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shaman's way of life, coupled with an attempt to
give a description based on personal participation.
3. The ethnologist must seriously acknowledge the
mental techniques and experiences of the shaman
and should himself experiment with some of
them. (Some researchers, such as V. Brown,
Boyd, Cushing, David-Neel, Eaton, Katz, Kunze,
J. R. Walker, and others, either have taken
psychoactive drugs, fasted, and prayed or have
gone in search of visions. In this way they have,
to a certain extent, acquired an inner understanding
of the shaman's way of life.)
4. The ethnologist becomes an apprentice of the
shaman, thereby transcending his traditional role
as a scientist, raising his scientific curiosity to a
new and higher level, and attempting to combine
learning with active reflection. (By now, a
number of Westerners have entered into or
partially completed such an apprenticeship, as
for instance Boshier, Co rdova-Rios, Derlon,
Harner, and Prem Das.)
The most complete description of and the deepest
insight into the life of the shaman will, of course,
come from researchers who themselves enter into
altered states of consciousness. The more we manage
to close the gap between the scientist and the
shaman, the closer we come to a truly transpersonal
and transcultural science (Kalweit 1988:246).
Ethnology resists a strictly psychological analysis of
shamanism Ð and rightly so, because it is undeniable
that our Western psychology has been ethnocentric
from it's very beginnings and has always refused to
accord any kind of recognition to tribal psychologies
and philosophies. Transpersonal science, on the other
hand, has come into being from a fusion of Asian
philosophy and Western consciousness research, just
as transpersonal anthropology also takes account of
the wisdom and systems of knowledge of other
cultures. It is this kind of transcultural science that
can bridge the gap between traditional and modern
societies; it may be symbiotic, combining the energies
of several ways of life, but it is stimulating a new
universal science of man. Soon transcultural science
will overtake the kind of narrow-minded research into
shamanism, which considers the shaman as no more
than an object and product of social circumstances
(Kalweit 1988:247).
In an age characterized by an unshakeable faith in
science it has become the task of anthropology to
provide a rational explanation for such wayward and
illogical notions and concepts (Kalweit 1988:xii). The
shaman should therefore not be branded as some sort
of archaic hero or as a relic of the past, who, although
historically redundant, somehow continues to vegetate
on the fringe of our technological civilization. In
the light of the revolutionary findings of recent
researchers into the nature of dying and death, the
shaman should be considered as a most up-to-date
and knowledgeable psychologist (Kalweit 1988:13).
In order to gain more knowledge of the world view
and of the origin of the knowledge which the
vegetalista possesses and which he believes he
obtains, in altered states of consciousness, while
under the influence of ayahuasca, transpersonal
research will form an important aspect of my fieldwork.
THE PERUVIAN AMAZON
Peru, a country of 1 285 215 Km, has 54 per cent of its
territory in the Amazon area. This area is located
within a larger geographical unity, the Upper Amazon
Basin, which comprises the network of rivers that
drain the tropical rainforest east of the Andes
mountains and flow into the Amazon River until the
mouth of the Rio Madeira (Lathrap 1970:22±23).
There is a geographical and ecological differentiation
between the forest on the steep eastern slopes of
the Andes, between 400 and 1000 metres above sea
level, with heavy rainfall, and a great contrast in the
temperatures between day and night (between 148
and 328 Centigrade), and the tropical forest on the
floor of the Amazon Basin, situated between 80 and
400 metres above sea level, with hot temperatures
(between 248 and 408 Centigrade), high humidity and
often violent rains (Rumrill 1984:33).
Four departments of Peru (Loreto, San MartõÂn,
Ucayali, and Madre de Dios) lie completely within the
Amazon area, while eleven other departments have
part of their territories covered by tropical rain forest
(Luna 1986:25).
Numerous Indian communities belonging to various
linguistic families, lived Ð and several still live Ð in
this area (Luna 1986:25). Lowie (1948:1) points out
that their cultural complex contrasts markedly from
that of the Andean civilizations by lacking architectural
and metallurgical refinements. Their diagnostic
features are the cultivation of tropical root crops, the
construction of effective wooden river craft, the use of
hammocks as beds, and the manufacture of simple
pottery.
According to the same author, a second feature,
namely the effective use of canoeing, allowed certain
tribes to spread their art and customs over enormous
distances, and this, combined with natural conditions,
produced the remarkable levelling of culture in this
area. Other factors, such as the generalized custom of
taking a bride from another settlement, irrespective of
linguistic affinity (Lowie 1948:29), and the necessity
of trading among distant tribes or villages for the
purpose of obtaining essential raw materials (Latharp
1970:32) contributed to this levelling of culture. We
may even say that syncretism was thus built into the
system (Luna 1986:26).
ISSN 0256±6060±Unisa Lat. Am. Rep. 16(2) 2000 45