Ayahuasca and Globalization. Undergraduate Honors Thesis. Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2011.
This monograph explores the globalization of ayahuasca, a plant medicine endemic to the Upper Amazon, drawing from information gathered during fieldwork the author personally conducted in the Peruvian Amazon and the city of Cusco in October of 2009. The paper begins by exploring the contexts of the globalization of ayahuasca: the relationship between Indigenous and Western cultures, the nature of ayahuasca, shamanism, and globalization itself. It discusses changes in the use and meaning of ayahuasca and addresses issues involved with the globalization of ayahuasca, including: legal issues, commodification, and cultural appropriation. Finally, it gives a short history of the globalization of ayahuasca. This paper contributing fresh research to the bodies of scholarly work on ayahuasca, globalization, and indigenous religious practices as a whole.