. 5). When several maestros or per-
sons that know icaros are present at a ceremony, they often
sing their icaros at the same time -I have not yet heard two
persons sing exactly the same icaro. The effect is highly sug-
gestive, and indeed it contributes to enhance the emotional
state of the participants and may even alter or intensify the
contents of their visions.
55
Angelika Gebhart-Sayer (1986) has studied the correlation
between music and geometric designs among the Shipibo-Conibo.
According to her, the shaman engages in synaesthetic awareness.
She writes:
106
5.3.3. Icaros arkana
As we saw in the previous chapter (cf.4.2.), once the vegeta-
lista has entered into that "other reality", he needs defences.
Through the icaros arkana the vegetalista protects himself
against attacks by witches or the evil spirits of the air, the
water or the earth. When a vegetalista is healing, or when he
enters that other dimensions through the ingestion of psycho-
tropic plants, he is particularly vulnerable and exposed to the
attacks of the agents that cause illness 56 . If the vegetalista
does not possess stronger icaros than those of the witch that
caused the illness, he may run the risk of being killed by him
(cf. appendix III, icaro 6). One of the ways in which a witch
attacks a rival shaman is by darkening his visions through an
icaro. But there are also icaros to counteract this effect and
to recover the clarity of the visions produced by ayahuasca or
other plant teachers.
56
In Cesar Calvo's novel on Manuel Cordoba Rios and other "bru-
jos" of the Amazon, there is the following paragraph:
107
Don Emilio once told me a significant thing. He said: "If you
have learned from ayahúman (one of the plant-teachers, also
used in the extraction of the virote or magic dart shot by evil
shamans), you do not need to go out to the forest to bring back
its bark, because you already know its icaro." This shows that
at least in certain cases the very essence of the tree is
thought of being part of the magic melody, and therefore it can
be used instead of the tree itself. In other cases the icaros
are used to reinforce the effect of medicinal plants. All the
shamans I have been working with always sing or whistle an ica-
ro during the preparation or application of medicinal plants 57 .
5.3.5. Huarmi-icaros
57
In the healing sessions in which I participated in the area
of Iquitos the vegetalistas usually combined several elements:
icaros, tobacco blowing, sucking the afflicted parts and the
use of plants, both for healing and for returning the illness
to the person who caused it. In Yarinacocha, however, I par-
ticipated in an ayahuasca session conducted by Don Benito Are-
valo, a Shipibo shaman, and his son Guillermo. They were trea-
ting a young man suffering from paludismo (malaria). During
the whole session they never approached their patient, who was
lying under his mosquito net. At a distance of two meters they
sang their icaros in his direction. They told me that he had
been near death a few days earlier, but was now recovering. A
similar practice has been reported by Siskind (1973: 31) among
the Sharanahua, who use ayahuasca only to diagnose the illness,
but who cure it with magic chants.
108
huge fish which is much appreciated for its delicious taste.
Through the Icaro del alcanfor (icaro of camphor) Don Emilio is
able to make a witch fall asleep, so that he can try to con-
vince the witch in his dreams of the necessity to stop doing
harm to people. Camphor, an organic compound extracted from
Cinnamomum camphora is widely used in the Peruvian Amazon by
shamans and curanderos. It is normally always present both in
healing sessions and in ayahuasca ceremonies. Like tobacco, it
is used for helping the shaman to regurgitate the magic phlegm
which is used as an aid for substracting magic darts or virotes
from the body of a victim. Lewis (1980, 1927: 303-305) pointed
out that camphor has some psychotropic properties, which is
perhaps one of the reasons of its use among the vegetalistas of
the Peruvian Amazon.
109
5.4. The magic phlegm and the magic dart or "virote"
At some point during the initiation, either the spirits or the
senior shaman gives the neophyte a magic phlegm called yachay,
yausa or mariri, and other objects, which are ingested and
hidden "in the chest". The yachay is described as a thick
phlegm which the vegetalista is able to regurgitate, and with
the help of which he extracts the magic darts or virotes sent
by evil sorcerers which may produce illness or even death.
58
This practice is found in the shamanic initiation of several
Amazonian tribes. Among the Shuar, for example, the senior sha-
man gives the novice five different kinds of babas (phlegm)
during initiation, or if the novice is a relative or close
friend, ten types of phlegm Pellizaro S/A:6). According to Har-
ner (1972:155) among the Jívaro of Ecuador "the practising sha-
man regurgitates what appears to be -to those who have taken
natemä- a brilliant substance in which the spirit helpers are
contained. He cuts part of it off with a machete and gives it
to the novice to swallow. The recipient experiences pain upon
taking into his stomach and stays on his bed for ten days,
repeatedly drinking natemä. The Jívaro believe they can keep
magical darts in their stomachs indefinitively and regurgitate
them at will.". Natemä is the name given by the Jívaro to aya-
huasca.
110
Don Emilio, the yachay can also be used to extract the poison
of a wound after a snake bite.
111
to begin the extraction of the magic dart 59 .
This substance has been reported from many Amazonian tribes
(cf. Karsten 1964:178; Nimuendaju 1939:150; 1919-1920:1002-
1037; 1921-22:367-406; Tessman 1930:229, 406, 520. 472; Langdon
1979b). Tessman, in his study on the ethnic groups of North-
eastern Peru, calls it Zaubermasse. Among the Jibaro it is
called tsentsak, "a brilliant substance in which the spirit
helpers are contained" (Harner 1973:17-20), and which has func-
tions both offensive (like a dart) and defensive (like a shield
against incoming darts).
59
Among the Jívaro, green tobacco juice is used for regurgita-
ting the magic substance, which they call tsentsak (Harner
1973:20).
112
The virote is described either as a kind of phlegm which sor-
cerers are able to shoot through their mouths and which pene-
trates the body, or as thorns, small pieces of bone, and some-
times even small insects, which are believed to be suspended in
the yachay being the projectiles that penetrate the patient's
body. In other words, the virote is either a substance of the
same nature as the yachay, or it is some material object sus-
pended in it, which can be manipulated by the vegetalista. Per-
haps both views coexist. In the first instance the virote and
the yachay appear to be two aspects of the same thing: the
first denotes the magic substance as a weapon, and the second
as healing aid. Both the magic darts and the magic phlegm share
the characteristic of returning to the person who either shot
or donated them 60 . They are in a sense living creatures at the
command of the vegetalista, and can therefore be assimilated
into the more general concept of helping spirits, which dwell
in the body of the shaman and are at his command.
60
Among the Omagua and other tribes (cf.Tessman 1930:60) the ma-
gic darts return to the shaman after the death of his victims.
If the shaman possesses darts in his body that belong to other
shamans, they will return to them after his death.
6l
My translation. This is the whole paragraph:
"Entre cette substance, masse invisible mais
tangible, et les fleches, épines, cristaux de
roche, dont le chaman en quelque sort est lardé,
il n'y a pas différence de nature. Ces objects
matérialisent la force du chaman qui, dans de
nombreuses tribus, est conpue sous la forme plus
vague et tant soit peu abstraite de 'substance
magique'. Nous pouvons même aller plus loin.
L'esprit auxiliare du chaman est une personnifi-
cation de ce pouvoir et non pas une création
distincte coexitant avec la notion de force
invisible. A notre avis, la substance magique,
les objects pathogène et les esprits auxiliaires
incarnent trois aspects du même pouvoir magi-
que. " (Métraux 1967: 91-92).
113
man's power, which, among numerous tribes, is con-
ceived in the vaguer and rather abstract form of a
magical substance."
Rafael Karsten also noticed the ambivalent nature of the "ma-
gical arrows". He wrote in his unfinished book on the religion
of South-American Indians east of the Andes:
62
For example, according to Stirling (1938:115, quoted by Métraux
1967:90), this substance is called tsaruma among the Jivaro,
and is possessed by all the spirits, plants and animals enume-
rated in the myths of origin.
Michael Harner (1973: 15) begins as follows his article on Jíva-
ro shamanism:
"He had drunk, and now he softly sang. Gradually,
faint lines and forms began to appear in the dark-
ness, and the shrill music of the tsentsak, the spi-
rit helpers, arose around him. The power of the drink
fed them. He called, and they came. First pangi, the
anaconda, coiled about his head, transmuted into a
crown of gold. Then wampang, the gigant butterfly,
hovered above his shoulder and sang to him with its
wings. Snakes, spiders, birds and bats danced in the
air above him. On his arms appeared a thousand eyes
as his demon helpers emerged to search the night for
enemies."
115
tions of the spirits 63 .
I believe that these ideas may throw light on the problem of
the dichotomy good versus evil shaman, which I will deal with
in the next section.
63
similar ideas are found among the Siona. The magic substance is
called dau. Jean Langdon (1979:69-72) has discussed this con-
cept throroughly. She explores three different meanings of the
term dau: "1. dau as the shaman's knowledge and power which may
be embodied as a substance that grows within the shaman's body;
2. dau as a concrete witchcraft substance; and 3. dau as a
sickness substance, causing a bodily ailment similar to our own
colloquial meaning of "illness". In each of these cases, dau is
a concrete thing existing independently of the individual ra-
ther than as an inherent quality or function of the indivi-
dual."
64
A similar idea is found among the Jibaro (Harner 1973:18-19):
"At the end of the first month, a tsentsak emerges from his
mouth. With this magical dart at his disposal, the new shaman
experiences a tremendous desire to bewitch. If he casts his
tsentsak to fulfill this desire, he will become a bewitching
shaman. If, on the other hand, the novice can control his
impulse and reswallow this first tsentsak, he will become a
curing shaman."
116
cally become brujos (evil sorcerers). Trees with big thorns are
generally considered to teach witchcraft 65 . other trees, such
as ayahúman may teach both how to heal and how to do harm. Don
José Coral compares some of these gifts to injections which
can be used either for healing or for causing harm. I have also
repeteadly heard the idea that objects of red colour are for
causing harm, while those of white colour are medicine.
Don Emilio told me that he did not want to receive from the
spirits anything with which to harm others. Don Celso said that
sometimes he regrets that he did not learn how to do harm,
because there are situations in which he would have had good
use for a virote. Don José admits that he can do harm, but he
seldom does. I have also heard the idea that in order to heal
one must also understand how harm is done. A vegetalista from
Pucallpa told me that from the spirits one must not receive and
put inside one's body thorns, needless and objects of that
kind, because if one does, one becomes evil. On the other hand
his genios (one of the denominations for the spirits of the
plants) may have the virotes, and in case of need they can be
sent to attack.
65
According to Karsten (1964:80), certain trees, such as chonta
palms, both the kind cultivated for the sake of its fruit (Gui-
lielma sp.) and the wild species (Bactris and Iriartea sps.),
are considered demoniac trees on account of their large thorns
used as magic darts by Ecuadorian tribes, both east and west of
the Andes.
117
ritual dimensions they do not want to trespass. Don Emilio has
told me "uno no debe ambicionar demasiado" (one should not be
too eager). The more knowledge and power one acquires, the
greater the temptation to use it incorrectly.
118
Chapter 6.
ILLNESS AND ITS TREATMENT
66
In fact I briefly met several youngish ayahuasqueros who live
in Iquitos and call themselves Rosacrucians. I have not yet
devoted my attention to this type of practitioners.
119
of black slaves that were brought to the Amazon area by the
Spaniards and Portuguese, African custom also influenced Amazo-
nian folk belief. It would be very interesting, indeed, to de-
vote attention to the ideas about illness and healing embraced
by all the various religious cults. So far I have concentrated
only on the practices of vegetalistas of rural extract and of
considerable age (all my main informants are over 60 years
old). This fact restricts the application of the concepts that
I am going to present to the totality of mestizo Amazonian
people. However, I believe that the concepts of illness found
among the mestizo practitioners I have been working with re-
flect the beliefs of a large part of the population of the Pe-
ruvian Amazon. An examination of scientific literature on the
religion and ideas about health and illness held by Amazonian
tribes shows that the ideas which are prevalent among the mes-
tizo population still derive very closely from those found
among the native population of the area.
67
According to Rafael Karsten, from the sap of this tree, (called
shono by the Shipibo), which is said to be very poisonous, the
Indian sorcerers obtain the mysterious bewitching matter, viro-
te, which they use when they want to harm their enemies (Kars-
ten 1964: 82) (On the virote and the magic substance, see below
4.3.). According to Girard (1958:255) the spirit of this tree
is, among the Shipibo, the supreme spirit or chief of the fo-
rest and of the spirits of other trees. It is considered to be
the rain tree, and rituals are held near it to beg for rain.
120
In this animistic context it is not easy no make a sharp dis-
tinction between natural and magical illness. Certain illnes-
ses, for example those that are the result of parasitic inva-
sion or infections, may be more readily considered natural 68 .
Accidents, such as falls, or snake bites, may be considered to
be the result of the action of evil people or spirits.
68
I do not possess reliable epidemiological data about disease in
the Peruvian Amazon. Several epidemic diseases, such as meas-
les, whooping cough and tuberculosis, seem to be particularly
severe. Diseases of the respirarory system, such as bronchitis
or pneumonia, and various infectious diseases are very common,
especially among children. Malaria is also very widespread, and
there are many cases of furuncles, conjunctivitis and various
rheumatic disorders. Alcoholism is also a serious problem in
the Amazon.
69
In certain cases I believe that powerful toxic preparations are
in fact given to people in their food or a drink (cf. Chiappe
1979: 86). In other instances, however, the idea of illness
seems to rely more heavily on the mythological world predomi-
nant in the area. So far I have not come across any study of
the organic compounds used in witchcraft in the Amazonas.
70
Don Emilio told me of a case in which a woman oracionista (one
type of practitioner who does harm through oraciones -prayers
or spells-) had caused harm to another woman by stealing pieces
of her underwear, defecating on it, and burying it. The victim
began to bleed as if she were menstruating. For two weeks she
was treated by medical doctors without success. Don Emilio
cured her with the bark of ubos (unidentified), and by using
magic melodies.
121
will be able to cure it 7 l .
Illness is a broad concept, which may include somatic and
psychic disturbances, emotional and economic problems. Not
being loved, difficulties in relation with other people, bad
luck in business, laziness, sexual excesses, alcoholism may
all be considered illnesses, and therefore subject to the hea-
ling action of a vegetalista (cf. Chiappe 1979:76).
71
According to Pablo Amaringo, a former vegetalista, and now-
adays a painter, great murayas and bancos (types of shamans)
know the lengua mística (mystical language) of the spirits,
which is different from any human language. These shamans are
able to cure illnesses produced by spells in any language.
72
One of the most common functions of ayahuasca among Indian
tribes is to diagnose illness (Cf. Tessman 1930:217; Friedberg
1965:83-84; Kensinger 1973: 13, etc.).
122
children or other relatives. Financial or emotional problems,
alcoholism and even laziness are also considered illnesses to
be treated by vegetalistas.
Many vegetalistas stress the idea that illness will return to
the person who caused it. This also contributes to the re-esta-
blishment of the patient's internal peace as he feels that jus-
tice has been done without resorting to any external violence.
Even more effective, I think, are the methods of Don Emilio and
people who like him chose to forgive, and let the Lord decide
the fate of those that are weak enough to harm other people.
One evening during the summer of 1981 a man went with his
25-year-old son to see Don Emilio. His name was Don Lucas, a
man about fifty years of age, whose main occupation was being a
preacher. His voice was hardly audible. Whispering, and helped
by his son, he explained his case to Don Emilio and agreed on
123
a healing session for the next evening. I witnessed how Don
Emilio gathered some plants for the treatment (see later 5.3.
2.), and was also present the next evening to document the
healing procedure. After the healing session Don Lucas recove-
red his voice, and I was able to tape an interview in which he
told me how he had lost his voice. Here is his story:
124
the patient is not taken to a good vegetalista, he will die73.
The idea of illness as phlegm is extended to natural illnes-
ses. First of all, illness is thought of as an impurity, a co-
chinada (hoggishness), which penetrates the organism. When a
person does not follow a proper diet, these impurities accumu-
late in the organism and are the cause of illness. Ayahuasca
and other plants which have emetic and/or cathartic properties,
expel the phlegm from the organism. Vegetalistas say that aya-
huasca is needed for cleansing all the flemosidades (phlegm
formations) that accumulate in the intestines. Rheumatism,
which is treated with the bark of several species of Ficus, and
also with sacha-ajos (Mansoa alliaceae (Lam) A. Gentry), is
conceived as phlegm that penetrates the joints and obstructs
their movements. Common colds are also conceived as phlegm that
accumulates in the bronchi and lungs. According to Don Emilio,
fermented phlegm in the stomach produces heat that ascends to
the head and from there disperses to the rest of the body pro-
ducing fever. By sucking from the top of the head, the pit of
the stomach and the temples the heat is extracted. The juice of
grape fruit together with six leaves of malva (unidentified),
after a magical song has been sung on the preparation, cools
the organism restoring the proper temperature, and produces
vomit that expels the phlegm.
73
This magic illness is also known among the Shipibo of Ucayali
under the name cungatuccha. A plant called ushado (unidenti-
fied) is used for extracting this illness (Guillermo Arévalo,
personal communication)
125
folia), and the resin of bellaco caspi (Himatanthus sucuu-
ba). Two or three roots of chicuru piripiri are pounded and
placed on four or five leaves of piñón rojo. To this the resin
of bellaco caspi. is added, enough nearly to cover the chicuru
piripiri. According to Don Emilio these three plants "know each
other very well, and together they are a unique remedy against
witchcraft" The function of these plants is to loosen the viro-
te, so that it can be extracted more easily. The mixture is
then placed on a clean handkerchief. Then Don Emilio takes four
cigarettes of mapacho (a strong tobacco) which are usually
brought by the patient, and sings an icaro over them to rein-
force the healing properties of the tobacco smoke. Thereafter
he lights one of the cigarettes and blows the smoke several
times on the plant mixture. Tobacco is believed to cleanse the
plants, and to endow them with healing power.
When all this is done, Don Emilio blows smoke on the patient:
on the top of his head, on the place where the illness is loca-
ted, all over his body. The patient has to stretch his arms in
front of him with the palms together. Smoke is blown from the
top of the fingers horizontally along the arms. In this way
the patient is covered by the arkana, which according to Don
Emilio is like an invisible armour that covers the person, and
protects him from illness (cf.4.2.).
74
The catahua has to be at least fifteen years old and has to
grow far from places where people usually go. The vegetalista
goes to the jungle before sunrise with an empty stomach. Before
taking the resin, the vegetalista addresses the catahua tree
with the appelative "grandfather", and asks permission to take
some of its "blood". Thereafter he makes a cut in the trunk,
and collects some of the resin in a bowl or a bottle.
75
Don Emilio told me that other plants such as patuquina negra
(Dieffenbachia sp.), the resin of lupuna (Ceiba pentandra) and
the bark of ayahúman (Couroupita guianensis Aubl.) are used to
extract the virote. I have not yet enquired about the proce-
dures that follow.
127
6.5. Doctor shopping: The case of Doña Rosa Teco."
Doña Rosa Teco, a 62 year-old woman, arrived at Don Jose's cha-
cra (small plantation) a few days after I had decided to stay
with him for a month, following the special diet prescribed for
"learning" from ayahuasca. She was brought in great pain by her
family, with swollen knees and ankles. Don Emilio had seen her
some days before, but he thought that he would not be able to
cure her and sent her to Don José. She remained in Don José's
home for three weeks. During this time I was able to observe
and take notes on the whole process of treatment, which inclu-
ded massages, the use of various medicinal plants, healing ses-
sions similar to those held by Don Emilio, and sometimes even
careful analyses of the dreams she had during the healing pro-
cess. It also happened several times that during his sleep Don
José engaged in magical fights with the witches responsible
for her illness. I learned that before she went to Don Emilio,
she had been treated by Don Sergio Freitas, a vegetalista I had
interviewed in Iquitos the year before.
After three weeks she partially recovered and went home. One
year later, during the summer of 1984, I went to visit her in
Iquitos. I was able to tape a retrospective view of her ill-
ness, the time she spent in Don Jose's home, and the later de-
velopment of her situation. Here is Dona Rosa's story:
This happened to me on a Sunday. When I was going to
visit Don José Torres, a vegetalista, I fell down,
but I was not seriously injured. I scraped my knees.
I returned home and my daughter cured me. Then I went
to see Don José. After visiting him I went home and
slept a little. I woke up and did not feel very well,
but I did not pay much attention to it. I began to
make a shirt for my son using a sewing machine. Sud-
denly I felt pain in my foot and noticed that it was
swollen. My daughter said: "It must be the result of
the fall you had this morning". But I replied that I
had walked all the way to the old man and had not
felt any discomfort. I continued working, but at
about six p. m. the pain was so great that I was not
even able to walk. I began to cry.
128
terribly swollen.
At about ten o'clock that night, I could not stand
it any longer, and took off the bandages. The swel-
ling was enormous. I called my daughter and told her:
"Nobody is going to fool me any longer. This is dano
(witchcraft). Tomorrow I am going to see the abuelito
(literally, grandfather, meaning the vegetalista).
The next morning we went to see Don Vicente Torres.
Don Vicente said: "Did I not tell you, when you told
me that you fell in the street, that I should have
examined you? You said that it was nothing and went
back home. But you should have stayed here." I told
him: "Abuelito, please, help me. It is very
swollen. " He treated me for a while and then said:
"Tomorrow you should come here. Bring a bed with you,
so that you can stay here for a while. I will cure
you."
129
take Mother to the clinic"
I stayed at the clinic nine more days. Dr. Rojas
treated me. They made a lot of analyses, but they did
not show that anything was wrong. The doctor wanted
to give me a blood transfusion. I did not want it. I
told the doctor: "I do not want a blood transfusion,
because I shall die" The doctor said: "How do you
know?" I said: "I know that you are a religious pers-
on, so I am going to tell you. I wish you could
understand me. I had a dream. I saw a white man with
a beard. He said: "Do not let them give you a blood
transfusion, because you will die. You had better go
home and try to find another type of medicine."
The doctor said: "I see your point. It was our Lord
who made you dream. Your body will not stand the
transfusion. I will let you go home."
We paid the clinic and went home. I felt that I was
getting weaker every day. But I did not say anything.
One day my daughter, who is married to a soldier,
told me that her husband wanted her to go to Pingo,
to the garrison. I told her to go and said that I
was feeling better, even though it was not true. But
I did not want her to stay in Iquitos because of me.
130
One month later I became ill again. I went back to
Don Sergio. But at this time Don Sergio was very
busy, going from one place to another. He did not
stay at home, so I decided to go back home. When I
became worse, I was taken to Don Emilio Andrade. Don
Emilio took me to see Don José Coral. I stayed there
with Don José. He is a very kind person, and I am
very thankful to him. He said that it was daño. He
also used suction, massage, and he whipped me with
ortigas (nettles). You witnessed how I recovered,
and was able to walk again.
COMMENTARIES
Doña Rosa's case is quite typical in regard to what is known
by the term "doctor shopping". She goes from one practitioner
to another and from one medical system to another, with great
ease. She even travelled from Iquitos to Pucallpa, the second
major city of the Peruvian Amazon, to find a cure for her ill-
ness. This is another example of the great mobility that exists
among the mestizo population of this area. People sometimes
travel great distances in order to find work, to find a part-
ner, or, as in this case, to find a cure.
During the time I spent in Don José's home while she was treated, one
important topic of conversation in the mornings were the dreams, because
in them, according to Don José, the development of the illness was some-
times revealed.
131
Don Jose Coral extracting a magic dart from a patient
6.6. Soul-loss
The idea that illness is produced due to the soul (or one of
the souls) leaving the body of a person is prevalent in both
North and South America. Hultkrantz (1979: 90) has pointed out
that the soul-loss diagnosis, in accordance with historical
traditions and trends of various cultures, has been less em-
phasized in parts of South America, and more pronounced in the
parts of arctic and northwest North America exposed to Asiatic
cultural influences. The idea that the soul may leave the body
is found among numerous tribes of the Upper Amazon. For example
according to Baer (1979:103), the Matsigenka believe that the
soul (i'nsure) leaves the body during sleep, during ecstasy, and
due to illness and death. The Yagua distinguish five different
souls. Two of them (hunítu/hunisétu) are active during the life
of the invidual, and may temporarily leave the body during
sleep or during the shamanic trance. The other three, collecti-
vely called ndenu mbayátu (souls of the dead) become active
after death, and may be dangerous to the living (Chaumeil
1983:89-96).
The idea that a human being has two souls exists among
Amerindian tribes of both North and South America (cf. Hult-
krantz 1953:51-114; 1979:131-132;). My informants have never
explicitly made the assertion that human beings have several
souls. However, the insistence on the idea that during sleep, a
state in which one is particularly vulnerable, the soul of a
person leaves his body and may be abducted by an evil sorcerer
or by a spirit, and that a person may also lose his soul
132
because of a frightening experience, is firmly established76.
This gives ground to a possible implicit distinction between a
body soul, responsible for the continuation of bodily func-
tions, and a free soul that may wander around independent of
the body. In Reagan's interviews of Amazonian people (1983:1:
207-210), several informants recognize the existence of two
souls, one that goes to heaven after death, and another, called
sometimes la sombra (the shadow), which stays on earth, beco-
ming a tunchi (cf. 4.1.08). Some of his informants say that
the soul that goes to heaven is good, while the other is bad.
It is also believed that when the soul leaves the body during
sleep, it takes care of the body from the distance. But if the
soul is unable to return, the body dies.
Evil spirits may also abduct the soul of a person during aya-
huasca ceremonies. The vegetalista may be able to bring the
soul back. If he does not succeed, the person will die. The
shaman brings back the soul of a person either by blowing smoke
from a pipe or mapacho (a strong tobacco) cigarettes previously
endowed with power through icaros, or by sucking, also with the
help of tobacco, or both. He sucks from three places: the top
of the head, the pit of the stomach and the temples. The soul
is believed to re-enter the body through the fontanelle.
76
See examples of soul loss among North American Indians, in
Hultkrantz 1953:44 ss).
77
As we saw in chapter 5 (see footnote 52) Angelika Gebhart-Sayer
(1986) distinguishes between six classes of songs used in the-
rapy among the Shipibo-Conibo. The class called manchari is
sung to lead an abducted soul back to its owner.
133
she is. Matilde, come here i My friend is going to
take your pulse". She came. "How long have you been
ill, Senora Matilde, I asked her" "Six months, young
man. " "How do you feel?" "I feel tired. I eat very
little, because I have no appetite. Sometimes I feel
very dizzy. " "Give me your left hand. " She did so. I
took her pulse. "Very well. Have you ever taken aya-
huasca?", I asked her. "Yes, I have. I am from Alto
Ucayali. My uncle gave me the brew when I was twelve
years old. I am now forty-five. I have not taken it
since then, and the effect of the medicine surely has
grown weak after all this time, especially because I
have eaten all sorts of things during these years."
"Yes, it is so, Dona Matilde. I will give you aya-
huasca, but not very much." Then I took a little
bowl, measured her dose very carefully, and sang an
icaro (magic song) over the beverage. She drank it. I
told her: "Sit there. If you have strong visions, do
not be afraid." "I shan't", she said.
134
stomach, three times from her temples, and twice from
her lungs. Then I began to sing, to sing, to sing
for a long while. Then I heard her sighing and moa-
ning. "You see, Andrade? Continue!", somebody told
me. I continued singing, calling her soul. Suddenly
I saw a road, and in the center a little shadow. It
was like a match. As I was calling the soul by sin-
ging, the shadow became bigger. When it was only six
or seven meters away I saw Matilde. Her soul entered
the body through the top of her head. At that moment
she woke up. Everybody surrounded her. "Matilde, what
happened?", asked her husband. In the meantime I con-
tinued blowing smoke over her. "I saw a huge black
man who was taking me to an immense dark cave. When I
was about to fall into it, I felt the hand of the
soldier Andrade. He took me by the waist and pulled
me back. Then my heart felt great joy, and I retur-
ned. I am very tired. Let me rest a little, and I
will tell you everything later. " I continued blowing
tobacco over her, until she was perfectly well. I
took from her all the mareación (hallucinations), and
she calmed down and sat there listening to what the
soldiers were saying. "
78
I here use the terms husband and wife. Most couples are, in
fact, not legally married. Living together with the concensus
of the woman's family is common practice.
136
held for procuring the fertility of a newly planted field 79 .
These ideas have not totally disappeared with the advent of
urban or semiurban life. Vegetalistas are often visited by
people who complain of having little success in business life
-taxi drivers or shopkeepers with few clients, farmers with
unproductive soil, mitayeros (hunters of wild animals) with no
luck-, or men and women with little success in love.
79
In Lamb's narration about Cordoba Ríos (1971:33-36), we find
that herbal baths are part of the preparation hunters received
before going out into the forest to find game. In this passage,
an Indian hunter with bad luck is carefully questioned about
"his use of herbal baths to bring good luck and to remove body
odors; special diets for getting ready to hunt certain animals;
the use of charms for finding favorite game animals."
137
with the solution 80 .
Once this is done, he returns to Don Emilio. Men keep only
their trousers on. Women keep all their clothes on. Both men
and women have to be barefoot during the ritual bath. Don Emi-
lio then asks the client whether he wants the bath to be effec-
tive for love or for work. He then whistles the appropriate
icaro, while "painting" the person with the liquid. First he
draws a cross with some of it on the top of the head. He conti-
nues drawing crosses on the forehead, on both temples, a great
cross on the back and on the chest, small crosses in the arm-
pits, and the arm joints, on the feet and the back of the
knees. Don Emilio sometimes interrupts his whistling to ask the
client about his problems, family life, financial problems,
etc. He advises him, prescribes him special diets, etc. When
this is done, he takes one of the cigarettes the client has
brought with him, and blows smoke on top of the patient's head,
along his arms, on his feet, on his back and chest. The whole
process takes about half an hour.
80
The explanation of rinsing the mouth with sacha ajos is that in
this way the plant will act both from the inside and the
outside, and will be more effective. This is a principle that
also applies to a number of medicinal plants. The resine of
millo renaco (ficus sp.), for instance, which is used in the
treatment of fractures, is both applied externally and inges-
ted. The same happens with the leaves of suelda con suelda,
also used in the treatment of fractures: the pounded leaves are
applied externally on the fractured limb; aguardiente (alcohol
distilled from sugar cane) is added to a few leaves of the same
plant and the mixture is ingested. This may be seen in rela-
tionship with the idea that there must be a balance with what
is inside and outside the organism. Don Emilio has advised me
to drink a little cold water before taking a cold bath or
shower, because the imbalance may produce illness.
138
ajos makes the body strong and flexible, is good for the eyes
(te aclara la vista), and the juice of its roots is used in the
treatment of proud flesh in the eyelids. Steam baths of this
plant are used for the treatment of rheumatism. Sacha-ajos is
amansador, which means that people and wild animals will not
harm the person that uses this plants81.
Other plants are also used in ritual baths, but so far I have
not been able to identified them botanically.
81
Among the Shipibo of the Ucayali, the house where a deceased
person has lived is burnt down together with his belongings.
The site of the house is purified by burning leaves of "sacha-
aho" (Karsten 1964:206-207).
139
140
CHAPTER 7.
82
One finds this book all over Latin America and apparently also
in Spain. According to Atienza (1983:34) it was first published
in Valencia, Spain, in the middle of the 19th century and
consists of a collection of short prayers gravitating around
the Cruz de Caravaca, a double-armed cross, whose origin,
according to a legend, goes back to a visit by St. Helen, Empe-
ror Constantine's mother, to the Holy Land in 326 (on the
cross, and the relationship between this tradition and the Tem-
pler Knights, see Atienza 1983:23-48.
141
mal character than those held in the cities 83 .
Naturally, this is only a generalization. Vegetalistas who
have moved relatively recently to the cities carry with them
their ritual peculiarities. Conversely, vegetalistas living in
the cities and having been subject to Christian esoteric tradi-
tions will continue their practices if they move to the forest.
Patients from the cities often go to a rural area to find a
cure for their illness. There is also ample contact between
vegetalistas in rural and urban areas, and, as far as I can
tell, great tolerance and even curiosity about the rituals fol-
lowed by other practitioners. Here we have an unexplored field
of research that needs clarification.
83
A l l the sessions I have attended have been in the homes of the
vegetalistas. There are, however, reports of vegetalistas
collecting groups of patients and taking them to a jungle clea-
rance on the outskirts of the city of Iquitos (Dobkin de Rios
1972:69; Chiappe et al. 1985:103).
84
I think that this, in fact, is a fundamental aspect of shamanic
practice: The shaman is not only the one who "sees", but also
the one who knows how to tell what he has seen, and to do it in
such as a way that people will also "see it". In this context
we may also understand the often reported abilities of shamans
to imitate animals -Don Emilio is extremely good at it-, and to
suggest to their audience, through chants, poetry and sometimes
theatrical performances, the mystical worlds they are familiar
with.
142
they will often have confirmation of the worldviews presented
to them by the vegetalistas.
An ayahuasca session will gather several kinds of partici-
pants: patients who might or might not take the brew, according
to their wishes and/or the decision of the shaman, persons who
are not specifically ill, but who wish to take ayahuasca simply
to cleanse their organism or just "to see the visions", final-
ly persons who accompany the patients and usually keep a very
low profile in a corner only as passive observers.
143
na on his land 8 5 . At dawn the day before ayahuasca is to be
prepared, he climbs the tree where the vine grows. He blows
smoke several times on the branches to be cut, and addresses
the spirit of the plant, explaining that he is in need of its
wisdom. The plant has to be at least three or four years
old. The stem is stripped of secondary branches and leaves, and
cut into pieces of about 30 to 40 cm. He makes bundles of about
30 pieces. Those to be used later are placed under fallen
leaves in a shady place so that they are protected from the
sun.
Victor, one of his nephews, who lives some 200 meters from
Don Emilio's house, picks up about 200 leaves of chacruna (Psy-
chotria viridis), the main additive, which grows naturally
about 86
twenty minutes' walk from his home in the forest
nearby .
Nowadays Don Emilio rarely prepares the beverage himself.
This is usually done by Dona Rosa (aged 60), the sister of his
late wife (deceased in December 1983), in a separate place ex-
85
Plants found in the jungle are believed to be more potent and
are preferred, whenever this is possible. I have often heard
conversations in which a vegetalista tells, with great joy, how
on such and such an occasion he has found a very old abuelo
(granpa) referring to a liana. There are vegetalistas who are
very secret concerning the whereabouts of a particular ayahuas-
ca plant, from which they make the beverage on special occa-
sions. I heard similar stories during a short visit to the Co-
lonia 5000, in Rio Branco (Brazil), where ayahuasca is taken
under the name of Santo Daime (cf. Monteiro 1983). In Pucallpa
I was told that somewhere in the upper Urubamba there is one
great ayahuasca plant from which cuttings are taken from time
to time by Shipibo shamans.
86
Dobkin de Rios has insistently written, even in one of her la-
test publication (Dobkin de Rios 1984: 178), that in the area
of Iquitos and Pucallpa Banisteriopsis rusbyana (now called Di-
plopterys cabrerana Gates) is used as an admixture. She does
not mention where she has deposited voucher specimens or who
made the identification of the plants she mentions, or if she
collected the plant at all. On only one occasion I have seen
this plant used, and it was brought from Rio Santiago, where it
is indeed used by several Indian tribes as is also the case
among the Siona, Kofan, Ingano, and other tribes of the Colom-
bian and Ecuadorian Amazon. In Loreto, Ucayali and Madre de
Dios the principal admixture is, in my experience, always Psy-
chotria viridis. Among the Sharanahua of the upper Purus a Psy-
chotris sp., under the local name of Kawa is always added to
ayahuasca (Rivier & Lindgren 1972: 103) as is the case among
the Cashinahua (Der Marderosian et al. 1970). P. viridis is
also used as the admixture plant in Taraucá, in the state of
Acre, Brazil (Prance & Prance 1970: 106) and among members of
Colonia 5000 and the UDV (Uniao do Vegetal) in Acre and in ci-
ties of other areas of Brazil (cf. Monteiro 1983).
144
clusively devoted to preparing ayahuasca, near the home of Vic-
tor, one of her children, or it is prepared by Don Ruperto,
Dona Rosa's brother, who lives in a house nearby.
87
Don Emilio says, however, that on some occasions he took the
beverage out-of-doors with his teacher during moonlit nights
If the beverage is well prepared, then the landscape seems to
be very beautiful. Everything looks as if it were made of gold,
and the trees seem to acquire beautiful and brilliant colours.
145
tes to be smoked during the ceremony, and a small bottle of
perfumer88, If one of the persons present gets frightened by
hallucinations, the smell of the perfume helps to calm him
down. He also places there a flashlight and some pages of
newspaper to be used as toilet paper in case of diarrhoea.
88
The most common perfume used, both as an element in ayahuasca
paraphernalia and in ritual baths and other love preparations,
is the commercially ubiquitous Tabú trademark, which along with
agua florida (a lightly colored scented water) is also used
among curanderos of other areas, for instance practitioners
using the San Pedro cactus in coastal Peru (cf. Sharon
1978:37).
146
"Grandfather, let us see beautiful visions. Let us
see good things. Let the doctors come, so that we
can ask t h e m a b o u t our p r o b l e m s , about our
illnesses."
89
Among some Indian tribes only men take ayahuasca. For instance
among the Sharanahua and Culina (Rivier & Lindgren 1972:102),
women are not allowed to take the drug, since it is supposed to
hurt them. Among the Colorado and Secoya, women may also take
the beverage, but relatively seldom they do so (Naranjo
1983:181, 187). According to Bellier (1986) among the Maikuna,
a Western Tukano group of the Peruvian Amazon, yagé is a mascu-
line plant to be taken by men only. Women do not take yagé "due
to inhibition rather than prohibition". However, the same
author affirms, young women may take the beverage with the per-
mission of the shaman so as not to ruin the effect of their
husband's shamanic apprenticeship. Postmenopausal women take
the beverage freely.
147
From time to time people will leave the house in order to
vomit or defecate. They won't talk. Everybody is silently
having his visions. At intervals that I have calculated between
40 minutes and an hour, no icaros are sung, and for a few minu-
tes there might be small talks, brief comments on the beauty
of ayahuasca visions, and even jokes. But when the hallucina-
tions, which come in waves, again affect the participants, the
chants begin again. Don Emilio encourages those who know icaros
to sing. If there are other vegetalistas invited to participate
in the session, each will sing his icaros without any attempt
of coordinating the different melodies. In the peak minutes of
each hallucinatory wave the voices rise, sometimes several
schacapas (rattles) are shaken simultaneously, and the scene is
really remarkable for anybody who happens to be witnessing it.
When the effects of the brew fade out, sporadic talks and
commentaries again emerge. Some of the patients and partici-
pants return to their homes. Others lie down on the floor,
smoke a mapacho cigarette or tell stories until they all fall
sleep. When the morning comes, there is often an exhilarated
and relaxed atmosphere.
148
the autonomic nervous system (ANS) has been neglected to a
great extent. As it is well known, ayahuasca, besides being a
hallucinogic, has strong emetic and cathartic properties. It is
often called la purga, the purgative, to indicate this effect.
Joralemon's observations have made me reflect about how the
shaman and the participants interpret this double action of the
beverage -as a purgative and as a hallucinogen-, and whether
one of these two aspects has the priority.
90
These prescriptions may be seen in connection with similar ones
involving the preparation of other remedies or magical potions.
For instance, a clear parallelism is found among some Indian
tribes, such as the Canelos, Achuaras, Jivaros and Yanomamö,
etc. when preparing arrow poisons. The men in charge of the
preparation observe sexual abstinence, fast, and no woman is
allowed to come near the shelter where the poison is being pre-
pared, otherwise it will be entirely ruined (cf. Karsten 1964:
106-107; Donner 1982:131-133).
149
consciousness is indeed expected and desired by those that al-
ready have some experience of ayahuasca. Naturally, the expec-
tations are very different among those that take ayahuasca for
the first time, or rarely do so. The idea of cleansing may in
some cases be more relevant.
91
According to Córdoba Ríos, Bruce Lamb's informant (Lamb
1985: 21), the physical condition and mental control being ina-
dequate when taking ayahuasca, some people "have violent abdo-
minal convulsion, others experience intense nausea, and still
others erotic stimulation of the whole glandular system invol-
ved with sexual response." I have, indeed, witnessed, and
myself experienced, intense nausea when drinking ayahuasca, and
visions of erotic character are frequently reported. But I have
never witnessed any situation similar to the one described by
Cordoba Ríos, in which people would display uninhibited and
with amazement "their tremendous hard-ons".
150
Vegetalistas often say that a complete concentration is ne-
cessary in order to see, with the help of ayahuasca, what one
wishes to see. In Pucallpa I noticed that vegetalistas use the
expression "tener buenas concentraciones" (literally, "to have
good concentrations"), when the visions are exceptionally
clear. It seems obvious to me that vegetalistas train to
achieve control of the visions so as to obtain information.
This is a rich field that should be explored by psychologists.
92
In a conversation Dr. Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff made me notice
how the Indian taxonomy seems to put more emphasis on the
effect rather than on the form of the plants.
151
kinds of diseases. Don Emilio told me that when he was in the
army, the sergeant in command of his company took ayahuasca
with his soldiers in order to keep them in good shape and free
from disease. I have several accounts of patients claiming to
have been cured only by taking ayahuasca and following the diet
prescribed.
152
cipants in the ceremony, etc.
Vegetalistas stress the idea that it is necessary to be calm
and not be afraid of the visions, however terrible they might
be. Sometimes evil spirits appear in the visions, and try to
harm the person, but if he is not afraid, nothing can harm him.
Visions of being transformed into an animal, often a jaguar or
a snake, are relatively frequent. Also being devoured by a huge
boa, or conversely, a boa penetrating through the mouth into
the person.
The young man left the group and went to the house.
He climbed the stairs. He found a machete, went to
the bed and lifted the mosquito net which hang over
the bed where the poor woman was sleeping. He killed
her, and did what the spirit had told him to do.
154
came and surrounded him. While some of them were
menacing him in front, others came from behind with
ropes. They knocked him down and tied him to a tree.
The lieutenant said: "Stay where you are, everybody.
Noboby leaves this place". The criminal was there,
all tied up, vomiting and defecating, still under the
effects of ayahuasca.
The next morning many people went to that place
when they heard about this terrible crime. The
lieutenant wrote a report and ordered the construc-
tion of a big raft and good oars. All those atten-
ding the ceremony were sent to the city on this
raft, guarded by eight policemen with guns.
155
156
CONCLUSION
93
The shape of certain plants or objects determines their
use. For example a plant which resembles an ear will cure ear
diseases.
157
also symbolically in his chest, because from there they emerge,
and there are they believed to grow like the branches of a
tree. Under the influence of ayahuasca and other psychotropic
plants the various kinds of phlegm are visible in their "real"
form. The magic chants are also visualized under the effect of
ayahuasca (synesthesia). The magic darts or virotes are yet
another manifestation of the spirits, the reason why we can, in
fact, talk about illness as spirit intrusion. The Amazonian
spirit world seems to be a world of constant transformation,
like its material shape of rapid metabolic change.
94
Rios (1962:28) observed that the use of ayahuasca was increa-
sing in Northeastern Peru.
163
from June to August. I have not been able to follow cases for a
long time, nor travel to areas where I could collect plants I
have only heard about. More field work should be carried out
among several types of practitioners, and in more areas of the
Peruvian Amazon. In my future work I will try to amend, as far
as I can, some of these shortcomings.
The Peruvian Amazon area, like the Amazon regions of all the
other countries, is experiencing great changes. The impact of
modern technology is very marked. The noise of cars, motorcy-
cles and electric drills disturb the Amazonian spiritual world.
"A los espíritus los aflige el ruido" (the spirits dislike the
noise), Don Sergio told me once. Although at times drowned by
the roar of jet planes crossing the night sky the magic chants
of vegetalistas still travel to places Western technology will
never reach -to the realm of spirits, a world accepting modern
wonders but encompassing the past and the future as well.
164
THE AYAHUASCA VINE
165
166
APPENDIXES
APPENDIX I
INDIAN TRIBES THAT USE OR USED BANISTERIOPSIS (alphabetic)
01 Achual (Jívaro)(Tessmann 1930)
02 Aguaruna (Jívaro)(Brown 1978: 121)
03 Amahuaca (syn. Sayaco, Impetineri) of Varadero (Pano)
(Tessmann 1930; Huxley & Capa 1965; Carneiro 1970:341; Fried-
berg 1965:112; Calvo 1981:217).
04 Anguteros (syn. Ancutere, Pioje)(Western Tukano) of Ecuador
(Villavicencio 1858; Spruce 1908:11:424; P. Naranjo 1983:78).
167
11 Canelos Quichua of Ecuador (Quichua)(Tessmann 1930; Whitten
1976: 153-159; 1985: 136-142).
12 Carijonas (syn. Karihona (Karaib), at present two isolated
groups, one at the headwaters of the Vaupés River, and other in
and near La Pedrera on the Brazilian border of Caquetá River
(Uscategui 1959: 298; Friedberg 1965: 64; Reinburg 1925: 22;
Domville-Fife 1924: 228-231).
170
APPENDIX 2
173
APPENDIX III
TRANSCRIPTION OF DON EMILIO'S ICAROS
Icaros No. 1
Don Emilio's first icaro
Icaro No. 5
Icaro to increase the ayahuasca visions
174
Icaro No. 2
175
177
Icaro No. 6
176
Icaro No. 4
177
Icaro No. 6
interruption
8"
178
Icaro No. 7
Icaro of the Brazilian
179
Icaro No. 8
180
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