Modern psychoactive experiences. The development of an internationalized Peruvian neo-shamanism
In this paper, I analyze the internationalized Peruvian shamanic landscape, a landscape shaped today by what I call “neo-shamanic appropriations”. These are the result of meetings between new age and local shamanisms, between European, South and North American travelers and shamans. However, the Peruvian shamanic landscape is older–I wouldn’t want to make an estimate–as evidenced by the sharing of ritual, medicinal and psychotropic plants, and the names of those plants. In other words, the so-called “shamanic tourism” does not cause but contribute to a diffuse process. To show this, I support my analysis with the following descriptions: first, a psychotropic plant (ayahuasca) and its usages; second, the Awajun shamanism (Jivaro linguistic family, Peru); third, the shamanic festivals and other unusual rituals organized in America or Europe. Finally, I discuss the encounter and its intelligence, through the understanding of what is playing out in modern psychoactive experiences.