Accidental Environmentalism: Nature and Cultivated Affect in European Neoshamanic Ayahuasca Consumption

Existing research demonstrates a positive connection between psychedelics and increased nature relatedness. Enhanced affective ties toward nature are widely framed as being built into the pharmakon itself, and the relevance of experiences remains little understood. This paper turns to neoshamanic ay...

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Auteur principal: Harms, Arne (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: American Anthropological Association [2021]
Dans: Anthropology of consciousness
Année: 2021, Volume: 32, Numéro: 1, Pages: 55-80
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Europe / Néopaganisme / Chamanisme / Ayahuasca / Expérience psychédélique / Sentiment de la nature
RelBib Classification:AG Vie religieuse
AZ Nouveau mouvement religieux
NCG Éthique de la création; Éthique environnementale
ZA Sciences sociales
Sujets non-standardisés:B nature relatedness
B Rituel
B Europe
B Ayahuasca
B Neoshamanism
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Résumé:Existing research demonstrates a positive connection between psychedelics and increased nature relatedness. Enhanced affective ties toward nature are widely framed as being built into the pharmakon itself, and the relevance of experiences remains little understood. This paper turns to neoshamanic ayahuasca ceremonies in Europe, exploring the way specialists and attendants refer to nature in speech and performance. I argue that ritual framings performed during these ceremonies provide fertile ground for affective ties to emerge through substance-induced experiences. I trace such framings by exploring how medicine and healers are being coded; how specific materialities are rendered meaningful; and how individual experiences are discussed at such retreats. I argue that even while participants prioritize individual healing, personal development, or the satisfaction of psychonautical curiosity, environmentalism appears to be anchored by the proceedings themselves. Thus, this paper opens up for analysis ceremonial substance use as a contact zone where coherence is produced intersubjectively.
ISSN:1556-3537
Contient:Enthalten in: Anthropology of consciousness
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/anoc.12130