Ayahuasca has been a spiritual and medicinal tool used by Native Amazonians for thousands of years. This plant is a hallucinogen that can be used to help guide self discovery and spiritual journeys. More recently ayahuasca has garnered attention from the United States and propelled tourism in South America. People searching for spiritual awakenings from ayahuasca bring with them consumerism and capitalistic habits that help to create an industry that blends modern and traditional. A once traditional ceremony has now become commercialized to please the influx of mostly white tourists. The culture of Indigenous communities is being marketed towards non-Indigenous people and debates about its authenticity are ongoing. Cultural appreciation is not always the outcome when using traditional ceremonies, which can lead to appropriation as well as harm to Indigenous communities.
Looking into the effects that commercialization of a traditional ceremony has had on local and Indigenous communities can be aided by using environmental justice frameworks. Environments do not have to involve the physical world around us, but can include spaces and ceremonies that have become sacred through traditional and cultural activities. Keeping this in mind is important when the intersection of capitalism, tourism, and culture are analyzed. Although there are physical and monetary effects of Ayahuasca tourism that are having devastating consequences, the encroachment on a traditional ceremony causes shifts within a community that can have lasting effects.The environment of a sacred ceremony has changed and is now becoming a commodity for outsiders which can distance communities from an activity they once viewed as necessary.
This website will look into the various consequences that Ayahuasca tourism has had on local and Indigenous communities in Peru through analyzing previous literature and applying an environmental justice lens to this expansion of capitalism.