Ayahuasca Lodges in the Peruvian Amazon: A Valid Alternative for Ethno-development?

Abstract

The purpose of this text is to understand how ayahuasca tourism affects local communities from an ethno-development and postcolonial studies approach. Our extensive ethnographic field research in Northeastern Peru has led us to encompass a view in which humans and plants establish complex relationships. In this text, we criticize the way Western ontologies situate plants as objects for consumption. The history of plant exploitation in the Amazon is long and it starts at the beginning of the twentieth century with the Rubber Boom. Presently, during the first decade of our twenty-first century, the Peruvian Amazon has become a new spiritual Mecca for Western tourists seeking enlightenment and healing. The sudden arrival of tourists caused a significant impact on local cultures and economies. Indigenous, mestizo and foreigner entrepreneurs embraced the opportunity to market the knowledge of medicinal and magic plants as a service from the Indigenous cultures. In this context, ayahuasca lodges emerged as healing spaces dedicated to organizing ceremonies with the psychoactive beverage as well as purges and diets with other medicinal plants. With the compilation of narratives and the construction of case studies, we intend to portray the subtle social dynamics between local and foreigner working to build their practices “between worlds”. Each group engages the global trends of ayahuasca spirituality through their own particular ways of connecting with plants. The chapter ends with a reflection about the impact of ayahuasca tourism on the protection and promotion of Indigenous and mestizo autonomy, advocating the strengthening of the postcolonial and ethno-developmental perspectives in the studies concerning ayahuasca.