Sustainably Sacred: The Growing Pains of Indigenous Ritual and Modern Day Consumption

Who doesn´t like the way burning palo santo or white sage makes one´s home feel and smell like a yoga studio or a sacred place in Latin America? But as the world becomes more interested in ceremonial practices from the Latino world and indigenous communities, there are growing dangers affecting both the wildlife and local communities, who have always lived peacefully with these resources, due to their newly found commercial value in the last decade. 

Some of the most heated topics of discussion on the internet these days are the ever growing use — now bordering on exploitation — of natural resource like palo santo and white sage, along with the needless slaughtering of jaguars in Latin America for the sale of their teeth and fur, popular with unexperienced ayahuasca users who travel to South America to ingest this ceremonial medicine with shamans.

While those in the wellness world purchase palo santo and white sage for cleansing and for spiritual purposes, the line between its use and exploitation isn’t always so clear. Especially since many who consume these items with good intentions are not aware of what it took to get that resource to that very zen spot of their home, which can end up being quite the opposite of woke.

Jaguars

The jaguar is important to the Amazon ecosystem and is a powerful totem in the spiritual world. Not only was the noble jaguar already facing numerous threats for its extinction ranging from habitat destruction to trophy hunting, but now these big South American cats are facing a new enemy: commercialized ayahuasca tourism. According to a team of researchers from Australia’s University of Queensland, commercialized ayahuasca tourism in South America may be an undervalued contributor to the trade in jaguar body parts. 

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew that´s made from the ayahuasca vine and chakruna leaves. Traditionally used for spiritual and physical healing in ritual shamanic ceremonies, over the years it has become popular among recreational users. The jaguar is iconic to ayahuasca culture, and newcomers to the drug would like the jaguar´s spirit to appear to them during ceremony, since it is thought that this animal spirit represents personal power.

But unfortunately, people take this idea too literally and seek canine pendants, jaguar skin bracelets, and other jaguar products under the pretense that they somehow enhance their ayahuasca experience will be improved. EcoWatch reported that the trade in jaguar body parts is growing across Latin America, particularly in Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, and Suriname. Indigenous shamans and healers denied the notion that jaguar parts enhance the ayahuasca experience for visiting tourists, and suggested that this practice is being marketed by “charlatan shamans” seeking financial gain from the ayahuasca boom.

The Bogotá and New York based research visual ethnographer, Carolina Gonzalez Hutton, who has documented ayahuasca ceremnoies throughout the world, told BeLatina: “With the purchase of these jaguar parts, the essential nature and the actual connection to a primordial ceremonial ritual are lost. All you have are these ornamental adornments and trophies, things that are paid for which is antithetical to the experience of ayahuasca.” Tourists need to be educated by the leadership of a such ayahuasca retreats in Peru, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, and other regions where it is used, so that newcomers are discouraged from purchasing jaguar parts in the future.

Palo Santo

Currently, there is a lot of buzz about the sustainability of palo santo, a piece of wood that is burned and used by many in the first world for cleansing their spaces. Palo santo´s aroma has a woodsy and resinous smell and is appealing to the olfactory system, allowing for a sense of peace. But are we only thinking about the use of it today and compromising its ability to be used by future generations? 

While palo santo isn’t threatened or endangered at this moment, the massive commercial rush to get more and more palo santo is a cause of concern to the communities living near the trees. Palo santo is used medicinally by locals throughout Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and parts of Brazil and in other regions of Latin America.

The tree has recently been added to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix II, which includes species that aren’t necessarily threatened with extinction, but due to a certain level of popularity in international trade, must be controlled in order to prevent becoming threatened, endangered or extinct. The next time you are tempted to buy some palo santo, consider using another ecologically friendlier alternative, like incense.

White Sage

North American indigenous communities have been using white sage for centuries, but it is currently so in fashion to smudge our home that stores like Urban Outfitters, Sephora, and Anthropologie are all commodifying indigenous spirituality. After the latter store received bad publicity on social media for selling white sage bundles, Anthropologie has since removed them from their shelves. 

The Huffington Post reports that Indigenous communities have not only taken issue with retail chains profiting off of their spirituality, but also the promotion of smudging as “trendy” when, for decades, indigenous people were banned from practicing it themselves. While the Indian Act did not explicitly ban smudging, it broadly outlawed indigenous religious and cultural activities, of which smudging is an integral part.

The United States Department of Agriculture acknowledges the importance of the plant, citing white sage´s medical benefits (curing colds, healing postpartum pains) and its crucial role in its surrounding ecosystem. Worse yet, white sage is under threat according to United Plant Savers due to over-harvesting in the California region. As a result of this, there now are many endangered and threatened species that rely on this plant´s habitat. The solution? Find ways that non-native people can cleanse their spaces in ways that are culturally and ecologically sensitive.