LA HOASCA EN LA UNIÓN DE VEGETALES: LEY RELIGIOSA, INTERCULTURALIDAD Y RESPONSABILIDAD SOCIAL Y MEDIOAMBIENTAL

Abstract

Composed by the decoction of the Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis plants, the Hoasca/Ayahuasca tea, immemorial in the Pan-Amazon region, demonstrates its intercultural dimension as it expands around the world. Among the religious matrices, the Centro Espírita União do Vegetal (UDV) has a significant contribution to the recognition of Hoasca's right to use ritual in Brazil and abroad, and is analyzed here, in its multicultural perspective, starting with the creation of this religion in the rubber plantations of the Amazon, its interaction with the Yudjá people, until the victory with the United States Supreme Court and its expansion to other countries in America, Europe and Oceania. The UDV, born in the midst of the forest, brings with it a caboclo culture, based on Christian moral and ethical principles, maintaining deep knowledge of nature, not only in the material as well as the spiritual dimension, where religious experience interacts with ecology and scientific research. In addition to the relevance of multiculturalism, this analysis highlights the challenges to the realization of the right to religious freedom, and the conservation of a cultural heritage of the Latin American peoples.