Ayahuasca, experiências e neoxamanismo: um estudo etnográfico junto ao Grupo Xamânico Caminho do Arco-Íris – Pelotas/RS

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the beliefs and practices of the Shamanic Group Caminho do Arco-Íris participants, which uses the Amazonian psychoactive substance commonly known as ayahuasca in their rituals. Understanding that these monthly meetings are constituted as privileged moments for contemporary religiosity analysis, as well as for the understanding of the New Age and ayahuasca networks conformation. These networks are conformed both in Pelotas as in its wider connections, through the trajectory of participants by other groups and locations. It aims understanding the phenomena involved in the rituals in which the ayahuasca is consecrated as well as learning the beliefs and practices of participants through the narratives of their experiences. In doing so, dealing with this dynamic, I have been following the organization and growth of the group for more than two years, in order to collaborate with the anthropological reflection in this field, that includes the studies of psychoactive substances, cultural expressions and social movements: as the ayahuasca, the neoshamanism and the New Age.