Back

Selected ressource details

-
Back

Times and Health with Uniao do Vegetal (UDV).

Abstract

This work is a presentation of reflections and experiences of a trajectory of research in both fields (religious and academic), which focuses in the analysis of categories, tags and functions of "time" in the practices and rituals of the União do Vegetal (UDV ), seeking to know and understand the particular forms that assumes the relation between ritual and health in this context. The UDV is one of the religions originated in Brazil that uses ayahuasca, a psychoactive substance that is called hoasca or vegetal. The description of the non-ordinary states of consciousness induced by use of psychoactive often makes reference to alternative perceptions of space, time, and unusual mystical phenomena. These insights can be shared by a whole collective. Among other consequences, the cure or alleviation of physical or mental illnesses can also happen as a result of social practices that use these substances. I examined the issues in a particular trajectory and an heterodox research, in which I built a qualitative approach. Mainly, I did fieldwork in Núcleo Estrela d´Alva (Florianópolis) in the years 2005-2006, although I met different sites of the group, before and after, in different places of Brazil. I use an approach next to ethnography strategically situated. In this work, I use "times" in plural in an attempt to keep the multidimensionality and certain analytical indetermination of the concept, differing from particular disciplinary appropriations and meanings (philosophical, physical, chemical, social, cultural) of "time". I sketch reflections pointing to the emergence, in the UDV, a perception of cosmological and “Universal evolution”. Health in this context seems to be both a result of personal behaviour following the moral norms of the group and a precious good that needs to be cared.