{"title":"Facing Janus: Reflections on Social and Political Change","authors":"Nicole Torres, Andrew Gurevich","doi":"10.1111/anoc.12132","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.12132","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article is based on a conversation between the president of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness and the editor-in-chief of its journal. The aim of this conversation is threefold: (1) to engage a broader audience within the field of the anthropology of consciousness, (2) to discuss the recent history of the organization and its current direction, and (3) to recognize why concrete efforts toward a practice of decolonization is essential to maintaining the relevance of an anthropology of consciousness.</p>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/anoc.12132","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49443744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"People Made of Glass: The Collapsing Temporalities of Chronic Conditions","authors":"Ida Vandsøe Madsen","doi":"10.1111/anoc.12131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/anoc.12131","url":null,"abstract":"<p>An increasing number of people worldwide are living with chronic conditions that have an aspect of bodily fragility as part of the condition or as an effect of treatment. In this article, I explore the temporal experience of bodily fragility and the particularities of consciousness states among people with the chronic condition osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) in Denmark. My aim is threefold. First, my goal is to give an insight into life with OI, a rare and rarely studied condition. Second, I shed light on bodily fragility, a theme that lives in the shadows of other analytical foci in anthropology. Third, I will contribute to the anthropological understanding of the connection among body, physical environment, and consciousness. I argue that the lifeworlds of people with OI are haunted by mental and bodily memories and fearful future scenarios, which makes the past and the future collapse into the present.</p>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/anoc.12131","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"137699866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial: The Matters that Haunt Us","authors":"Nicole Torres","doi":"10.1111/anoc.12133","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.12133","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/anoc.12133","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42093277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Accidental Environmentalism: Nature and Cultivated Affect in European Neoshamanic Ayahuasca Consumption","authors":"Arne Harms","doi":"10.1111/anoc.12130","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.12130","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Existing research demonstrates a positive connection between psychedelics and increased nature relatedness. Enhanced affective ties toward nature are widely framed as being built into the pharmakon itself, and the relevance of experiences remains little understood. This paper turns to neoshamanic ayahuasca ceremonies in Europe, exploring the way specialists and attendants refer to nature in speech and performance. I argue that ritual framings performed during these ceremonies provide fertile ground for affective ties to emerge through substance-induced experiences. I trace such framings by exploring how medicine and healers are being coded; how specific materialities are rendered meaningful; and how individual experiences are discussed at such retreats. I argue that even while participants prioritize individual healing, personal development, or the satisfaction of psychonautical curiosity, environmentalism appears to be anchored by the proceedings themselves. Thus, this paper opens up for analysis ceremonial substance use as a contact zone where coherence is produced intersubjectively.</p>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/anoc.12130","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48428273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Consciousness Development in Rastafari: A Perspective from the Psychology of Religion","authors":"Christian Stokke","doi":"10.1111/anoc.12129","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.12129","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper explores a Rastafari perspective on consciousness development and relates this to developmental stage theories of consciousness evolution from the psychology of religion. The empirical material is from fieldwork on an online Rastafari community with global reach but run by a group based in Trinidad. The people on this particular forum align with the “spiritual, but not religious” trend in contemporary religiosity, which means they are more focused on interior questions of consciousness raising than on religious externals. This paper interprets empirical material from the dialogues on this forum in light of Rastafari theorist Dennis Forsythe. It compares this Rastafari theory of stages of consciousness, symbolized by the animals Anancy, lion, and lamb, to developmental theories of consciousness evolution. These are drawn from psychology and the psychology of religion (Maslow 1970; Kohlberg 1981; Fowler 1981; Gilligan 1982; Wilber 2007), which focus on preconventional, traditional, modern, pluralist, and integral stages.</p>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/anoc.12129","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47406323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Miroslav Horák, Nahanga Verter, Kristina Somerlíková
{"title":"Initiation Plants in Drug Addiction Treatment: The Purgahuasca Therapy","authors":"Miroslav Horák, Nahanga Verter, Kristina Somerlíková","doi":"10.1111/anoc.12128","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.12128","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article focuses on the utilization of <i>Banisteriopsis caapi</i> in drug addiction treatment. The primary research was carried out in Takiwasi Center for the Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts and Research on Traditional Medicines. A preparation from <i>B. caapi</i>, also known as purgahuasca, that is being used in the center was initially administered during initiation rituals by the Awajún (Aguaruna) people in northern Peru. This paper describes the purgahuasca ritual and its distribution among the Awajún people. Our findings reveal that between 68.2% and 86.5% of respondents recognize the importance of the purgahuasca ritual to their recovery. Appropriate conservation tools must be created to preserve the purgahuasca ritual for future generations, as it represents a useful therapeutic tool and an important part of the intangible cultural heritage of Peru.</p>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/anoc.12128","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44461325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Greetings from the Editor","authors":"Nicole Torres","doi":"10.1111/anoc.12127","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.12127","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/anoc.12127","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46309288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"La Envidia: An Illness Manifest at the Level of the Community Body","authors":"Wendy Phillips","doi":"10.1111/anoc.12126","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.12126","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In Curanderismo and other traditional medicine systems, illnesses are understood to have somatic and emotional components and symptoms may be elicited by disruptions in interpersonal relationships between community members. An aspect of ritual interventions involves returning interpersonal relationships to balance and restoring harmonious interactions between members of the community. Important are shared understandings of the meaning of the symptoms, the mode of transmission of the illness, and the resolution that occurs through the process of the healer’s ritual interventions. In this essay, I present a narrative description of the illness, La Envidia, which is associated with the expression of the emotion, envy. The narrative was shared with me by a person who is a migrant from an Afromestizo community of the Pacific Coast of Mexico to Atlanta, Georgia. The illness, La Envidia, is discussed and interpreted framed by perspectives including Participation Mystique and blurred psychological boundaries, traditional indigenous conceptualizations of illness, shamanism and symbolization processes, shared meaning, traditional Yoruba informed African conceptualizations of illness and healing practices, and somatic and embodied ritual experiences.</p>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/anoc.12126","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47048708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From epistemology to the method: phenomenology of the body, qì cultivation (qìgōng) and religious experiences in Chinese worlds","authors":"Evelyne Micollier Ph.D","doi":"10.1111/anoc.12125","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.12125","url":null,"abstract":"<p>At the intersections of social anthropology, philosophy, and Asian studies, my paper explores the body ecologic through a phenomenological frame in the context of Chinese culture engaging both theory and method. How can qì cultivation experiences transporting bodies and persons in movement, within the world and their “life-world,” be interpreted through a phenomenology of perception? Based on ethnographic study data collected mainly in South China (Guangzhou) and in Taiwan (1990s–2000s), this exploration is situated within <i>qìgōng</i> experiences (training, cultivating and mastering the <i>qì</i>). Anchored in martial, religious, and healing arts and their meanings<i>, qìgōng’s</i> myriad of forms and infinite variations invite journeys into religious Daoist and Buddhist practice, Chinese thought, and politico-religious issues of past and present Chinese society. The <i>qìgōng</i> world, paths of knowledge transmission, healing horizons, claimed affiliations, and views of practitioners unveil an ontology and a cosmology grounded in religious (Daoist and Buddhist) lore.</p>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/anoc.12125","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47825176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Importance of Ritual Discourse in Framing Ayahuasca Experiences in the Context of Shamanic Tourism","authors":"Evgenia Fotiou","doi":"10.1111/anoc.12117","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.12117","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this article, I discuss how ritual is framed in the context of ayahuasca tourism, using ethnographic data collected in and around Iquitos, Peru. Alluding to a lack of socially sanctioned spaces for altered states of consciousness (ASCs) in western cultures, contemporary seekers flock to the Amazon to participate in ayahuasca ceremonies for an array of reasons, including healing and personal transformation. Taking Gregory Bateson's concept of “framing” as a point of departure, and applying Erving Goffman's frame analysis, I will show that contemporary ayahuasca ceremonies attended by westerners are designed to be liminal, transformative, and meaningful experiences that aim to heal the body through emotional modulation. I will demonstrate how this is achieved through specific discourse that takes place before or during rituals in the form of long speeches delivered by the shamans. This framing not only separates the ritual space as liminal but also frames the way that the experience is conceptualized by the participants, ultimately increasing its meaningfulness.</p>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2020-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/anoc.12117","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47295918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}