Ayahuasca, Ritual and Religion in Brazil

Beatriz Caiuby Labate and Edward MacRae are scholars specializing in the anthropology of ayahuasca use, and this edited academic volume, published by the academic press Equinox, brings together specialists to examine the Brazilian ayahuasca religions, such as Santo Daime and Uniao do Vegetal, as organized religious movements rather than only as drug practices. Its strength is that contributors work directly with these Brazilian traditions and their legal, social and ritual dimensions, treating them with the seriousness given to any other new religious movement. Because it is a multi author collection, depth and focus vary by chapter and by which specific tradition or theme a contributor covers, so a claim about one particular ayahuasca church should be checked against its dedicated chapter.