Definition
Santo Daime was founded in the 1930s in the state of Acre, the Northwest of Brazil, by the Afro-Brazilian Raimundo Irineu Serra, known as Mestre Irineu. The group was formally established in 1945, gained government recognition in 1971, and by the end of the twenty-first century, had begun to spread all over the world. Santo Daime’s symbolism draws primarily upon Catholicism, African religiosity, European esotericism, and Amerindian shamanism. This religion became popular mostly due to being characterized by the ritual consumption of ayahuasca, a bitter psychedelic brew prepared from the Banisteriopsis sp. vine and known for its strong psychoactive properties.
Introduction
Santo Daime is the most well-known of the Brazilian ayahuasca religions – syncretic religious movements that have emerged from the social-economic relations of the declining rubber industry between the 1930 and 1960s in the states of Acre and Rondônia in the Brazilian Amazon. These religions originated...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Assis GL, Labate BC (2014) Dos igarapés da Amazônia para o outro lado do Atlântico: a expansão e internacionalização do Santo Daime no contexto religioso global [From the igarapés of Amazonia to the other side of the Atlantic: the expansion and internationalization of Santo Daime]. Religião Soc 34(2):11–35
Labate BC (2004) A reinvenção do uso da ayahuasca nos centros urbanos [The reinvention of the use of ayahuasca in urban centers]. Mercado de Letras, Campinas
Labate BC, Araújo WS (eds) (2004) O uso ritual da ayahuasca [The ritual use of ayahuasca], 2nd edn. Mercado de Letras, Campinas
Labate BC, Cavnar C (eds) (2018) The expanding world ayahuasca diaspora. Apropriation, integration and legislation. Routledge, London/New York
Labate BC, Coutinho T (2014) O meu avô deu ayahuasca para o Mestre Irineu: reflexões sobre a entrada dos índios no circuito urbano de consumo de ayahuasca no Brasil [My grandfather gave ayahuasca to Mestre Irineu: reflections on indigenous participation in the urban circuits of ayahuasca consumption]. Rev Antropol USP 57(2):215–250
Labate BC, Rose IS, Santos RG (2009) Ayahuasca religions: a comprehensive bibliography and critical essays. MAPS, Santa Cruz
Labate BC, Cavnar C, Gearin AK (eds) (2017) The world ayahuasca diaspora: reinventions and controversies. Routledge, London/New York
MacRae E (1992) Guiado pela lua: Xamanismo e uso ritual da ayahuasca no culto do Santo Daime [Guided by the moon: Shamanism and the ritual use of ayahuasca in the Santo Daime religion in Brazil]. Brasiliense, São Paulo. Translation to English retrieved from: http://www.neip.info/downloads/edward/ebook.htm
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Santana de Rose, I. (2018). Santo Daime. In: Gooren, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_541-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_541-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08956-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08956-0
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities