{"id":26,"date":"2020-10-03T17:07:13","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T00:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/?p=26"},"modified":"2020-10-03T17:07:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-04T00:07:13","slug":"diluting-ayahuasca-how-westerners-commodify-spirituality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/2020\/10\/03\/diluting-ayahuasca-how-westerners-commodify-spirituality\/","title":{"rendered":"Diluting Ayahuasca: How Westerners Commodify Spirituality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I will admit that previously, I associated ayahuasca to VICE, Joe Rogan, and others that have introduced themselves into the modern ayahuasca narrative. I didn\u2019t know what it was and couldn\u2019t understand why it was legal in countries where most drugs are not. Upon a quick Google search after reading the articles, I found a couple of naturopaths based in Vancouver that offered ayahuasca in local retreats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upon reading Homan and Rumrill\u2019s articles on the diffusion and dilution of ayahuasca throughout the world because of its appropriation by Westerners, I began thinking of similar experiences, hallucinogens, foods, or other practices and commodities that have been commodified and cheapened throughout the world because of increased globalization and the resulting cultural appropriation. Even though I thought of many examples, the one that was most relevant to the theme of the course was quinoa. Because of the popularization of quinoa as a \u201csuperfood\u201d in the Occident, the increase in demand has resulted in the malnutrition of Peruvians, the only country which produces this grain. Here is a quick video on the subject for anyone interested. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Hdl8tzldsDY&amp;ab_channel=Channel4News<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think that although Rumrill especially seemed to have some contempt for the tourists visiting ayahuasca regions to participate in the practice and essentially contributing to the cultural dissolution of the practice, these sorts of activities are often marketed as good for the region, and therefore it makes it hard to see the harm in them if you are only staying there for a short amount of time. Also, he points to the fact that Westerners want quick fixes, and the fact that ayahuasca has obviously been marketed to them in a way that they think will provide magic solutions should moreso be attributed to the owners and operators. These articles enlightened me to the fact that there should be more regulation of how ayahuasca is operated, especially considering how dangerous it can be to people who are not ready to experience coming face-to-face with past traumas.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I will admit that previously, I associated ayahuasca to VICE, Joe Rogan, and others that have introduced themselves into the modern ayahuasca narrative. I didn\u2019t know what it was and couldn\u2019t understand why it was legal in countries where most drugs are not. Upon a quick Google search after reading the articles, I found a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-last303"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/lastgen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}