John Scuro is a professor in the Department of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences (fhce), Universidad de la República, Uruguay. He is a researcher of the National System of Researchers (sni) of the National Agency for Research and Innovation (anii). He is co-coordinator of Arché, Núcleo Interdisciplinario de Estudios sobre Psicodélicos and is a member of the editing team of the Uruguayan Journal of Anthropology and Ethnography (ruae) of the fhce. D. and M.A. in Social Anthropology from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. In that framework, she conducted fieldwork in Uruguay, Brazil, Peru and Mexico, which resulted in the thesis "Neochamanism in Latin America. A cartography from Uruguay" (2012). Her most recent research project is a comparative study of the Neo-Pentecostal model and the Neo-Shamanic model of approaching addictions through the life trajectories of its users.

Discrepancias

Holistic well-being or cultural extractivism? Who decides? Questions on the consumption of psychedelic substances and their territorial impacts in Latin America.

  • Ezequiel Alí Cortina Bello
  • John Scuro
  • Sarai Piña Alcántara

  • moderator Frances Paola Garnica Quiñones

The massive consumption of psychedelics has intensified debates about their impacts on indigenous communities in Latin America. As globalization drives the commercial and therapeutic use of sacred plants, tensions are generated between Western holistic wellbeing and the preservation of indigenous cultural heritage. This text examines how psychedelic extractivism de-territorializes plants and ancestral knowledge, creating new markets that transform traditional relationships with these beings considered political-spiritual agents by native peoples.