In the preceding sections I presented a scenario of how ayahuasca probably traveled upriver. I suppose, although my knowledge is insufficient here, that in Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil very similar results could be obtained in corresponding studies. Many authors agree (e.g. Zuluaga, 2004, also Gow, llIius, Santos-Granero, Mader among others) that ayahuasca was discovered by some western Tukanoanenous groups. From this I reconstructed a migration of respective terminologies from the north to the south, noting the lack of emic terms in many groups from the south who therefore apply Kichwa or Kukama words. In the last section a series of ayahuasca songs in a specific ikaro form were presented and compared, revealing the uniform structure of these songs throughout the Peruvian lowlands, a unique phenomenon in the region's musical landscape. This uniform structure indicates a relatively recent introduction of these songs, because other musical phenomena show very high variations between any of these indigenous and mestizo groups. We thus arrived at a number of indications that point towards a rather recent distribution of ayahuasca use in the south-western Amazon. In their totality these indications suggest a clear tendency as outlined above, the bulk of data constituting circumstancial evidence. It is, however, still premature to precisely respond to the big question, when the Tukano or their predecessors actually may have discovered the hallucinogenic ayahuasca. Personally, I think that the assumption of millennial use cannot be held, simply because it would be rather illogical in my understanding if the Tukano would use a cultural item for thousands of years unnoticed by other indigenous groups who, in pre-Columbian times, exchanged many other ideas intensively. This is my own opinion, and for example, Luna (in this volume) who also brietly addresses the age of ayahuasca use, comes to another conclusion. However, I perceive it as much more rewarding to "enable" indigenous people to discover an important new item in colonial times, and therefore to get rid of a popular image of "traditional" indigenous people who are only "reproducing" what had been discovered by mythical forefathers in ancient times. Regarding the Peruvian Amazon, ayahuasca use first spread from the Tukano among the now Kichwaspeaking groups that emerged from Jesuit missions in the Ecuadorian and northwestern Peruvian lowlands and among the Kukama. In a second phase it spread among the peoples in the Peruvian north, reaching southwards to the Quechua de Lamas and Shawi populations. The third phase was its journey upriver on the Rio Ucayali, probably with the rubber workers, finally crossing the Brazilian border into Acre. The ultimate phase, which is still in progress, is the acceptance of ayahuasca among groups that only recently re-established contact with riverine populations, as was shown for the Kakataibo, Madija, Arakmbut and Ese Eja - and among groups outside the Amazon basin, which is the main topic of the present volume. The line of argument that I presented is based upon my observations among Ucayali medicos who appear to be instructed in ayahuasca use exclusively by teachers from the north. This was followed by a review of historical data, i.e. where and when ayahuasca was mentioned, or hinted at, in missionaries' and travelers' reports. The historical data was put in coherence with the ethnohistories of populations who suffered long-lasting phases of isolation (Kakataibo and Iskobakebo). I also analyzed numerous terms connected with ayahuasca which are used among the different indigenous groups. From this I reconstructed a migration of respective terminologies from the north to the south, noting the lack of emic terms in many groups from the south who therefore apply Kichwa or Kukama words. In the last section a series of ayahuasca songs in a specific ikaro form were presented and compared, revealing the uniform structure of these songs throughout the Peruvian lowlands, a unique phenomenon in the region's musical landscape. This uniform structure indicates a relatively recent introduction of these songs, because other musical phenomena show very high variations between any of these indigenous and mestizo groups. We thus arrived at a number of indications that point towards a rather recent distribution of ayahuasca use in the south-western Amazon. In their totality these indications suggest a clear tendency as outlined above, the bulk of data constituting circumstancial evidence. It is, however, still premature to precisely respond to the big question, when the Tukano or their predecessors actually may have discovered the hallucinogenic ayahuasca. Personally, I think that the assumption of millennial use cannot be held, simply because it would be rather illogical in my understanding if the Tukano would use a cultural item for thousands of years unnoticed by other indigenous groups who, in pre-Columbian times, exchanged many other ideas intensively. This is my own opinion, and for example, Luna (in this volume) who also brietly addresses the age of ayahuasca use, comes to another conclusion. However, I perceive it as much more rewarding to "enable" indigenous people to discover an imp0l1ant new item in colonial times, and therefore to get rid of a popular image of "traditional" indigenous people who are only "reproducing" what had been discovered by mythical forefathers in ancient times. In essence I would like to point out that western Amazonian medicina is a complex phenomenon, covering social and cultural as well as ecological and philosophical issues. Communication with plants, animals, human beings, and spiritual entities is probably " old" and developed over a long period of time. It would be premature to attempt any precise estimates. During this time span, new elements always have been implemented and integrated without hesitation, ayahuasca being but one. Providing ayahuasca with a history of its own will have no far-reaching consequences with respect to general anthropological issues, but still may shed new light on ethnohistorical interpretations around the complexes that are found in many studies, concerning e.g. cosmologies, tales, or beings that are considered as having emerged from ayahuasca usage. It may well be that in many such cases where a connection with ayahuasca has been assumed, no such connection exists. However, there may be consequences for the popular view of ayahuasca and its distribution outside the western Amazon. One of the main legitimations of popular ayahuasca use in Western societies - including in legal trials around the world - is the reference to millennial indigenous knowledge and along with it, an almost irrational value attributed to "ancient knowledge." Moreover, ayahuasca is presented in hundreds of web-sites on the internet as well as in popular esoteric, alternative medicalor neoshamanic scenes as crucial for living together healthily and ecologically in alleged " original" western Amazonian cultures. Presumedly age-old indigenous knowledge is used as an item of advertisement. The globalization of ayahuasca greatly obscures the fact that healing or curing in western Amazonia is not accomplished by drinking or giving to drink ayahuasca but by a complicated system of knowledge involving human and non-human beings, which can be learned and applied only through years of studying and - if one so wishes - even without drinking or administering ayahuasca at all. Let me finally consider two ethical issues that are, however vaguely, connected to the question of the age of ayahuasca use: First, in ayahuasca tourism and exotism, many times a simplistic view is imposed on the indigenous people, as if they all have been traditional ayahuasca shamans since ancient limes. The ecological and socioeconomic consequences in western Amazonia caused by such an overestimation of ayahuasca are generally overlooked. Such practices do not " help the poor people in Amazonia:' as is very often pretended or even honestly intended by organizers of corresponding activities. The resulting cash flow rather leads to dramatic inequities in the social life within slums or indigenous villages (cf. Tupper, 2009, p. 125). indigenous people who are not involved in the ayahuasca commerce (and who still represent a vast majority (e.g. in the Ucayali valley) in many cases suffer from exactly these inequities and have to develop strategies to cope with the situation. For example, many Shipibo-Konibo individuals do not agree with the " ayahuasca-shaman" identity concept that has been collectively imposed on them (cf. Brabec de Mori, 2008). 6 Second, there is an urgent problem in health care: During my years in Pucallpa, I could observe many transfomlations and distortions of the relevance of Amazonian medical knowledge. Many medicos are shifting their main occupation from curing patients or producing and countering sorcery to providing spectacular experiences for visitors from the West. The change itself does not pose a problem, as Amazonian people have always been " modernizing" themselves flexibly and at a high pace, leaving behind our " modem Western society" as surprisingly conservative. However, from these shifts in medical care have emerged some serious threats. I have to insist that in the western Amazon, the terms '''medicine'' and "'curing" are not understood in an esoteric or spiritual way but rather in a pragmatic sense of treating people who are suffering from more or less fatal problems. Within local society, many people still do not trust in, or have no (economic) access to, "'hospital medicine" but have nevertheless lost faith in their medicos because many of them do not treat their kinspeople anymore. Therefore, many indigenous and mestizo families are nowadays trapped in a vacuum of medical care. The exclusive focus on the plant drug, as is suggested by well-paying Westerners, is seductive for many local curing specialists themselves. Younger "'shamans" often do not even know how to cure certain problems. They are trying to bring to perfection the visionary experience of ayahuasca but no longer study the whole system of Amazonian medicine in order to cure the virulent illnesses among local people. In many places it seems that, without providing alternative facilities to care for the sick. a more spiritually oriented use of ayahuasca is on the way to substitute the former system of pragmatic curing; a system that was preserved, developed, and kept self-reproducing despite epidemics, conquest, missionary conditioning, and rubber slavery. I hope to have contributed to a more relative view on the ayahuasca phenomenon. Ayahuasca usage, both in a western Amazonian setting and in Western society, has its powers and offers certain possibilities. However, getting rid of romantic images (like " traditions preserved from the Stone Age" ) and analyzing the role of ayahuasca in indigenous history and identity in a more critical way can be very helpful to actually concentrate on the present use or abuse of ayahuasca. In the long tenn, I think. there is no practical reward to be expected from romanticizing and obscuring the provenance, history, and consequences of ayahuasca use. Presenting arguments that are carefully built upon historical or ethnographical data is more effective (also in trials regarding ayahuasca lise) than taking for granted poorly evidenced millennial traditions.