Bernd Brabec de Mori, an anthropologist, lived in the western Amazon for six years, immersing himself in the community and the music of eight Indigenous tribes. Initially, he believed the standard narrative of ayahuasca's ancient origins, but his research revealed a different story: many Indigenous peoples had adopted it more recently, influenced by their encounters with outsiders. Through his experience and engagement with the local Shipibo tribe, he recognized the distortions created by tourism and the misrepresentation of Indigenous traditions to cater to outsider expectations.
Most Shipibo people did not distinguish tourists from researchers; they told stories they thought were interesting to appease the audience, creating a double discourse in cultural representation.
I discovered that the narrative of ayahuasca being used for thousands of years is flimsy and is shaped by the perceptions of outsiders rather than the lived reality.
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