Guide The Secrets of the Amazon Shamans: Healing Traditions from South America

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• Shamans Of The Mighty Amazon The Dark Side of Ayahuasca

By undergoing these privations, the apprentice shaman frees the soul from the physical body and is able to fly to distant realms or ascend the heavens by means of a twisted ladder, making contact with spirits in animal, human, or other forms. From among the available pantheon, the novice seeks out a more intimate association with one or more spirits who serve as guardians or guides for the shaman from then on. In some cases, only people who receive a spiritual calling through dreams, visions or severe illness undergo a shamanic initiation.

In other traditions, especially those involving group consumption of pyschoactive plants, a substantial part of the population especially young men may undergo basic shamanic initiation rites, but only those who attain special visions or show exceptional virtuosity and healing skill go on to become master shamans. Shamanic songs of the Matsigenka of southeast Peru come directly from the spirits, and are difficult to translate or interpret, as they contain much onomatopoeic, archaic, and other non- ordinary language.

Most songs are not rehearsed, remembered, or fully intelligible in ordinary states of consciousness, and seem to derive their power largely from their acoustic properties augmented by hallucinogenic trance Shepard Among the Shipibo of the Ucayali River, shamanic songs in conjunction with hallucinogens generate a multifaceted synesthesia, or mixing of the senses.

The magical substance is an embodiment of the spirit helpers, and often materializes or is transformed during trance to be manipulated in special ways, serving as both a shield and a weapon, a medicine and a poison. Among the Jivaro of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the shaman gets his power from spirit helpers in the form of invisible darts tsentsak which are passed from master to apprentice and stored in the mouth, stomach, or elsewhere in the body Harner Sorcerers cause illness and death by throwing tsentsak at victims, while healing shamans use their own tsentsak to suck out, absorb, and return sorcery darts.

Though widely considered vital for the collective well-being, shamans and their spirit allies also occupy a position of moral ambiguity. Undoing sorcery requires an intimate understanding of the black arts, and often involves firing the pathogenic factor back at the perpetrator. Shamans, even those generally considered to be healers, are often prime suspects for sorcery accusations. In some cases, shamans may become targets for revenge killings by the families of sorcery victims Brown Mesoamerican Shamanism Shamanistic practices among contemporary indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America share many general similarities with those of South American societies; most of the circum-Caribbean indigenous groups who represented a direct link between the two culture areas were exterminated or assimilated.

As in South America, Mesoamerican shamans may receive an initiatory calling through dreams or severe illness, or enter the profession by choice. In other cases, candidates for shamanism may be identified through inheritance, by surviving a lightning strike, or due to auspicious omens or calendrical indications at the time of birth. As in South America, chanting and singing are a key part of healing ceremonies and the trance experience. Divination is an important function of Mesoamerican shamans, since their contact with the world of spirits allows them to see things that are hidden from ordinary vision.

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Huichol shamans are said to be able to capture the souls of sick people or the dead in quartz crystals, while Mayan shamans gaze into crystals or cast them as lots for purposes of divination see entries in this volume. The contemporary Mexican and Central American indigenous societies where shamanism has been studied tend to be larger, more sedentary and more hierarchical than their counterparts in lowland South America, though they are comparable in many ways to Andean societies.

The distinction between shamans and priests in such hierarchical Amerindian societies becomes somewhat artificial, as shaman-healers may also officiate as priests in religious festivals and life-cycle ceremonies. To a greater extent than in lowland South America, native Mesoamerican and Andean religion and shamanism are inextricably blended with Spanish folk Christianity, echoing with five centuries of political, economic, and religious colonization.

Indigenous shamans in Mexico and Guatemala as well as highland Peru and Bolivia often invoke native deities and Catholic saints in the same breath, and their syncretic personal altars and community churches blend indigenous and Christian symbols. For many societies, shamans are the only hope for curing certain categories of illness, especially those associated with sorcery, spirit attack, and soul-loss.

The examination, diagnosis, and curing of the patient often take place in prolonged, elaborate, group-attended rituals during which the shaman enters trance through drug use or other means, sings or performs dramatically, handles symbolically potent objects, and manipulates the patient.

Many groups distinguish between therapy that relies primarily on contact with the spirits i. Note that this distinction does not necessarily imply a dichotomy between supernatural vs. Sweet medicine consists of wild and cultivated herbs as well as animal glands usually administered to the patient by a family member, sometimes but not always in consultation with a specialized herbalist.

Bitter medicine is the esoteric domain of shamans who use bitter, hallucinogenic plants to enter trance and address the spiritual cause of illness. The Warao of the Orinoco delta make a similar distinction: male shamans belonging to three classes -- white shamans, black shamans, and priest-shamans -- perform elaborate rituals to treat illnesses caused by the attack of spirits known as hebu Wilbert Warao herbalists, exclusively women, use medicinal plants for treating illnesses caused by other means, and administer their medicines without ritual accoutrements.

Nonetheless, shamanism and herbal therapy overlap in some traditions. In a similar vein, urban shamans or vegetalistas of Amazonian Peru obtain information about herbal medicines from plant spirits, perceived in dreams and other altered states as doctors, teachers, or mother spirits Luna The Matsigenka shaman visits the realm of the guardian spirits to obtain new medicinal plant varieties and other cultigens Shepard Sacred plants used by shamans to enter trance often have mundane, medicinal uses as well.

Other Functions Though an important and sometimes primary role, diagnosis and healing of illness is not the only function of the shaman. Shamans may also interpret omens, predict the future, charm game animals, control the natural elements, preside over ceremonies, perceive events occurring at distant locations, and kill enemies at a distance. In Mesoamerican societies, shamans often occupy formal positions of political and religious authority. Though lowland South American indigenous societies tend to be less hierarchical, shamans there may also wield some degree of political power.

In diverse Central and South American cultures, powerful shamans are said to control the elements and other natural forces, and have the ability to change into jaguars, pumas, wolves, eagles, hummingbirds, or other animals. Shamanism is often intimately associated with hunting, and in some cases, agriculture. The deer hunt among the Huichol of Mexico is an important occasion laden with shamanistic rituals and symbolism, for the deer is a deity that relays messages between the shaman and the gods; Mayan shamans bless maize seeds at the time of planting and harvest see entries in this volume.

In many Amerindian societies, collective well-being represents cosmological and ecological balance that can be upset when humans exceed their bounds and Nature settles her scores. The shaman serves as a kind of ambassador who negotiates with the spirits and the forces of nature in order to restore or redefine the equilibrium of the cosmos-as- ecosystem. The Matsigenka believe shamans to be immortal, joining at the time of their physical death an invisible society of guardians who use magical powers and natural forces lightning, earthquakes, river dynamics to keep illness, demons, and the forces of evil at bay.

The mamas do not practice healing, and are thus not considered shamans in the strict sense. But echoing the practices of shamans elsewhere, mamas make frequent use of a narcotic preparation coca and pass through a long initiation period during which they live in darkness, mastering techniques of breathing and meditation that allow them to enter trance and see the true nature of reality beyond the distractions of ordinary vision Reichel-Dolmatoff Psychoactive Plant Use One striking aspect of Central and South American shamanism is the frequent use of hallucinogens, stimulants, narcotics, and other psychoactive substances for entering into contact with the spirit world.

Tobacco is mentioned in historical and modern accounts of native Central and South American religion and ritual in a myriad of forms, preparations, and modes of ingestion: snuffed, chewed, drunk, inhaled or swallowed as smoke, dripped in the nose, eaten as a concentrated paste, and even taken as an enema. Tobacco is especially important in the initiation of the novice shaman, who may consume huge doses in order to obtain an initiatory vision involving a spirit guide or helper.

For the Matsigenka, tobacco and shamanism are synonymous: the word for shaman, seripigari, means literally, "the one intoxicated by tobacco" Baer The dedicated shaman comes to crave tobacco as much as food, and may become so involved in the relationship with spirits that he withdraws from social affairs, eats little, and loses interest in sex Kensinger Brugmansia is essentially a domesticated Datura, and numerous species and varieties are cultivated by indigenous populations throughout Central and South America for medicinal, narcotic, and hallucinogenic properties.

Like the closely related Datura, Brugmansia contains potent bioactive and psychoactive tropane alkaloids. Widespread medicinal uses, for example setting broken bones and resolving difficult childbirth, recall similar biomedical applications of tropane alkaloids atropine and scopolamine. Depending on the dose, the narcotic effects may last for one night, several days, or many weeks; excessive doses can cause insanity or death Shepard Other nightshade relatives are used for various medicinal, divinatory, and psychoactive purposes and as admixtures for hallucinogenic plants Schultes and Raffauf ; Shepard Natural hallucinogenic compounds used ritually in Mesoamerican religions became a focus of scientific and popular attention beginning in the s, and many were appropriated for recreational use.

The Mazatec Indians of Oaxaca consider these mushrooms to be divine entities that travel to the earth on thunderbolts Wasson The sacred drink of the Aztecs, ololiuqui, was prepared from the seeds of a morning glory Turbina corymbosa containing hallucinogenic compounds closely related to LSD. The peyote cactus Lophophora williamsii contains dozens of psychoactive alkaloids including mescaline. The Huichol, Tarahumara, and other indigenous groups of the deserts of Northern Mexico gather and consume peyote in communal rituals, and their shamans use peyote to gain access to aspects of knowledge and power not attainable through other means.

For the Huichol in particular, not only the cactus itself but also the mythical landscape of the peyote desert stand at the center of religion, cosmology and spirituality Furst Shamans of the northwest Amazon use the tryptamine-laden red resin of several Virola species, trees in the nutmeg family, to prepare hallucinogenic powders for purposes of healing and divination.

The Bora and Witoto of Peru ingest it in the form of small pellets while the Maku of Brazil consume the resin directly. During trance, a succession of spirits hekura enter the chest and take possession of the ipena user, causing him to dance and gesticulate in ways specific to the possessing spirit. Anadenanthera peregrina also known as Piptadenia peregrina is a tree in the legume family whose seeds contains tryptamine alkaloids much like those found in Virola resin. Like Virola, it is used to prepare a hallucinogenic snuff by shamans of Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil.

Restricted in its natural habitat to open grasslands, savannas, and dry forests of the Venezuela-Brazil border area, it appears to have been cultivated in the past throughout a much larger area Schultes and Raffauf In most accounts, the pounded liana is boiled with the leaves of one or more species of Psychotria, a shrub in the coffee family, among other admixtures. The principle hallucinogenic component is not provided by the Banisteriopsis itself but rather by Psychotria, containing demethyl tryptamine DMT , a potent natural hallucinogen.

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Beta-carbolines in Banisteriopsis potentiate the effects of DMT which otherwise would be inactive via oral administration. Like peyote, the San Pedro cactus Trichocereus pachanoi of highland and coastal Peru contains mescaline and other psychoactive alkaloids. Little is known about how San Pedro was used in ancient religious or shamanistic practice. Despite the extinction or cultural assimilation of coastal native civilizations and four centuries of persecution by the Catholic Church, vestiges of the ancient cult seem to have survived in the practice of urban shaman-healers or curanderos in northern Peru Sharon The coca plant Erythroxylum coca , the notorious botanical source of cocaine, was held sacred by the Inca, whose empire once stretched along the Andes from modern- day Chile to Colombia.

Today, shamans of the Andean region chew coca leaves mixed with alkali-providing ash or lime in order to facilitate meditation or trance when healing and performing other ceremonies. Dried coca leaves are also cast by shamans and priests for purposes of divination. Coca cultivation spread from the Andes to the heart of the Amazon basin, where the plant has been used by lowland indigenous peoples for ritual and social purposes perhaps for centuries.

The discovery of LSD and the rediscovery of psychoactive plants in Amerindian religions piqued a growing scientific and popular interest in hallucinogens, provoking a revolution in anthropological and psychological understandings of shamanism. Transported into a trance where the supernatural seemed natural, I realized that anthropologists, including myself, had profoundly underestimated the importance of the drug in affecting native ideology. Although the use of narcotics and hallucinogens is conspicuous among Central and South American shamans, it is by no means universal.

Instead, they receive their call to the healing profession through a severe illness during which an animal appears, offering healing secrets and other special powers Melatti Other Observations The data from Central and South America help debunk a number of popular misconceptions about shamanism. Contrary to the notion that shamans are only found in archaic hunting societies, shamanism in Central and South America has been documented in a wide range of social systems, including hunting, agricultural, and urban societies in ancient and modern times.

While some researchers consider trance and spirit possession to be distinct phenomena, Amerindian shamans do not appear to honor such a distinction. The distinction between shaman and priest is also dubious in some South American and most Central American cases. Contrary to the notion of shamans as marginal members of society, shamans in many Central and South American groups have been found to wield considerable political power. Shamans are often rewarded in the case of a successful cure, and may be afforded a degree of social prestige even within egalitarian, small-scale societies.

On the other hand, shamans who fail in their cures or predictions may be discredited or, especially in the case of suspected sorcerers, put to death. Yet in some situations, suspected sorcerers may be afforded a certain degree of respect and leeway so as to avoid provoking their wrath. Change and Continuity Beginning with the arrival of Columbus and continuing through the present, the conquest and colonization of the Americas by Europeans has unleashed warfare, epidemic disease, territorial dispossession, and forced cultural assimilation on native societies, leading to the extinction of many, the assimilation of others, and the marginalization and profound transformation of the surviving groups.

Among the many aspects of indigenous society affected by these processes, shamanism, religion, and traditional healing are among the hardest hit. Throughout the 20th century, Catholic and Evangelical Protestant missionaries working with native communities have followed the example of their 16th century forebears and vigorously discouraged shamanism and other manifestations of traditional healing and religion.

Despite such threats, shamanism has survived and even thrived in many native American societies.

More than just a therapeutic alternative, shamanism and traditional healing are an expression of indigenous religion, values, and world view, and echo with five centuries of cultural and spiritual resistance. Contemporary Indian shamans of Mexico and Guatemala combine Christian and indigenous elements into a unique and dynamic body of belief and practice. Indigenous federations throughout the Peruvian Amazon have promoted programs to revitalize traditional medicine, resulting in a cultural renaissance of herbal therapy and ayahuasca-based shamanistic healing Alexiades and Lacaze Shamanism has flourished in many South American cities and towns, where urban curanderos combine indigenous and Western cosmologies and ancient and modern symbols into a complex, contemporary brand of ecstatic healing.

At the same time, native hallucinogens and indigenous as well as not-so-indigenous shamans have become a significant attraction for esoteric and spiritual tourism. Glenn H. In the following regional entries, the term Central America is used in this latter, more inclusive sense. Meso-America, a term used frequently by anthropologists, is generally restricted to southern Mexico and western Central America where the Maya civilizations once flourished.

High mountains of relatively recent origin are found in the Sierra Madre ranges of central Mexico, the volcanic highlands extending from Chiapas in southern Mexico through the Central American isthmus, and the mighty Andes mountain chain forming a backbone along the entire western extension of South America from northern Colombia to Tierra del Fuego in southern Chile. Central and South America were the last continents to be colonized by humans during the late Pleistocene. Traditional archeological estimates dated the arrival of humans to South America at no earlier than 8, years ago, but recent, somewhat controversial evidence dates a human occupation in Chile in southernmost South America at more than 12, years old.

If confirmed, such early dates would help explain the tremendous cultural and linguistic diversity found especially in native South America, where thousands of languages and dialects have been documented and as many as distinct linguistic families have been proposed. No precise information exists concerning the human population of the Americas prior to the Spanish Conquest. Estimates for the combined indigenous of population of North, Central and South America at the time of conquest vary from 8 million to million. Estimates for the Inca Empire western South America alone vary from 3 to 32 million.

The current population and cultural heritage of Central and South America reflects five centuries of conflict, coexistence and mixing between several distinct and internally diverse peoples: the native inhabitants of the Americas and their descendents, often referred to as Amerindians; people of Iberian Spanish, Portuguese origins who made up the vast majority of the initial European colonization; enslaved West Africans and their descendents, brought mostly to northeastern South America especially Brazil and the Caribbean beginning in the early 16th century to provide plantation labor when enslaved Amerindians proved unable to resist disease and the privations of slavery; and finally, overseas immigrants of diverse European and Asian origins who began arriving in large numbers in the 19th century when former Spanish colonies achieved independence.

Hierarchical state religions practiced in pre-Colombian kingdoms and empires such as the Aztec, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Inca were persecuted and extinguished early in the Conquest. Persecution of indigenous religions was especially severe during the Spanish Inquisition, but has continued through the present notably through the practices of Christian missionaries of diverse sects operating in remote, Amerindian-populated areas. The Jesuit Order was especially prominent in its missionary work with Indians during the early Conquest, promoting indigenous languages such as Tupi-Guarani as the lingua franca for Iberian colonies.

But the Jesuits were expelled from Spain, Portugal and all American colonies in the mids, and Franciscan and Dominican Orders came to dominate missionary work in the indigenous-populated hinterlands. In the 20th century, fundamentalist Protestant sects greatly expanded their missionary work with Indians as well as urban peoples of Latin America, aggressively competing over the conquest of souls with established Catholic traditions.