“As we begin (once again) to naturalize ourselves – both nutritionally and medicinally – we may begin to discover that there is far more to a plant than just its chemical composition, more than just its list of constituent phyto-nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Rather, and more vital to our personal healing – as well as to the continuation of life as we know it – is our becoming acquainted with the organism producing the food or medicine itself. With the life-form, the being”

-Daniel Vitalis

~

Visionary Nutrition. This is a path of uniting stories. An open source invitation into deeper relation with the many things that fuel, heal, and energize us; that which is alive all around us, co-creates with us. This a path of dissolving separation. A path of connectivity.

It is the strengthened engagement with the harmony of humanity – the beautiful songs we’ve sung and are singing, our peak performance, the best of the best – that boils down to our collective necessities – food, medicine, life – from which can be drawn ever-expanding analogies, inter-elated metaphor, and metamorphosis.

It is here all around us; Eden, Heaven – find it in an apple. Got Demons? Join forces with a vine. Eat garbage conjured and sold by the darkest magicians – become “Stay Puft Marshmellow Man”; your ill-conceived nightmares. Invite the forces of nature, say an orange or a mushroom, and with the right kind of eyes – grow further infused with infinite ecologies of everlasting spirits.

“What ayahuasca teaches is that right now, at every moment, we already live in the magic forest”

-Steve Beyer

Dig around a bit, and you might observe the root of our crisis as being humankind’s long, drunken lust for separation – mind/body, human/nature, food/medicine, physical/spiritual. Simultaneously, it these elements which unite our species, and always have. We all participate, we all dance with these elements – and it is these elements that, by and large, make up our world. We create worlds, as worlds creates us.

But we are new here – sometimes awesome, but ultimately amateur, and we’ve been grasping. We simply cannot believe it. Timelapse the situation and it’s like we appeared only yesterday – instantaneously – in ever-changing form, on a particular planet. Growing in size, staring at our hands, finding our feet, rubbing our eyeballs, mind boggled – immersed, surrounded, and face to face with an overwhelming presence perceived, at times, as threatening.

We dash for the door, or some way out. We invoke separation, like children covering their ears – convinced it’s not happening. Running in circles, making mirages, chasing dragons, ouroborically awestruck, deaf, blind and dumbfounded by this life, the afterlife, reality and its alternatives, ghosts, dreams, philosophy, the powers that be, the secret life of plants – all this raging intricacy.

Yet we appear now to see eye to eye with the storm. This quiet, ripping whorl, where time is in question, and of its essence. Where the consensus amongst the conscious is that we are indeed all one, we are nature, there is no separation, and it’s all changing dramatically. Be it homo nexus, homo luminous, neo aboriginalis, or Sylvapolitans – it’s on, and it’s your choice. Merge with the Maelstrom, let Gaia absorb you. Produce solutions – dissolve.

“The fiction that supports the culture-nature separation is rapidly failing under the weight of its own inconsistencies. It is becoming obvious that what we do to nature we do to ourselves, what we do to ourselves we do to nature.”

-Morgan Brent

All plants are psychoactive. Everything has a spirit. You can learn a lot from Arugula – even more from Cacao, or from an elder like Maize. What we place inside ourselves, transforms us. Eating and drinking is intimate communication. Daily comm-union, even telepathy, most often one-way, where a plant invited into the human body as food or medicine can “see what you mean”. From it nothing is hidden and it knows what’s what – so it provides certain answers in the form of nourishment – literally; “bringing (you) up, raising, fostering, supporting, preserving”.

Be it food or information – we become what we consume, and we produce from the inside out. When we eat and drink – we practice relationship with different forces, with spirits and sentience. We are what we eat, and what we eat runs the show.

Plants, fungi and bacteria are significantly adept at piloting humans. Michael Pollan, for example, explores this extensively and convincingly in his work, posing the question: “What if we are all just pawns in corn’s clever strategy game to rule the Earth?”. Further, Pollan suggests, in his “Plants-eye view” Ted Talk, that “Looking at the world from other species’ points of view is a cure for the disease of human self-importance.”

If plants – specifically Teacher Plants – convey anything, it is that they have the upper hand, the higher branch. They can throw you down, clean you up, send you out to space, thrust you on a new paths, make you change your ways, whisper advice, keep you warm, dry, sheltered, alive, and in some cases, even kill you.

Essentially, plants can do whatever they want with humans, and with near- absolute impunity. Our species’ “ultimate verdict” is the concept of death. But to a plant, death is laughable. A sentiment reinforced in a recent New York Times Magazine article describing the plant take-over of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, where “For six and a half years, the neighborhood has undergone a reverse colonization — nature reclaiming civilization.”

Have you ever seen plants happen? Plants, and plant-time, are like crop circles (which of course are made of plants in most cases) – like magic, they appear, leave traces, clues, fruit, messages. In the New Orleans “Jungleland” – behind climates of chaos and the media newsfeed, burnt cars and dead bodies are consumed by tall grass.

Side with the plants, learn plants, eat plants, become plants – let food be your medicine, let medicine be your food – and begin to synthesize entirely different dimensions of time, technology, communication, and potential.

“In order to live a magical life, you have to eat magical food”

-David Wolfe

Several years ago, during dieta with Ayahuasca, the plants suggested to me that “ayahuasca would go best with raw food”. Plants, I’ve found, often speak in terms of one’s present perception – in shapeshifting symbols that change as you follow them, conversations to discern and decipher. With this in mind, I set forth exploring a raw food diet – with sharp eyes and a healthy aversion to dogma and definitions. However, the heart of this guidance was clear: Ayahuasca, once drank, prefers to live in, and works better with; clean bodies.

I eventually engaged and evolved my raw food/living diet path as a kind of inverted version of a Plant Dieta. Something I could practice daily as a way to learn from, and build relations with numerous “common” plants like Kale, Chard, Chia, Blueberries, Tomatoes, Pears, for example. As process of turning myself into some kind of garden. Into which, ayahuasca digs deep, purging junk, transforming thoughts, composting things, creating soil from soul, turning the stomach into a womb, encouraging conditions right, good, and fertile – so it can root, grow, and flower.

Raw, living diets take many forms. From my perspective it’s a kind of plant artistry. Plant-based edible living sculpture with vibrant living beings who in return sculpt you. Essentially though, it is process of healing and strengthening. Significantly, it’s a cleanse – of body, of mind – and by extension, environment.

From yet another direction, the “higher reflection” in a sense the Mother of  living diets, can be seen in the traditions and disciplines of Plant Dietas. Commonly referred to and often mistaken as “the ayahuasca diet” - Plant Dietas are, in very general terms; a discipline and process of cleansing, purging, healing, learning, and building right-relationship. During Plant Dietas, one is isolated, eats very little, and/or very simply, in order to remove distractions, sensitize one’s body/mind/spirit to the subtleties of the spirit world, to become transparent, lucid and focused in it. A student-teacher relationship emerges as one sits with a plant, drinking it exclusively over a period of time.

Working safely and respectfully with Ayahuasca and other Teacher Plants, alongside living food/garden-variety plants, the Teacher’s Assistants so to speak, leads, of course, to many physical and spiritual benefits. The plants led me out of concrete jungles, away from concrete ideologies and crumbling health to hold my gaze and engage my commitment to unfolding endeavours of evolutionary advantage – wild foods, living water, permaculture, forest gardening, medicinal mushrooms, herbalism, synaesthesia…

Yet perhaps most importantly, the process has opened, and continues to expand, a certain grand permeability – pathways and bridges between common ground and the sky – between day-to-day and ceremonial nights.

~

“I think that once a person is aware of the life in everything, they can begin to access the spirit of everything. And once they can do that they can interact with those spirits. I’m talking about the spirit of the creek, the bricks in your house, the hundreds of spirits roaming your kitchen.

This universe is full full full of life and life force. The roll of shamanic knowledge for us westerners introduced to those spirits is to spread that knowledge, make communication easier. And if we can do that–a big task, no doubt–then the way people interact with the world and the spirits of the world and universe will change, automatically, from one of dominance to one of cooperation. And when we, mankind, begin interacting with the world, rather than trying to dominate it, well, I think mankind will be better off. The world and its spirits don’t really care if we do, for the most part. Trees will be here long after we’re gone, and so will stones and bricks and clouds and the moon. So it’s really up to us to take an interest if we are to make the friendship of those spirits.

And thus far, for most of us throughout mankind’s short history on this planet, that effort has not been made. Which has left us losing out on so much we might have learned. Who knows what we have missed simply by not asking a plant what benefit it might have for mankind, rather than saying “tree, chop it and burn it for fire.”

I think the universe has all the secrets of the universe. And our arrogance in trying to continually conquer the universe rather than communicate with it, has kept us from being taught those secrets. And how delicious they might be!”

-Peter Gorman

“Indigenous groups in the Colombian Amazon have long suffered deprivations at the hands of outsiders. First came the diseases brought by the European Conquest, then came abuses under colonial rule. In modern times, some Amazonian communities were virtually enslaved by the debt-bondage system run by rubber traders: Indians could work their entire lives without ever escaping the cycle of debt. Later, periodic invasions by gold miners, oil companies, colonists, and illegal coca-growers took a heavy toll on remaining indigenous populations. Without title to their land, organization, or representation, indigenous Colombians in the Amazon seemed destined to be exploited and abused.

But new hope would emerge in the 1980s, thanks partly to the efforts of Martin von Hildebrand, an ethnologist who would help indigenous Colombians eventually win control over 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest—an area larger than the United Kingdom.

Von Hildebrand first visited the Colombian Amazon in 1970, spending four months living amongst remote indigenous communities. He found them exploited by rubber traders and deprived of basic human rights. Indigenous communities were in decline as youths abandoned their homeland for towns and traditional knowledge was lost with each passing elder.

Living with tribes during the 1970s, von Hildebrand learned of the traditional land management practices of indigenous societies as well as their philosophies of co-existing with the rainforest. He helped free communities from the tyranny of rubber and started developing an education system for the indigenous. Inspired to help them win title to their territory and therefore greater autonomy, von Hildebrand joined the Colombian government in 1986, as Head of Indigenous Affairs and adviser to President Virgilio Barco Vargas. In government von Hildebrand helped push through legislation that would lead to the establishment of 20 million hectares of collective indigenous territory—a move that would become a fundamental part of the country’s 1991 constitution.

Winning recognition of land rights however was only a first step towards autonomy so in 1990 von Hildebrand founded Fundacion Gaia Amazonas to establish a governance structure that would allow indigenous to have greater control over their health and education systems, and the fate of their rainforest environment. Today von Hildebrand serves as head of both Gaia Amazonas and the COAMA Program, a coalition of NGOs that aims to strengthen ties between indigenous groups across Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela to help them develop sustainable livelihoods and approaches to self-governance. The alliance includes 250 indigenous communities across 22 tribes. Some 70 million hectares (270,000 square miles) have been recognized as Indigenous collective property, but tribes are looking to double that amount. Gaia Amazonas is working with several NGOs, the Ministry of Environment and National Parks on a strategy to conserve 80 percent of the Colombian Amazon.”

Read the  interview here .

Translated from the book “Runapaqpacha Kawsaypi Warmimanta Yuyay, Yachaykunapash” (literally, “Thoughts and Knowledges About Women in Indian Universe and Life”) by Achiq Pacha Inti-Pucarapaxi (Luz Maria de la Torre)

A creation story from Otavalo, Imbabura, Ecuador

This story gives a sense of what “Pachamama” means (the feminine universe) and also gives a sense of the Andean conception of gender roles. “Kamak” in the word “Pachakamak” (from the verb kama- and the agentive suffix -k, “one who,” [-q in Cuzco/Bolivian Quechua]) is as complex in meaning as “Pacha.” Kama- might be translated as “to create order,” “to align with shared or common purpose,” or other meanings (I have seen it translated as “to breathe unity into”).

In everyday life in the Andes, Pachamama is invoked constantly, daily, given offerings and songs and asked for help, whereas Pachakamak is rarely ever mentioned.

=============================================

After Pachakamak, the Great Spirit Bringing Order to the Totality of Creation, created this world and Man and Woman, he told them to rest and to come back calm and refreshed the next day, so that he would give to each of them the duties in this world for which they had been created.

The human beings rested well in their new Earth home, which Pachakamak said he gave them to receive.

The Woman went to sleep immediately, and the next day quickly went to receive what Pachakamak gave. She rose and appeared together with the sun of dawn; she went and left the Man asleep. The Man had not gone to sleep immediately but had remained awake for a while to look at the world. Thus, today the woman is the one to arise very early.

The Woman arrived where Pachakamak was, to speak with him about the duties she would have in life, wanting thus to receive her destiny.

The Orderer of the Universe led her to see all that was growing. All the stones, all the mountains, all the beautiful maturing soil, rivers, lakes, all the happy plants and flowers, all the fragrances and colors he showed her. And also the work with the animals’ lives, their behavior, what each one did, their skins, he showed her.

Thus they walked among all things that live and grow. The blue upper world was there, where Father Sun, in charge of giving food and power to all living things, makes his beautiful light and warmth. And at night the upper world was filled with stars, and with the moon who also feeds life.

The Woman was in awe of all the great beauty showed to her. Each new beautiful thing that appeared before her, she asked that it be hers, all the great beauty that Pachakamak had made to grow. She touched and felt the heartbeat of life of all the different beings of creation — all the varied stones in the world, the minerals, the hard rocks and the sparkling crystals that came from the fertile earth. Every insect and every animal attracted her enormously, their great variety, their whimsical and harmonious forms, their skin and the color of their fur. But she always looked down, and she was attracted most of all to the puppies and the defenseless beings. She took them into her arms and held them in the warmth of her lap, and a desire grew inside of her to have all of this in her domain, under her care, to keep them so beautiful, and maybe she could make them even more beautiful, and care for them, and protect the puppies and the defenseless beings.

Everything was so beautiful and needed her care, it seemed that she couldn’t choose anything in particular to keep near her. Finally she decided, and said to the Great Pachakamak:

“Everything you have shown me is so wonderful. In the life of this world I want to work with and care for all that is so very beautiful, to obtain everything that is necessary to sustain their lives and that of my husband. I want Woman’s domain to be over all that exists here, everything that is on Earth, to care for it and observe it daily.”

The Woman’s words seemed so powerful to Pachakamak that he gave everything that grows and lives on Earth to the Woman. Everything was left in the Woman’s care.

“I put you in charge of life,” said the Great Soul. “From then to now, the different things you see, you will give life to the different things. Your mission will be to give continuity to eternity; to give Time within eternity. The different things will be born from your belly; you will give bodies to the human beings and to all life.

“You will have understanding, love and tenderness in order to be able to fulfill your duty. Your desire will always be to clothe, feed, sustain and care for life, and to keep life in order. Yours will be beauty, harmony, balance, which are necessary for this task. You will be sensitive, loving, and benevolent, since the continuity of creation depends on you, and in this everyone will help you. You will be ready to give your life for that which you have desired, because the children who are born from you need your care in order to prolong their lives, and it may be that they demand of you the greatest extreme, to give your own life in order that they be born.

“You will always seriously see everything that is in the present. Everything that presents itself to you, you will transform into beauty. You will decorate things and you will care for everything that is beautiful and worthy. The spirits of Water and Earth will always accompany you, and the Moon with all her children, the stars, will be with you directing your life.

“All the Universe that you see is feminine; the whole field of life which you have chosen and which I give to you. I give you the responsibility to generate, maintain and protect life, nature, and the Man. Through you the Man will be able to live, and he will seek you because you will give him the strength to be useful and you will direct his strength. In your work, I will help you together with all the other Powers, so that as you mature you will continue in your desire to reach out to all life. To your children, you will give life, love, and wisdom.”

Thus spoke Pachakamak and withdrew. The Woman was left happy. She took the responsibility that Pachakamak had given her, as she had wanted. All of Pachamama — Mother Earth, Mother Nature, Mother Universe — was hers. Something had only to appear and take form and presence, and the woman was its master and caretaker.

Then the Man appeared before the Great Pachakamak and said:

“I come into your presence, now tell me what work in this world is to be mine.”

The Great Pachakamak told him, “The Woman came first and desired everything that she saw. The Universe is now feminine, she has taken the responsibility to care for all life and has gained the honor of prolonging and sustaining life. So I have given to her everything that you see before your eyes.”

The Man was surprised. But then he recovered his breath and asked, “If you have given everything that exists to the Woman, what work is left for me?”

The Great Pachakamak assumed his state of wisdom and said: “The Woman has taken on everything that is visible in this world. You will not take the responsibility for what is visible. Everything that is visible is the responsibility of the Woman. But your place will be everything that is hidden from sight. I see that you will dedicate yourself to the ‘invisible world’ of the Creation.

“Everything that exists and appears, everything that has form and presence, everything that leaves a ‘footprint’ upon the Earth is the feminine world. Everything that does not exist or does not yet exist, everything that is invisible in the field of the world, everything that cannot be seen, everything that is hidden from the normal look of light and form, is your world. Here you will find the world of the future, of projections and plans, of dreams and ideals that hope to appear one day. You will go to that world in order to bring those things, you will make them appear, and you will put them into the hands of the Woman, and she will give them life. Yours will be the world of death, of transformation, of renovation. Yours will be the world of causes. You will not look at form but at what originates and gives form, its causes. Yours will be the world of mysteries, which will call you to resolve them. In this universe, the days of the future will be yours. Your work will be to think of what will come after the present day. You will be able to look beyond the visible world of the present and past. You will bring about the future. You will be a creator, and your knowledge will be of the depths. If you cannot find these depths, you will be a sterile and useless being and everything will be against you. But if you discover the mysteries of the depths you will be a great yachak (shaman).”

The Man was taken by Pachakamak to the world of laws, to the processes of transformation, to the internal world of thought, to the world of creative imagination, to the world of decisions, to the world of death. The Man descended into the depths of human passions, meeting hell and rising to unknown heavens.

“You will be a seeker, an explorer. You will have the curiosity and restlessness to discover what does not appear. Thus, you have dominion over the invisible, which will permit you to organize and govern the visible. You will seek wisdom, which will give you strength and authority.

“If you do not have wisdom, you will be useless to others. That which you seek and find does not belong to you. If you want to be a worthy Man, a son of Pachakamak, then you must share everything that you gain. The more that you share, the more will return to you.

“Yours is the field of magic. You will make it appear through your wisdom. You will give life to things that do not exist, but the moment that they take on existence, they no longer belong to your domain, but to the domain of the Woman. Because of this you will always be together with her, and from this joined action the universe will continue forward.”

The great Pachakamak reunited the human pair and felt satisfied and proud of his children.

=======================================

This gives a sense of Andean conceptions of gender roles, and also makes an interesting contrast to the Genesis story of Adam and Eve, with its message about gender and about being expelled from the Garden and punished with the “curse” of work.

This also gives a sense of why shamanism is considered a masculine occupation in the Andes and Upper Amazon, even when practiced by women; when women practice it, it is generally considered to be an expression of their masculine side.

“Ground zero” of Ayahuasca usage is the northwestern region of the Amazon Basin where Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil come together (see red-outlined area on map). Close to 100% of indigenous ethnic groups here traditionally use Ayahuasca (and this also contains the centers of mestizo traditional usage, Iquitos and Pucallpa in Peru). Beyond that (see fuschia-outlined area on map) Ayahuasca is used by a large majority of the indigenous peoples. Ayahuasca is also used by several indigenous groups outside of this area of traditional usage: the Tsachila and Chachi of the northern coast of Ecuador, the Embera of western Colombia and the Choco of northwestern Colombia near the Panama border, and some Guarani groups in eastern Bolivia, which may have adopted Ayahuasca in modern times. (See light blue areas.)

Assigning an actual number to the Amazonian ethnic groups that use Ayahuasca is not a straightforward task, as it is often difficult to define whether two neighboring communities with similar customs and similar tongues constitute one ethnic group or two; Amazonian peoples themselves usually do not traditionally concern themselves with such definitions, as their traditional loyalties and identification have usually been to their own immediate village, and ethnic/tribal identity is a new concept that is developing in modern times as Amazonian peoples organize for their rights. Multiple variant names in the literature for the same groups adds to the difficulty of enumerating groups, and sometimes the same name being assigned to several different groups (like “Campa” for Ashaninka and Nomatsigenka, or “Napo Runa” for the distinct cultures of the Upper and Lower Napo River). But, as defined by language and common cultural characteristics, there are approximately 130 indigenous tribes in the outlined areas.

Ayahuasca use has been recorded either in past or present among the following groups. Alternative names and spellings with which they may be referenced in the literature are in parentheses, and locations are given so that they may be found on the following maps from ethnologue.com (extinct groups do not appear):
Northern Colombia
Southern Colombia
Ecuador
Northern Peru
Southern Peru
Bolivia
Brazil
Venezuela

Achuar (Achual, Achuara) – Ecuador / N.Peru
Amahuaca (Amenguaca, Sayacu) – S. Peru
Amuesha (Yanesha, Amuese, Amueixa, Amoishe, Amagues, Amage, Amaje, Amajo, Amuetamo) – S. Peru
Angutero (Ancutere, Pioje) – N. Peru (note 1)
Asháninka (Ashaninca, Campa) – S. Peru (note 2)
Ashéninka (Asheninca) – S. Peru (note 2)
Awajún (Aguaruna) – N. Peru
Awishiri – Peru (extinct)
Banihua (Baniwa) – Brazil / Venezuela
Barasana (Paneroa, Eduria, Edulia) – S. Colombia
Bora (Boro) – N. Peru / S. Colombia
Candoshi-Shapra (Kandoshi) – N. Peru
Capanahua (Kapanawa)- N. Peru
Carijona (Karijona, Carihona, Umawa, Hianacoto-Umaua) – S. Colombia
Cashibo-Cacataibo (Kashibo-Kakataibo) – N. Peru
Chachi (Cayapa, Kayapa) – Ecuador (note 3)
Chamicura (Chamikura) – N. Peru
Chasutino – Peru / Bolivia (exact location unidentified)
Chayavita (Chayahuita, Chayawita, Shayabit, Chawi, Tsaawi, Tshaahui, Tschhuito, Paranapura) – N. Peru
Chebero (Jebero, Xebero, Xihuila) – N. Peru
Choco (Choko) – Colombia (note 4) (note 3)
Cofán (Kofan, Kofane, A’i) – Ecuador / S. Colombia
Cocama-Cocamilla (Kokama, Huallaga, Pampadeque, Pandequebo, Ucayali, Xibitaoan) – N. Peru
Conibo – N. Peru (note 5)
Cubeo (Kubeo, Cuveo, Kobeua, Kubwa, Kobewa, Pamiwa, Hehenawa) – N. Colombia
Cuiba (Cuiva, Kuiva, Kuiba, Kwiba, Cuiba-Wámonae) – N. Colombia / Venezuela
Culina (Kulina) – S. Peru / Brazil
Desana (Desano, Wina, Boleka, Oregu, Kusibi) – S. Colombia / Brazil
Embera (Emperã, Eberã, Atrato, Baudó, Catrú, Embena, Eyabida, Chami) – N. Colombia (note 9) (note 3)
Ese’ejja (Chama) – Bolivia / S. Peru
Guahibo (Sikuani) – N. Colombia / Venezuela
Gwanana (Guanano, Wanana, Uanano, Kotiria, Anana, Kótedia) – N. Colombia
Guarani – Bolivia / Brazil (note 3) (note 6)
Harambket (Mashco, Amarakaire, Amarakaeri) – S. Peru
Hianakota-Umana – Brazil
Huambisa (Wambisa) – N. Peru
Hupda-Maku (Hupde) – Brazil / S. Colombia
Huni Kuin (Cashinahua) – S. Peru / Brazil
Ikito (Iquito, Iquita, Amacacore, Hamacore, Quiturran, Puca-Uma) – N. Peru
Inga – N. Colombia (note 7)
Ingano – N. Colombia (note 7)
Isconahua (Iscobaquebu) – N. Peru
Ixiamas Chama (Tacana) – Bolivia
Kabuvari – Brazil
Kacha’ – Peru (location unidentified)
Kamsá (Camsa, Sibundoy, Coche) – N. Colombia
Koreguaje (Coreguaje, Correguaje, Ko’reuaju, Caquetá, Chaocha Pai) – N. Colombia
Lamistas (Lamista, Lama) – N. Peru (note 7) (note
Machiguenga (Matsikenka, Matsigenga, Matsiganga, Mañaries) – S. Peru
Mai Huna – N. Colombia
Maku (Cacua) – S. Colombia
Makuna (Macuna, Buhagana, Yeba, Suroa, Tabotiro Jejea, Umua, Wuhána, Paneroa, Jepa-Matsi, Yepá-Mahsá) – S. Colombia
Marinahua – S. Peru (note 9)
Matses (Mayoruna, Morique) – N. Peru (note 10)
Mazan – Peru (extinct)
Menimehe – Colombia (apparently extinct)
Mojo (Mojos, Moxo, Moxos) – Bolivia
Muinane (Murui, Muinana, Muinani, Muename) – S. Colombia
Napo Runa, Upper (Quijos, Napo Kichwa, Awa Napo Runa, Quichuas de Tena) – Ecuador (note 7)
Napo Runa, Lower (Orellana Runa, Uku Napo Runa) – Ecuador, N. Peru
Nheengatu (Ngengatu, Waengatu, Lingua Geral) – S. Colombia / Brazil (note 11)
Nomatsiguenga (Nomatsigenka, Atiri)- S. Peru
Noanama – N. Colombia
Omagua (Pariana, Anapia, Macanipa, Kambeba, Yhuata, Umaua, Cambela, Cambeeba) – Ecuador / Peru (note 12)
Panobo – Peru (extinct)
Pastaza Runa (Canelos, Alama) – Ecuador (note 7)
Piapoko (Piapoco) – N. Colombia
Piaroa (Kuakua, Guagua, Quaqua) – N. Colombia / Venezuela
Pioche – Colombia (note 13)
Piro (Yine, Mashco Piro, Mashco, Cujareño, Simiranch) – S. Peru
Puinave (Puinabe) – N. Colombia
Secoya – Ecuador / Colombia / N. Peru
Sharanahua – S. Peru
Shetebo – N. Peru (note 14)
Shipibo-Conibo – N. Peru
Shiwiar – Ecuador / N. Peru (note 15)
Shuar (Shuara, Jivaro, Jibaro) – Ecuador / N. Peru
Siona – Ecuador / Colombia
Taiwano – S. Colombia (note 16)
Takana – Bolivia
Tamas – Brazil
Tanimuka (Tanimuca-Retuara) – N. Colombia
Tarianas – Brazil
Tatuyo (Pamoa, Oa, Tatutapuyo, Juna) – N. Colombia
Tikuna (Ticuna, Tukuna) – Brazil / S. Colombia
Tetete – Colombia / Ecuador (extinct)
Tsachila (Colorados) – Ecuador
Tukano (Tucano) – S. Colombia / Brazil
Waorani (Huaorani. Auca) – Ecuador
Witoto (Huitoto, Minika, Bue) – S. Colombia (note 2)
Yagua (Yahua, Llagua, Yegua, Yava, Nijyamïï Nikyejaada) – N. Peru
Yaminahua (Yaminawa, Jaminawá, Yuminahua, Yamanawa, Chitonahua) – S. Peru / Brazil
Yebasama – N. Colombia
Ye’kuana (Makiritari, Maquiritare) – Venezuela
Yora (Yura, Yuranahua, Yoranahua, Parquenahua, Nahua) – S. Peru
Záparo – Ecuador / N. Peru

(1) not on Ethnologue map, classified by Ethnologue as a subgroup of Secoya
(2) divided into various subgroup areas on Ethnologue map
(3) located outside of Amazon/Guiana Shield region
(4) some Choco live in Panama, but those are not known to use Ayahuasca
(5) today virtually merged with Shipibo, but some early literature treats them separately
(6) some Guarani live in Paraguay, but there are not known to use Ayahuasca
(7) speak a dialect of Amazonian Quechua
(8) identified on Ethnologue N. Peru map as Quechua, San Martin
(9) not on Ethnologue map, classified by Ethnologue as a subgroup of Sharanahua
(10) do not use Ayahuasca currently, but did at one time and have forgotten how, some now trying to recover it
(11) not an ethnic group, but a Tupinamba-based lingua franca used by various Indians of the upper Rio Negro, by some as their language; some of the groups known to use Nhengatu are Ayahuasca users
(12) although the Omaguas (once a major power on the lower Napo and Amazon headwaters) are nearly extinct, some Omagua words survive in icaros of mestizo curanderos of Iquitos
(13) classified as Siona on Ethnologue map, but consider themselves distinct from Siona
(14) not on Ethnologue map, classified by Ethnologue as a subgroup of Shipibo
(15) classified by Ethnologue as a dialect of Achuar
(16) not on Ethnologue map, classified by Ethnologue as a subgroup of Barasana

Some groups in the above list have become extinct since reports were made; some appear to have abandoned use of Ayahuasca under missionary pressure (or it has gone underground).

For the following indigenous tribes in the traditional geographical area of Ayahuasca use, no recorded data on Ayahuasca use could be found. However, many have been little studied or observed by outsiders, so absence of reports does not necessarily mean absence of use, and in some cases (as noted below) there are reports of Ayahuasca use among other groups that are neighboring and closely related linguistically and culturally. Data from forum members is very welcomed!

Achagua (Xagua) – N. Colombia (note 1)
Ajyíninka Apurucayali – S. Peru (note 4)
Andoke (Andoque) – N. Peru / S. Colombia (note 2)
Arabela (Chiripunu) – N. Peru (note 3)
Cabiyari (Cabiuarí, Cauyarí, Kauyarí, Cuyare, Kawillary) – S. Colombia
Cacua (Báda, Kákwa) – N. Colombia
Cahuarano – N. Peru
Caquinte – S. Peru (note 4)
Carabayo (Macusa) – S. Colombia (note 3)
Carapana (Mochda, Moxdoa, Karapaná, Karapano, Mextã) – N. Colombia
Curripaco (Kurripaco) – S. Colombia (note 5)
Guayabero (Jiw, Cunimía, Mítus, Mítua) – N. Colombia (note 6)
Huachipaeri – S. Peru (note 7)
Iñapari (Iñamari) – S. Peru
Macaguan (Macaguane, Hitnü) – N. Colombia (note 6)
Miraña – S. Colombia (note
Muniche (Otanave, Otanabe, Munichino, Munichi) – N. Peru
Nanti (Kogapakori) – S. Peru (note 9)
Ocaina – N. Peru (note 10)
Piratapuyo – S. Colombia
Pisabo (Pisagua, Pisahua) – N. Peru
Resigaro (Resigero) – N. Peru
Saliba – N. Colombia
Taushiro (Pinchi) – N. Peru
Tutapi (Orejon, Oregon, Orechon, Payagua, Mai Ja) – N. Peru (note 11)
Tuyuka – S. Colombia / Brazil
Waikino (Uaikena, Piratapuyo, Urubu-Tapuya) – N. Colombia
Waimaha – S. Colombia
Yari – S. Colombia
Yukuna (Matapi (Matapie) – S. Colombia
Yuruti – S. Colombia

(1) close relatives Piapoco reported to use Ayahuasca
(2) close relatives Tikuna reported to use Ayahuasca
(3) close relatives Zaparo reported to use Ayahuasca
(4) close relatives Ashaninka reported to use Ayahuasca
(5) close relatives Baniwa reported to use Ayahuasca
(6) close relatives Guahibo reported to use Ayahuasca
(7) close relatives Harambket reported to use Ayahuasca
(8) close relatives Bora reported to use Ayahuasca
(9) close relatives Machiguenga reported to use Ayahuasca
(10) close relatives Witoto reported to use Ayahuasca
(11) close relatives Tukano reported to use Ayahuasca

The only group in the “red zone” that appears not to have used Ayahuasca in the past or present is the Shimaco (aka Shimaku, Urarani, Itucali) (Alan Shoemaker, personal communication). There are reports specifically stating that the Yagua and Candoshi do not use Ayahuasca, but other reports that they do use Ayahuasca, so they have may learned from missionaries to conceal Ayahuasca from some outsiders.

Some indigenous names for Ayahuasca (most of these names apply to both the vine and the brew):

Tupi: caapi (note 1)

Hupda: carpi

Tikuna: cipo caapi

Desana: gahpi

Siona/ Secoya: yaje (note 2); ‘iko

Kofan: yaje; cofa; oofa

Karijona: yaje

Guanano: yaja

Tukano: kaji (note 3); kadana, kadana-pira

Yebasama: kaji

Makuna: ka-hee’, kahi ide

Yekuana: sipo, cipo; kahi

Kulina: tsipu (note 6); mado, mado bidada; rami-wetsem (note 9)

Shuar: natem, natema (with final a whispered)

Achuar: natem

Huambisa: datem

Awajún: datem

Ashaninka: kamarampi (note 4); hananeroca (note 5)

Yine: kamalampi

Machikenka: ka’maranpi, kama’rampi; wampu, wamp

Embera: pinde, pilde

Chachi : pindé; nape, nepe, nepi

Tsachila: pinde, pilde; napa, nepe, nepi

Choco: nape, nepe, nepi

Noanama: dapa

Waorani: mii, miiyagi

Shipibo: nishi; oni

Conibo: uni

Amahuaca: nixi; oni xuma

Cashinahua: nixi pae

Sharanahua: shuri (note 7); ondi; rambi, rame (note

Pando: shuri; undi; rambi (note 9)

Yaminahua: shori

Marinahua: rame (note 9)

Yagua: ramanuju

Mojo: mariri

Kubeo: mi-hi

Piro: totsha

Zaparo: iyona, iona

Guarani: jauma

Kamsa: biaxii

Guahibo: uipa

Barasana: (note 10)

Ingano: inde huasca (note 11)

Quechua: ayahuasca (also spelled ayawaska) (note 12)

Uncertain: cabi; xono; shillinto; jagubi; pitujiracu; cauupiri mariri; tiwaco mariri

(1) the root kaa or caa in Tupi means “plant.” Naranjo (1983) translates caapi as “leaf to make one exhale, i.e, become a spirit.”

(2) varieties include: yai-yajé; nea-yajé; horo-yajé;weki-yajé; wai-yajé or wahi-yaje; wati-yajé; weko-yajé; hamo-weko-yajé; beji-yajé; kwi-ku-yajé; kwaku-yaje; aso-yajé; kido-yajé; usebo-yajé; ga-tokama-yai-yajé; zi-simi-yajé; bi’-ã-yajé; sia-sewi-yaje; sese-yajé or sise-yajé (“wild pig yaje,” used for hunting); so’-om-wa-wa’i-yajé (“long-vine yaje”)

(3) varieties include: kaji-riama; mene’-kají-ma; yaiya-suána-kaji-ma; kají-vaibucuru-rijoma; kaju’uri-kahi-ma; mene’-kají-ma; kají-somoma’

(4) “that which causes purging”

(5) said to mean “vine of the river of celestial youth”

(6) varieties include: tsipu-tsueni, tsipu-wetseni, tsipu-makuni

(7) varieties include shuri-fisopa, shuri-oshinipa, shuri-oshpa, shuri awu oshi, shuri awu fiso

(8) literally means change or transformation; refers to the cooked brew, to the visions, or to the songs that accompany the ceremony

(9) note 8 may apply here, but not known for certain

(10) no general name has been uncovered, but varieties include: kuma-basere; wai-bu-ku-kihoa-ma; wenan-duri-guda-hubea-ma; yaiya-suava-kahi-ma; wai-buhua-guda-hebea-ma; myoki-buku-guda-hubea-ma

(11) “sun vine”

(12) varieties include punga waska, nuknu waska, shimbaya waska, among others