Book Launching: Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond

Please join us for the book launch of Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond with editors Beatriz Labate and Clancy Cavnar and moderator Jorge N. Ferrer, PhD of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

There will be an exhibition of Clancy Cavnar's art and an exhibition of the book content by Beatriz Labate, followed by a collective debate mediated by Jorge Ferrer.

This book discusses how Amerindian epistemology and ontology related to certain indigenous shamanic rituals of the Amazon spread to Western societies, and how indigenous, mestizo, and cosmopolitan cultures have dialogued with, and transformed, these forest traditions. The collection also focuses on how shamanic rituals have been spreading and developing in post-traditional urban contexts throughout the world. Special attention is given to ayahuasca, a psychoactive drink usually composed of two plants: the vine Banisteriopsis caapi and leaves of the Psychotria viridis bush. Ayahuasca use has extended beyond its Amazonian origin and instigated a variety of legal and cultural responses in the countries it has spread to.

http://www.bialabate.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Launch-Oxford-University-Press-CIIS-October.pdf