Psychedelic Society of San Francisco

Reflections on Power and Sexual Ethics in the Ayahuasca World

November 10, 2012 · 2:00 PM
LGBT Community Center

Please join The Psychedelic Society of San Francisco as we welcome back anthropologist and Ayahuasca researcher, Bia Labate from South America.

Professor Labate will be presenting a new talk addressing the use of Ayahuasca entitled, "Reflections on Power and Sexual Ethics in the Ayahuasca World"

This presentation will combine her intellectual reflections and academic writings with her personal experiences in the field, including:

Power differentials between the shaman and participants
Ayahuasca and use by women
Gender issues in shamanic cultures
Historical accounts of seduction under the effects of Ayahuasca
Her fieldwork and own personal experiences
Cultural conflicts between Amazonians and foreigners regarding views on sex and gender
The role of cultural and informal controls, as well as communities

After the presentation there will be time to ask questions and share your own experiences on the topic.

SCHEDULE

Doors 2pm
Lecture 2:15pm
Q&A 3:00pm

The author's many books and other writings will be for sale after the Q&A.

DATE & LOCATION
Saturday Nov 10, 2012 @ 2pm
The LGBT Center, room 301 (Gallery)

SPEAKER BIO

Beatriz Caiuby Labate has a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the State University of Campinas (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, UNICAMP), Brazil. Her main areas of interest are the study of psychoactive substances, drug policies, shamanism, ritual, and religion. She is Visiting Professor at the Drug Policy Program of the Center for Economic Research and Education (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, CIDE - Región Centro) in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She is also Research Associate at the Institute of Medical Psychology, Heidelberg University, co-founder of the Nucleus for Interdisciplinary Studies of Psychoactives (NEIP), and editor of its site (http://www.neip.info). She is author, co-author, and co-editor of eight books, two with English translations, one journal special edition, and several peer-reviewed articles. For more information, see: http://bialabate.net/

Join or login to comment.

Ken

As always, Bia Labate gave a thought-provoking presentation, one that offered multiple perspectives on these issues. Unlike her previous talks, however, in this one Bia went beyond a strictly anthropological, research-based account to include some remarks on her personal experiences relating to power and sexual exploitation among ayahuasca practitioners. At the end she took an unequivocal stand on some points, but true to form, none of these would lend themselves to simple sound-bites. We are SO lucky to have Bia in our community!

0 · November 10