Singing to the Plants: A Guide to Mestizo Shamanism in the Upper Amazon (72 page)

Grand narratives of sociopolitical resistance, says medical anthropologist
Arthur Kleinman, eventually undermine the genuine moral claims of indigenous suffering, and belittle "the personal pains and distress that sick persons
bring to shamans, which shamans try to cure."27 We must be careful that, in
characterizing the shaman as heroic resistor, we are not-once again-mythologizing the shaman to suit our own projected needs. Far from resisting
biomedicine, for example, the Amazonian shaman has adopted its symbols
and power; rather than being a static reservoir of tradition, preserving culturally intact knowledge, shamanism has created-as it always has-"an actively
produced hybrid

AMAZONIAN SHAMANS' ORGANIZATIONS

There is, of course, no reason to believe that sorcery is not still used politically
in the Amazon. But now there are additional tools, perhaps equally powerful,
available to shamans-organizing and the law.

Shamans in the Amazon are not unaware of the problems brought about
by their encounter with global modernity. On June i through 8, iggg, forty of
the most prominent traditional healers from seven indigenous peoples convened in Yurayaco, Colombia, to hold an Encuentro de Taitas, a Meeting of
Shamans, and to discuss the future of traditional medicine. One result of that
meeting was the publication of two documents-a Codigo de etica de la medicina
indigena del piedemonte Amazdnico Colombiano, Code of Ethics of Indigenous Medicine
of the Foothills of the Colombian Amazon, and the Declaracion del Encuentro de Taitas,
Declaration of the Meeting of Shamans, often called the Yurayaco Declaration.29

In addition, under a grant from the Amazon Conservation Team, an environmental group with headquarters in Washington, D.C., a very handsome
commemorative volume was published, with beautiful color photographs
of the participants and events.31 Another result was the formation of an organization, the Union de Medicos Indigenas Yageceros de la Amazonia Colombiana (uMlyAc), the Union of Indigenous Yage Healers of the Colombian Amazon, with the purpose, among other things, of establishing a certification procedure for shamans, apprentices, and disciples.3=

The Yurayaco meeting recognized a number of problems with which the
declaration and code of ethics were intended to deal. These included disunity
among shamans; discrediting of indigenous medicine by blancos; disbelief in
medicine and medicinal plants, and disrespect for shamans, among indigenous youth; belief by gente blanca, white people, that yage is a harmful drug
of no benefit; depletion of the rain forest, yage, and medicinal plants; indigenous charlatans; misuse ofyage by nonindigenous people; trade in yage and
other medicinal plants; the problem of patents and ownership of plants; possible prohibition of yage; and the relationship with the government health
system.

The Yurayaco Declaration consists of fourteen points. For example, declaration number three states:

Nonindigenous peoples are now acknowledging the importance of
our wisdom and the value of our medicinal and sacred plants. Many of
them desecrate our culture and our territories, traffic in yage and other
plants, dress like Indians, and act like charlatans. We note with concern
that a new form of tourism is being promoted to deceive foreigners with
purported services oftaitas or shamans in several villages in the Amazon
foothills. Even some of our own indigenous brothers do not respect the
value of our traditional medicine and go around the villages and cities
selling our symbols and misleading people.32

The declaration concludes with a request for support from nonindigenous
peoples, an agreement to "work for the unity and defense of traditional medicine and offer our services for the health of indigenous peoples and humanity," and three concrete proposals-to initiate a certification process and code
of ethics for practitioners of indigenous medicine, in order to facilitate recognition of the difference between shamans and charlatans; to travel throughout the Americas to bring the benefits of their medicine to indigenous peoples
and to construct indigenous medical clinics for nonindigenous peoples as
well; and to create uMIYAC, the Union of Indigenous Yage Healers of the Colombian Amazon.33

Another organization, called the Associacion de Shamanes Indigenas del
Napo (ANIsHIN), was founded in Ecuador in 1997, in response to decadeslong legal attacks on traditional healers. Under the impetus, in part, of a
Quechua ayahuasquero named don Leon Fidel Andy Grefa, who has been its president since 2oo6, ANISHIN has lobbied for legalizing the practice of
curanderismo in Ecuador and has proposed that shamans be awarded academic
credentials and employed in public hospitals.34 These proposals were adopted
by the Consejo Nacional de Salud, the National Board of Health, at its third
Congreso por Salud y la Vida.35

A similar but apparently less politicized organization has also been established in Iquitos-Asociacion de Medicos Vegetalistas de Iquitos, the Iquitos
Association of Plant Healers, formed on June 17, 2001, under the sponsorship
of the prestigious Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana, a governmental research institute, and originally headed by famed ethnobotanist
Elsa Rengifo.36 The goal of the organization was primarily to promote the use
of traditional plant healing practices, train new plant healers, and encourage
the conservation of medicinal plant resources. As of 2003, two years after its
founding, the organization had thirty-two member practitioners;37 as of 2008,
I am told, even the president and vice president of the organization were no
longer actively involved. 31

The effect of such attempts at organization and professionalization is not
yet clear. To the extent that certification processes are established, they can be
used politically against unpopular shamans and their apprentices, and they
can constitute entry barriers that protect the interests of established shamans.
Nor is it clear to what extent shamans in Peru or Ecuador or Colombia would
be willing to sacrifice their autonomy and individuality, or to what extent noble intentions might be subverted by envidia and accusations of brujerfa-in
other words, by shamanic business as usual.

THE AYAHUASCA PATENT CASE

Ayahuasca shamans encountered modernity as well when they discovered,
to their considerable surprise, that an American had patented ayahuasca. In
ig8i, Loren Miller, director of the California-based International Plant Medicine Corporation, took a sample of ayahuasca back to the United States. Miller then patented it with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), claiming
a new plant variety he called Da Vine, and in 1986 obtained exclusive rights to
sell and breed the plant. It was not until ten years later that Amazonian indigenous people became aware that one of their sacred plants was now under
U.S. patent law. By 1998, Miller had received, and ignored, repeated requests
from indigenous groups to give up the patent.

Finally, the Coordinating Body for Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (colcA), a group based in Ecuador and representing over four hundred indigenous groups from eight countries, decided to take action.
"Our goal is to have the ayahuasca patent annulled, and to teach all international biopirates a lesson," said Rodolfo Asar, communications director of
COICA. The organization informed its members that Miller was an "enemy
of indigenous peoples" and that "his entrance into all indigenous territory
should be prohibited."

A war of words ensued. The organization posted a notice on its Web site
stating that it would not be responsible for any physical harm to Miller if he
ventured into indigenous territory. Miller said that he was given a sample of
the plant by an indigenous community in Ecuador, but he refused to identify the community on the grounds that he wanted to protect residents from
COICA, which he called a terrorist organization that had ruined the reputation
of his business.

Charging that the patent was improperly issued, indigenous groups challenged the claim at the PTO, with the help of two Washington-based organizations, the Center for International Environmental Law and the Coalition
for Amazonian Peoples and Their Environment. The Plant Patent Act of 1970
was intended to protect growers breeding new plant varieties, and requires
the person requesting the patent to be the original breeder. Since ayahuasca is
widely used throughout the Amazon and, botanical experts said, the patented
plant was exactly the same as the natural variety, Miller could not claim to have
been the "inventor" of the plant, and thus was not eligible for a patent. The
shamans asked that the validity of the patent be reviewed on these grounds,
and that request was approved.

Indigenous people of the Amazon have learned how to use photo opportunities. Querubin Queta Alvarado and Antonio Jacanamijoy Rosero, spiritual
leaders of their people, appeared at the headquarters of the PTO wearing traditional garb-beads, feathers, and piranha teeth. Under their arms were official protest documents prepared by their attorneys.

In the fall of 1999, the PTO nullified the patent on the grounds that a specimen like Miller's had been on display at Chicago's Field Museum at least a
year before he applied for a patent. "Our shamans and elders were greatly
troubled by this patent," said Antonio Jacanamijoy Rosero. "Now they are
celebrating. 1139

The celebration did not last.

While the PTO had accepted the arguments that the claimed plant variety
was not distinctive or novel, it had not acknowledged the argument that its religious value warranted an exception from patenting. In apparent violation of its own procedures, the PTO allowed Miller to submit new evidence and arguments, centering on the differences between his ayahuasca plant and the museum reference plant. In January 2001, without having heard opposing views,
the PTO reversed its rejection and, in April, issued a certificate allowing the
patent to stand for the remaining two years of its term.

Ironically, after all his legal efforts, Miller was left with a patent that was
essentially worthless. The patent he received protects only the specific genome of the patented plant and its asexually reproduced progeny-that is, exclusive rights over nothing more than his original plant and specimens grown
from its cuttings. It does not give him rights over any other specimens of the
ayahuasca vine, even specimens that may be identical in appearance.

Under the law, a patent applied for before 1995 expires seventeen years
from the date it was originally issued. The ayahuasca patent expired on June
17, 2003. It cannot be renewed.4°

Mestizo shamanism in the Upper Amazon is expanding and declining at the
same time: it is expanding at the expense of other indigenous shamanisms,
and it is declining in the face of biomedicine, magic, and the reluctance of the
young to undergo the sufferings required to become a shaman.

This does not mean that there is no interest in the shamanism of the Upper
Amazon and particularly in the psychoactive effects of ayahuasca. That interest, in fact, is great. Every year since 2005, Alan Shoemaker has organized,
on behalf of his organization Soga del Alma, a conference on ayahuasca shamanism in Iquitos, Peru. These gatherings have featured such heavyweights
as Dennis McKenna, Luis Eduardo Luna, Pablo Amaringo, Jacques Mabit, and
Benny Shanon, as well as a number of indigenous curanderos. There is no
doubt that these gatherings achieve their aims. They bring together famous
gringo scholars, psychonautic enthusiasts, serious seekers, and a variety of
mestizo and indigenous shamans. Everyone gains an aura of legitimacy from
this interaction, and the shamans pick up some much-needed cash. But then
everyone goes home, and the shamans are left without what the tradition really needs-apprentices.

One reason shamanism is declining among Indians and mestizos is
because young people do not want to keep the difficult diet;, young Shuar,
for example, nowadays prefer to learn magic, by reading books and following their instructions, rather than undergo the restricted diet and sexual
abstinence required to become a shaman.2 Don Guillermo Arevalo, a wellrespected Shipibo shaman from Puccalpa, says the same: "Many who are
interested in shamanism don't want to submit themselves to diets with teaching plants. They prefer to have recourse to books of occult sciences. 113