Religious Elements in Embrace of the Serpent (2015)
Transforming the Dichotomies between an Amazonian payé and Western Expeditioners in the Wake of the Rubber Industry
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3401042 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Isaak Deman (0000-0002-7995-2631, Evangelical Theological Faculty, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 391 |
| Publication date | 2021-05-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel12060391 |
| OpenAlex | W3172595030 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
Embrace of the Serpent (2015), directed by Ciro Guerra, narrates the parallel stories of Theo and Evan whose main purpose is to find the yakruna plant in the Amazon rainforest. Both men are guided by the payé Karamakate. The first story depicts Theo's encounter with Karamakate and their travel through the Amazon for yakruna, which can cure Theo of his disease. Along the way, one comes to witness the parallel often disturbing events in the wake of colonialism, capitalism and the Catholic missionary movement. The second story narrates Evan's encounter with Karamakate three decennia later, but this time, the viewer is informed about Theo's preceding story and comes to see the devastating consequences. While Theo ultimately fails to utilize yakruna, Evan manages to find and utilize the plant, which leads him towards a radical self-transformation. In this way, Evan and Karamakate succeed where Theo and Karamakate failed. While Embrace of the Serpent has been hailed for its cinematography, its representation of the ecological decay, and the effects of Western colonialism, further reflection is needed with respect to the religious elements in the film. In doing so, this article proves that the film deals not only with the socio-political and ecological realities on the ground, but also with existential questions
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art history · Capitalism · Colonialism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Existentialism · Geopolitics · Millenarianism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Witness · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law · Philosophy
Philosophy and the Study of Religions
Manufacturing Religion
The Myth of Religious Violence
Imagining Religion
Formations of the Secular
El abrazo de la serpiente o la re-escritura del Amazonas dentro de una ética ecológica y poscolonial
The ‘enigma’ of Richard Schultes, Amazonian hallucinogenic plants, and the limits of ethnobotany
Le chamanisme aujourd’hui
The Cosmic Zygote
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |