Editing Ayahuasca (section)

=== Shamanism, ''mestizos'' and ''vegetalistas'' ===
Researchers like [[Peter Gow (anthropologist)|Peter Gow]] and Brabec de Mori argue that ayahuasca use indeed developed alongside the Jesuit missions after the 17th century. By examining the [[Icaro|ícaros]] (ayahuasca-related healing chants), they found that the chants are always sung in [[Quechuan languages|Quechua]] (a [[lingua franca]] along the Jesuit and Franciscan missions in the region), no matter the linguistic background of the group, with similar language structures between different ícaros that are markedly different from other indigenous songs. Moreover, often the cosmology of ayahuasca often mirrors the Catholicism, with particular similarities in the belief that ayahuasca is thought to be the body of ''ayahuascamama'' that is imbibed as part of the ritual, like wine and bread are taken as being the body and blood of Jesus Christ during [[Eucharist|Christian Eucharist]]. Brabec de Mori called this “Christian camouflage” and suggested that rather than being a way for disguising the ayahuasca ritual, it suggests that practice evolved entirely within these contexts.<ref name=":23">{{Cite book |last1=Gow |first1=Peter |title=River people: Shamanism and history in Western Amazonia Shamanism, History, and the State |last2=Thomas |first2=Nicholas |publisher=Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press |year=1994}}</ref><ref name=":13"/>

Indeed, the colonial processes in Western Amazon are intrinsically related with the development of ayahuasca use in the last three centuries, as it promoted a deep reshape in traditional ways of life in the region. Many indigenous groups moved into the Missions, seeking protection from death and slavery promoted by the [[Bandeirantes|Bandeiras]], inter-tribal violence, starvation and disease ([[smallpox]]). This movement resulted in an intense cultural exchange and resulted in the formation of ''[[Mestizo|mestizos]]'' (in Spanish) or ''caboclos'' (in Portuguese), a social category formed by people with mixture of European and native ancestry, who were an important part of the economy and culture of the region.<ref name=":42">{{Cite book |last1=Dobkin de Rios |first1=Marlene |title=A Hallucinogenic Tea, Laced With Controversy. Ayahuasca in the Amazon and the United States |last2=Rumrrill |first2=Roger |publisher=Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT |year=2008}}</ref> According to Peter Gow, the ayahuasca shamanism (the use of ayahuasca by a trained shaman to diagnose and cure illnesses) was developed by these ''mestizos'' in the processes of colonial transformation.<ref name=":23" /> The [[Amazon rubber cycle]]s (1879–1912 and 1945–1945) sped up these transformations, due to slavery, genocide and brutality against indigenous populations and large migratory movements, specially from the Brazilian [[Northeast Region, Brazil|Northeast Region]] as a workforce for the rubber [[plantation]]s. The ''mestizo'' practices became deeply intertwined with the culture of rubber workers, called ''caucheros'' (in Spanish) or ''seringueiros'' (in Portuguese). Ayahuasca use with therapeutic goals is the main result of this [[Trans-cultural diffusion]], with some practitioners pointing the ''caucheros'' as the main responsible for using ayahuasca to cure [[Panacea (medicine)|all sort of ailments of the body, mind and soul]], with even some regions using the term ''Yerba de Cauchero'' ("rubber-worker herb"). As a result, the ayahuasca shamans in urban areas and ''mestizo'' settlements, specially in the regions of [[Iquitos]] and [[Pucallpa]] (in Peru), became the ''vegetalistas,'' folk healers who are said to gain all their knowledge from the plants and the spirits bound to it.<ref name=":32">{{Cite book |last=Luna |first=Luís Eduardo |title=Vegetalismo : Shamanism among the Mestizo population of the Peruvian Amazon |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell International, Stockholm, Sweden |year=1986}}</ref>

So the ''vegetalist'' movement was a heterogeneous mixture of Western Amazon (''mestizo'' shamanic practices and ''cauchero'' culture) and [[Andes|Andean]] elements (shaped by other migratory movements, like those originated from Cuzco through [[Sacred Valley|Urubamba Valley]] and from western Ecuador), influenced by Christian aspects derived from the Jesuit missions, as reflected by the mythology, rituals and moral codes related to ''vegetalista'' ayahuasca use.<ref name=":32" />