Kent State University, Department of Anthropology, 750 Hilltop Drive, Rm. 221 Lowry, Kent, OH 44242, USA.
Xiamen University, Department of Anthropology and Ethnology, 422 Siming South Rd, Siming District, Xiamen, Fujian Province, 361005 , China.
Soc Sci Med. 2019 Oct;239:112532. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112532. Epub 2019 Aug 31.
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive plant mixture used in ceremonial contexts throughout Western Amazonia. Its use has expanded globally in recent decades and become popular among westerners who travel to the Peruvian Amazon in increasing numbers to experience its reportedly healing effects. Through a review of relevant literature on Amazonian shamanism, combined with the authors' ethnographic data from shamanic tourism contexts of the Peruvian Amazon and neo-shamanic networks in Australia (collected between 2003 and 2015 - with a total of 227 people interviewed or surveyed, including healers and participants), we demonstrate that purging has been integral to the therapeutic use of ayahuasca across and beyond Amazonia. Therapeutic approaches to ayahuasca point to combined modulations of the gut and the mind, and the bodily and the social, that are expressed through discourse about healing and the body. Relating ethnographic evidence to recent scientific studies that connect the gut to emotional health, we do not approach the gut as merely biological ground on which cultural meanings are imposed, but rather as simultaneously physical and cultural. Based upon our analysis, we argue that ayahuasca purging should not be dismissed as a drug side effect or irrational belief but reconsidered for its potential therapeutic effects.
安非他命是一种在整个亚马逊西部地区的仪式背景下使用的具有致幻作用的植物混合物。近几十年来，它的使用在全球范围内不断扩大，越来越多的西方人前往秘鲁亚马逊地区体验其据称的治疗效果，从而变得流行起来。通过对亚马逊萨满教相关文献的回顾，结合作者在秘鲁亚马逊萨满旅游背景下和澳大利亚新萨满网络中的民族志数据（于 2003 年至 2015 年期间收集，共采访或调查了 227 人，包括治疗师和参与者），我们证明，在整个亚马逊地区及其以外，净化一直是使用安非他命进行治疗的一个组成部分。对安非他命的治疗方法指向对肠道和大脑、身体和社会的综合调节，这些方法通过关于治疗和身体的论述来表达。将民族志证据与最近将肠道与情绪健康联系起来的科学研究联系起来，我们不是将肠道仅仅视为文化意义施加的生物学基础，而是将其视为同时具有物理和文化的性质。基于我们的分析，我们认为，不应该将安非他命的净化作用视为药物的副作用或非理性的信仰而不予考虑，而应该重新考虑其潜在的治疗效果。
