Agenda

16 Jan 2026 15:00

Who defines religion? Ayahuasca and the Limits of State Tolerance

Online

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF LIVED RELIGION
Lecture Series Illicit Objects, Lived Religion: Materiality, Performance, and Power

Henrique Fernandes Antunes
Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines CEBRAP, Religion in the Contemporary World research group
Who defines religion? Ayahuasca and the Limits of State Tolerance

Abstract
This presentation explores how ayahuasca has become a key site for negotiating the boundaries between religion, law, and cultural legitimacy in Brazil, the United States, and France. In Brazil, its ritual use moved from state regulation under drug control to an ongoing recognition process as intangible cultural heritage. In the U.S., litigation by religious groups secured legal exemptions from federal drug laws, reframing ayahuasca as a matter of religious freedom. In France, the same practices remain criminalized, associated with cults and moral danger. Drawing on legal cases, policy documents, and interviews, this study traces how states deploy categories such as religion, cult, and heritage to classify—and contain—difference. Ayahuasca thus reveals how democracies govern the sacred, exposing the tensions between belief, freedom, and control.

Friday 16th January 2026, 3.00pm-4.00pm CET
Online - For online participation please register at link zoom

For information please contact the Center for the Study of Lived Religion cslr@unive.it

Organized by

Department of Asian and North African Studies; Center for the Study of Lived Religion

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