banisteriopsis witchcraft medicine peru

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Banisteriopsis in Witchcraft and Healing Activities in Iquitos, PeruAuthor(s): Marlene Dobkin De RosSource: Economic Botany, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1970), pp. 296-300Published by: Springeron behalf of New York Botanical Garden PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4253160.

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Banisteriopsis in Witchcraft and Healing Activitiesin Iquitos, Peru'MARLENEDOBKIN DE RIOS

The use of hallucinogens in healing hasreceived fairly wide analysisin non-Westernsocieties, but only occasionallyhas referencebeen made to the use of such substancesforpurposesof witchcraft (Schultes 1967). Asthe resultof a year'sstudyof folkpsychother-apy with ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis pp.),2the principalactive constituent of which isharmine, the author gathered data amongthe urban poor in an Amazon city slumcalled Belen, in Iquitos,Peru. Materialcon-cerning the use of the woody vine, aya-huasca, both in healing and bewitching ac-tivities forms the basis for the followingdiscussion.Drug-adjunctedceremonialactivities areconducted by specializedhealerscalled aya-huasqueros,who assemble men and womenfrom among urban poor as well as middle-class segments of the community. Thesesessions are held two or three times a weekin jungle clearings at the edge of the city,where both patients and healers drink aninfusionmade from boiling the vine severalhours. The drinkis often mixed with addi-tives such as tohe (Datura suaveolens),3orchacruna (B. Rusbyana)4 on occasion, atobacco that causes slight dizziness (Nico-tiana Tabacum?)5 may be smoked during

'Marlene Dobkin de Rios, California StateCollege, Fullerton, Califomia. Submitted forpublication 10 February 1970.2 Friedberg (1965) has identified severaldifferent species of Banisteriopsisused in Ama-zonian healing, as B. Caapi, B. inebrians, B.quitensis, and B. Rusbyana. At the time of thiswriting, voucherspecimenswere being collectedby 0. Rlos Reategui for identification. Thisfield study was conducted from June 1968-May1969, aided by a grant from the FoundationsFund for Research in Psychiatry (in collabora-tion with 0. Rios Reategui) G67-395. A debtof gratitude is due to Dr. C. A. Sequim, ormerdirector of the Institutes of Social Psychiatry,National University of San Marcos, Lima.

3 Identified by Lemlij 1965.4Identified by der Marderosian1968.5 Identified by Naranjo 1968.

the session. The healer's ritual activity in-cludes exorcising evil spirits that are be-lieved to have entered the sickperson'sbody,perhaps lanced through the air by an evilwitch. The healermay blow tobaccosmokeover his patient's body or suck at painfulparts of it. Special ayahuascasongs (oftenin Quechua) are whistled and sung throughthe severalhours of drug intoxication. In aseries of articles emerging from the year'sstudy (Dobkin de Rlos 1970a, c), culturallydelineated syndromes of illness which at-tribute causality to evil willing of eitherneighbors or relatives has been described.Ayahuasca causes profoundalterations nconsciousness,ncludingchangesin time andspace perception,rapid mood change, syn-esthesia, de-personalizationand increasedsuggestibility. Ayahuascaalso brings on astate of immobility and incoordinationofmovement, as well as nausea, occasionalheavy vomitting and frequent diarrhea,thelatter symptomsmarkinginitial experiencesfor many. These side effects, however, arehighly valued by both patients and healerswho believe that the purge (as ayahuascais called) acts as a cleansingagent thathelpsrestorea sick personto health.One of the most interesting aspects ofayahuascause is in bewitchingactivities. AsHerskovitz pointed out long ago (1946),Western dualistic categories of good andevil often do not properlyconvey non-West-ern world views concerningblack and whitemagic. For example, although most aya-huasquerosare called upon to heal patientswho believe that they have been bewitched,there is an element of moral arbitrationonthe part of the healer who may and oftenclaims to use counter-magicto return theevil to its perpetrator n orderto relieve hispatient's symptoms. Easy categorizationofgood and evil does not adequatelydeal withthe subtleties of ayahuascause amongPeru-vian mestizo populationsin the rain forestregion. Many healers will report that theyuse the purge only for socially valued ends:

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DE RIOS: BANISTERIOPSIS 297i.e., to cure illness. Nonetheless, they oftenrecount cases of people who have sought outtheir help to inflict evil upon others againstwhom they might bear a grudge, envy ordislike. Although most healers will denyever using the hallucinogen for evil ends,a class of reputed witches exist, which hasreceived treatment only in literature andfolklore (Calvo de Araujo 1963; Hermandez1958, 1960), with any systematic anthropo-logical study completely lacking. Thesewitches (called brujos) specialize in usingthe purge purely for evil ends. Unlike aya-huasqueros who heal, these witches collecttheir fee in advance and not after the pa-tients seems to be getting better. Thewitches use both psychic means andmedicines (plants that kill) to effect evilends. Such plants may be slipped secretlyinto a beverage at a party or made to fallupon the skin of a victim when he passes asecluded spot. Sometimes, one is told ofthe series of spirits controlled by witcheswho are believed to be able to inflict harmupon others.Before looking in greater detail at aya-huasca's use in bewitching activities, it isuseful to discuss a recent study of witch-craft beliefs by Kennedy (1970), whopointed up the similarity of such world-widebelief systems and paranoid delusional states.Kennedy sees witchcraft ideas and practiceslargely the product of individual psycho-pathology, which has been systematized andinstitutionalized by members of diversegroups. He postulated that the content andstructure of many such witchcraft systemsare similar to psychopathological syndromesthat are being discussed in social psychiatricliterature today. Despite the danger of us-ing psychiatric nomenclature in ethnocentriclabeling of groups whose total range ofpersonality types is wide and complex, Ken-nedy asks for a reopening of Ruth Benedict'sthinking (1934). Although Kennedy wouldnot endorse the notion that a given societycould exist if all its members were psychotic,there is good empirical and theoretical rea-son to suppose that neuroses and otheremotionally disordered behavior patterns(which Kennedy sees as a product of earlysocialization and later stress) can be institu-tionalized and regularly produced in mem-bers of a society, with all other personality

types having to functionin termsof the pre-dominant pattern.Kennedy has delineated eight generaliz-able characteristicsinkingwitchcraftbeliefsand paranoiddelusions as follows (Cameron1959).

1. Impossiblecontent,e.g., mysticalcau-sation2. Unshakeableconvictionand certainty3. Imperviousnessto disconfirming ex-periences4. Suspiciousness and great fear of ex-ternal threat5. Kernels of truth, e.g., real existenceof hostility6. Pseudo-communityof real and imag-ined persons7. Closed logical system which explainsand interpretsevents8. Mechanismsof projectionas a domi-nant mode of defending againstanxiety.To test this hypothesis, initial data onayahuascause in bewitching activities willbe examined. Elsewhere, data on socio-

economic conditions n thisrainforestregionhave been described (Dobkin de Rios 1969,1970a), but it is clear that interpersonalrelationsamongthe urban poor are anxiety-laden and filled with great tension andstrife. This is especially true in terms ofeconomic problems confronting slum resi-dents, as farming lands become scarce,natural resources, such as fish and gamefast disappear with indiscriminateuse andas inadequate land reformprogramsor gov-ernmental aid in scientific farming remaininsufficient for present needs. The dailylife of the destitute poor, living in some20 different slum settlements throughoutIquitos, shows high incidences of socialpathology, includingfamily disorganization,abandonment of children, and prostitution.The belief that evil maliceexists on the partof othersis widespread, and neitherrelativenor neighbor is exempt from the pervasivebelief that, at bottom, people are enviousand jealousof othersand wish them harm.Lookingat the data available on the useof ayahuasca to bewitch and harm,we findsome interestingparallels to the eight pointdelusional system cited above. The impos-sible content or mysticalcausationtakes on



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298 ECONOMIC BOTANYa particularhue with the use of ayahuasca.Under the effects of the drug, many peoplereport that they have flown through theair and seen and experienced ephemeralspiritualbeings, some of whom they claimto control for ulteriorpurposes. Some aya-huasquerosare believed to be able invisiblyto leave their bodies and enter those of theirenemies in order to inflict incurabledisease.The name ayahuasca in Quechua, meansvine of the spirits or dead ones, and itattests to the historicalreportsof this nature.There is some indication that increase inheart beat coming aboutfrom ayahuascausecan lead to feelings of flying (ClaudioNaranjo, pers. comm.), although the dis-tance between the thought and the activitymay be indeed impossibleto bridge. As faras the unshakeableconvictionand certaintyare involved, many conversationswith aya-huasquerosreport the use of the drug forsocially determined positive ends: healingand moral arbitration,when evil magic isreturnedto its perpetrator.AlthoughI hadoccasion to see several failuresoccurin heal-ing activities, ayahuasqueroswould neveradmit to this. They rather attributed anysuch possible evidence to incomplete ritualobservance (i.e., salt, lard or sweets mighthave been ingested against the healer's in-structions.) One can only imagine how awitch would justifyhis failuresto his clientshould he be unsuccessful in causing thedeath or diseaseof an intended victim. Oneshould note, however, that sorcery plays avital part in witchcraft activities, as mostindividualsinvolved in such harmfulactivi-ties are first rate herbalists, grow their ownplants and know their potent toxic proper-ties which can cause all kinds of harm.Goldman (1963), for example, discussedsome 36 different poisonous plants usedby the Cubeo of the northwestAmazon.The imperviousnessto disconfirmingex-perience also would be confirmed by theforegoing. Suspiciousnessand fear of ex-ternal threat did characterizemy few en-counters with reputed witches in Belen.Once, an alleged witch overreactedin thepresenceof my colleague (a psychiatrist)ata magical session, when the reputed witchinadvertentlyhad not been advised that mycolleague was a medical doctor. The re-puted witch came to see me the next day

to accuse me of having tried to put one overon him. I must admit he watched my housequite carefully, and I feared that his suspi-cion of police action initiated by me wouldlead to dire results (such as being poisoned).Kennedy's postulate of kernels of truthpresent in delusional systems would seem tobe verified from the ayahuasca data. It istrue that many medical doctors, quite closein time and space to folk healing and harm-ing practices, regard such healers as com-petition and are not at all adverse to swear-ing out police complaints against them. Inparticular, this occurs when attempts at be-witching are reported to the police or amedical practioner. One healer continuallyavoided his home when my colleague and Ifirst visited him, since he knew that one ofus was a doctor and, therefore, a possibleenemy.As far as the pseudo-community of realand imagined persons goes, my data seemto differ from those of some social anthro-pologists, like Middleton (1963), who seewitchcraft activity as merely a system ofbeliefs, having little if any locus in reality.Although many of the data are inferentialand serendipitous, people will, in confi-dence, point out a witch to whom a relativehas actually paid money, in order to causeharm. In addition, all ayahuasqueros whowere queried about healing activities, men-tioned that people often sought their ser-vices to cause harm to others. Some healersstate that they are good Christians or moralpersons and thus refuse to undertake suchactivities. However, these clients do manageto find others to oblige them. The pseudo-community of imagined persons is oftendiscussed by healers and informants alikeand is believed to comprise a series ofanimistic spirits who are controlled bywitches and at whose bidding will inflictevil upon others. Some of these spirits arebelieved to reside in the forest itself, whileothers are said to live under the river ordeep within lagoons.The belief in witchcraft activity, sus-tained by the powerful hallucinogen, aya-huasca, would appear to be a closed logicalsystem and has certain sustaining mecha-nisms. Given acculturative forces in the pres-ence of 20th Century medicine, when aperson becomes ill, he may seek help from



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DE RIOS: BANISTERIOPSIS 299a sanitario, a badly trained medical aide,who administerspenicillin and other anti-biotic injections. Since there is little caretaken about the type of medicine used orhow it is administered, many people be-come worse after seeing the sanitario. In-formants often cite this worsening of thepatient as proof that one is bewitched,since the city medicine will not work undersuch magical circumstancesof bewitchment.It is at this point that a counter-magicianis sought to returnthe evil to its source oforigin. The use of ayahuasca is seen asmagically important in terms of its visualhallucinogenic effects, since these visionsare interpreted by the healer in identifyingthe originatorof the evil. The patient'spic-torial or symbolic representationsare dis-cussed with the healer, whose role it is tore-establish equilibrium in the realm ofhealth. The ayahuascaplant is seen to pos-sess a jealous guardianspirit, who can bepropitiatedby a certain diet regimen. Manyexplanationscan be cited to show how aya-huasca healing occurs (Dobkin de Rios1970c), but heightened suggestabilitydur-ing the overwhelmingsensoryoverloadmaybe a major actorin the person'sattendingtothe ayahuasquero'sounseling activity.Eveninferencesconcerning witches' acknowledg-ment of failure would no doubt bring forthexplanationsof lack of ritual performanceon the part of the client who did not recitethe proper spell, or perhaps, that counter-magic was too powerful to permit the in-tended harmingof the victim.Finally, in terms of the mechanisms ofprojectionas the dominantmode of defend-ing against anxiety, the above discussionshould point up to a limited degree thenature of social and economic problemsthat haunt the footsteps of many slum resi-dents and the great amount of interpersonalstrife. In many ways, beliefs in witches andevil-willing correspondto Spiro'snotion ofculturally constituted defense mechanisms(1967:78-9), which enable people to dealwith real problemsof survivaland stability.An examinationof field dataon ayahuascahas shown that one cannot examine the useof hallucinogenic healing in the PeruvianAmazon region without a complementaryanalysis of witchcraft beliefs and activities.

This paper has attempted to remedy thegreat neglect in the use of hallucinogenssuch as Banisteriopsisto bewitch. Usingdata on ayahuascaand bewitching activity,a test was made of Kennedy's hypothesisthat relates witchcraft beliefs to paranoiddelusionalstates: the majorpremises inkingthese two phenomenahas been confirmedbythe data. It is hoped that testing of thishypothesiswith future field data will pointup some importantareas of hallucinogenicuse in witchcraft activity throughout thePeruvianrainforestregion.

AcknowledgmentI wish to express my sincere thanks toDr. Alan R. Beals, Universityof Califomia,Riversidefor his valuable commentson anearlierversion of this article.

Literature CitedBenedict, Ruth. 1934. Patterns of Culture.New YorkCalvo de Araujo,Cesar. 1963. Paiche, novelaAmazonica. Arequipa, Peru.Cameron,Norman. 1959. ParanoidConditionsand Paranoia. Handbook of Psychiatry,Vol. 1, New York.der Marderosian,A. H. et. al. 1968. Nativeuse and occurrence of N-N-Dimethyl-tryptamine in the leaves of Banisteri-opsis rusbyana. American Journal ofPharmacy, Vol. 140:5:137-147, Sept.-October.Dobkin de Rios, Marlene. 1969. La cultura dela pobreza y la m'agiade amor: un smn-

drome urbano en la selva Peru'ana.America Indigena XXIX: 1, January.- 1970a. Ayahuasca,the healing vine.in M. Harner, (ed.) Hallucinogens andShamanism (forthcoming).. 1970b. A note on the use of aya-huascaamongurban Mestizopopulationsin the Peruvian Amazon. AmericanAnthropologist, October (in press).- 1970c. Ayahuasca,the healing hal-lucinogen. Book in preparation.Friedberg, Claudine. 1965. Des Banisteriopsisutilises comme drogue en Amerique deSud. Journal d'AgricultureTropicale etde Botanique Appliquee, XII: 9-12Sept.-Dec., Paris.Goldman,Irving. 1963. The Cubeo. Indians ofthe Northwest Amazon. Illinois Studiesin Anthropology, No. 2, Urbana, Ill.



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300 ECONOMIC BOTANYHernandez, Arturo D. 1958. Sangama. Lima.. 1960. Bubinzana, la cancion magicadel Amazonas. Lima.Herskovitz,Melville. 1946. Man and his works.

New York.Kennedy, John G. 1970. The psychosocial dy-namics of witchcraft systems. Inter-national Journal of Social Psychiatry(in press).Lemlij, Moises et. al. 1965. Del uso de psico-dislepticos en la selva Peruiana.In Peru,Sanidad de Gobiemo y Policia, pp. 195-207.Middleton, John. 1963. Witchcraft in EastAfrica. New York.

Naranjo, Plutarco. 1968. Plantas psicotropicasde America y bioquimica de la mente.Paper read at the 5th Latin AmericanCongress of Psychiatry, Bogota, Colom-bia.Schultes, Richard E. 1967. The place of ethno-botany in the ethnopharmacologic earchfor psychotomimetic drugs. In D. Efron(ed.) Ethnopharmacologic Search forPsychoactive Drugs. Public Health Ser-vice Publication No. 1645, U. S. Dept.of Health, Education andWelfare,Wash-ington, DC.Spiro, Melford. 1967. Burmese Supernatural-ism. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.


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