Re: Ayahuasca tea

sam cogdell (cogdell@KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU)
Thu, 7 Dec 1995 16:21:56 -0600

There's probably more literature on ayahuasca/yage/banisteriopsis use in
Amazonia than anyone could possibly read, but if you just want to know
what it is and how it works, you could check out Michael Harner's now
dusty description ("Common Themes in South American Yage Experiences") in
his Hallucinogens and Shamanism; also chapters by Clausio Naranjo and
Kenneth Kensinger, Maria Dobkin de Rios, and Gerald Weiss in the same
volume.
I don't know how anthropologists feel about Michael Taussig these
days, but chapters 24-25 of Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man. A
Study in Terror and Healing both deal with the author's and others' yage
experiences in Colombia. You might also check out Norman Whitten's books
on Ecuador, Sacha Runa: Ethnicity and Adaptation and Sicuanga Runa:
The Other Side of Development in Amazonian Ecuador for bibliographical
leads. As for the California connection, I'd be interested to know how
that came about, too.

On Thu, 7 Dec 1995, D. R. Palm wrote:

> Hello.
> Has anyone any information concerning current use of Ayahuasca tea? I
> understand that Ayahuasca is a vine plant, that some part of the plant is
> mixed with some part of the cawa plant to make a tea that is described as
> "meditative". I have been told that it is used by the Jivaro and Conibo
> Indians of Ecuador/Peru - along the Rio Ucayali drainage. And that it is a
> current favorite in California. Anyone familiar with it?
> Thanks.
> Laura L-P
>