Mathew Meyer

As I see it, the ways people structure their lives around the incorporation of "mind-altering" substances is one of the most interesting and unexplored facets of anthropology. From coffee drinking to toad licking, from English tea to crack houses, drugs are used to establish everyday modes of being or to alter them radically. These practices and the discourses that constitute drugs as social objects are at the center of my research. Presently my focus is on a syncretic cult in Brazil that uses the potion ayahuasca as its sacrament. I want to understand the church: 1) in its regional and historical contexts; 2) as the center of a diaspora to metropolitan centers around the globe; and 3) as a pilgrimage site for people seeking spiritual experience. At this point I see this project as part of the larger task of understanding the place of drug discourses (including production and prohibition) in the global cultural economy. I am also interested in the history of anthropology, the production of knowledge, and North American roots music.