ABSTRACT
Recent years have been witness to growing global-level allegations of sexual assault in contexts of yage consumption. While an apparently exceptional phenomenon, it is a scarcely recognised and studied issue. Beyond its legal and ethical implications, my goal is to propose a more in-depth and contextual explanation of the framework of social relations in which the practice of ritual consumption takes place and, as such, shed light on that which is at stake in the reconfiguration of the yagecero field. This article presents a case study carried out in Colombia and based on the capture of a renowned Neoshaman accused of sexual assault in 2015. It seeks to elucidate how, over a whole decade, this personality and his organisation provided evidence of the risks of a drift towards the sectarian as part of a Neoshamanic movement legitimized by the argument of indigenous authenticity. The author proposes an examination of the reconfiguration of the Colombian yagecero field promoted over the past thirty years by a growing process of urbanization, elitization, and internationalization, in a context whereby multiculturalism is exacerbated as a state policy. Such a transformation may be considered an interface between tradition and innovation based on which traditional yage consumption becomes available to new audiences, the ritual repertoire is amplified, new, symbolic references are introduced, and the mechanisms of the legitimacy and legality of its use are reformulated in the national and international context.
