Tag Archives for peru

Tonight – Maria Chavez @ Roulette in NYC

Born in Peru, avant-turntablist Maria Chavez currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. With a collection of new and broken needles that she calls “pencils of sound” and a selection of records, she creates electro-acoustic sound pieces. Chavez made her New York City debut in a duet with Thurston Moore, collaborated with Otomo Yoshihide as part of the 2007 Wien Modern Festival, and recently shared a stage with Pauline Oliveros and Lydia Lunch during Vienna’s Phonofemme Festival 2009.

Saturday, March 13th @ Roulette, 8:30PM
20 Greene Street (between Canal and Grand Streets)
New York, NY 10013 (See map).

Reservations/Tickets: 212.219.8242
$15: General Admission
$10: Students, Under 30s & Seniors

November 30th in Greenpoint, BROOKLYN – Peruvian Shaman Ceremony and Rainforest Presentation


Eda Zavala Lopez is a Shaman visiting from the Rainforest of Peru. This is a rare and special opportunity to hear Lopez talk in an intimate setting on topics such as Rainforest preservation, feminine shamanism, ancient healing techniques, and other traditions passed down from her ancestors. Read on for more information:

Eda Zavala, a descendant of a lineage of healers, the pre-hispanic Wari People, is a sociologist and anthropologist. She has been living in the Peruvian Amazon, coexisting with the traditional medicine of her ancestors, for the past twenty years. Besides her practice of ancestral medicine with wise and indigenous healers, she has been researching feminine shamanism in the Amazon and works with indigenous communities to help them protect their sacred lands, save the rainforest, and preserve traditional knowledge.

Eda brings her heart and the Spirit of the Rainforest forth in this special ceremony through song, flowers, and food offering respect and gratitude to the ancient Spirits. She will also speak about the importance of preserving the Rainforest and the traditions of her people.

She is traveling in the U.S. for a limited time only, so don’t miss this rare opportunity to be in ceremony with this powerful woman who is connected to the ancient wisdom of the indigenous peoples of Peru. She is also available for individual healing sessions by appointment.

$30 donation will go to help indigenous communities of Peru and save the Rainforests.

Please RSVP to niniburke@gmail.com

Monday, November 30th, 7-9PM
97 Green Street Apt. G3 / Brooklyn, NY 11222
(See map).

Excellent article on AYAHUASCA in National Geographic

perushamans

Click here: “Peru: Hell and Back”
Deep in the Amazon jungle, writer Kira Salak tests ayahuasca, a shamanistic medicinal ritual, and finds a terrifying—but enlightening—world within.

Major praise to National Geographic for putting together the best single article on ayahuasca-as-medicine that I’ve ever seen, anywhere. Lengthy article features a first-person account of two ayahuasca treatments by courageous reporter Kira Salak, as well as commentary/information/insights from leading, sensible Western ayahuasca researchers (Charles Grob at UCLA; Benny Shanon at Hebrew University, Jerusalem; and psychologist/author Ralph Metzner) and footage of the beginning of an ayahuasca session.

Excerpt:

At the vanguard of this research is Charles Grob, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UCLA’s School of Medicine. In 1993 Dr. Grob launched the Hoasca Project, the first in-depth study of the physical and psychological effects of ayahuasca on humans. His team went to Brazil, where the plant mixture can be taken legally, to study members of a native church, the União do Vegetal (UDV), who use ayahuasca as a sacrament, and compared them to a control group that had never ingested the substance. The studies found that all the ayahuasca-using UDV members had experienced remission without recurrence of their addictions, depression, or anxiety disorders. In addition, blood samples revealed a startling discovery: Ayahuasca seems to give users a greater sensitivity to serotonin—one of the mood-regulating chemicals produced by the body—by increasing the number of serotonin receptors on nerve cells.

Unlike most common antidepressants, which Grob says can create such high levels of serotonin that cells may actually compensate by losing many of their serotonin receptors, the Hoasca Project showed that ayahuasca strongly enhances the body’s ability to absorb the serotonin that’s naturally there.

“Ayahuasca is perhaps a far more sophisticated and effective way to treat depression than SSRIs [antidepressant drugs],” Grob concludes, adding that the use of SSRIs is “a rather crude way” of doing it. And ayahuasca, he insists, has great potential as a long-term solution.

According to Grob, ayahuasca provokes a profound state of altered consciousness that can lead to temporary “ego disintegration,” as he calls it, allowing people to move beyond their defense mechanisms into the depths of their unconscious minds—a unique opportunity, he says, that cannot be duplicated by any nondrug therapy methods.

“Ayahuasca is not for everyone,” Grob warns. “It’s probably not for most people in our world today. You have to be willing to have a very powerful, long, internal experience, which can get very scary. You have to be willing to withstand that.”

Read the whole article here…

Maca: A true "Superfood" of the Andes

Maca root has been growing in the Andean mountains of Peru and Bolivia for centuries; once upon a time it was used in exchange for money to pay taxes, and as a trade for other goods (such as corn, rice, quinoa and papaya). It is also said that Incas ate large doses of it before entering battle…apparently that’s part of what made them crazed, unstoppable warriors.

These days, maca is marketed as a natural stimulant, touted by health food companies as a true “Superfood” of the Andes. Many Peruvians of all ages eat maca powder as often as 3 times daily in various ways, such as mixed into yogurt, baked into breads or cakes, or blended into smoothies. It is commonly known that maca helps to awaken the mind, thereby increasing physical energy and mental focus.

People disappointed by the recent discovery that soy products inhibit endocrine function (otherwise known as the body’s proper balance and exchange of hormones) will be happy to hear that maca supports the endocrine system. In fact, maca actively aids the body in regulating hormones and, in turn, helps to maintain emotional balance.

I was first introduced to maca when my friend Christina made “energy balls” using maca and a variety of other ingredients, rolled it into balls around 1″ in diameter. She invited me to try one, but warned me not to eat too many for they were extremely potent. I ate 3 because they tasted so good, and that night I couldn’t sleep until the wee hours of the morning…

Recently I asked her for the recipe, in case you are curious to try this for yourself (Maca Magic brand powder runs around $20 a jar at your local health food store, and lasts a few months if used every day):

recipe by Christina Wienhold

almond butter is the base of it all…..(peanut butter is too flavorful)
coconut butter is a plus….because of its richness and sweetness..
cocoa powder
or carob powder if you like the taste of it

1/2 a cup of almond butter will make a whole plate of little balls….the idea is that you get a little taste…because as you know, they are very potent…especially if made with cocoa powder only….

and let creativity flow within the recipe…
like….
add goji berries
maca powder
chili flakes
cinnamon
black pepper
dried fruit
cut up walnuts
orange peel

you want the consistency when all ingredients are mixed up to be more on the dry side…because when you roll them in the palm of your hands the oils will liquify through your warmth and it is easy to form balls…vs if the consistency is too wet you can’t roll them…

Maca also tastes great in smoothies.

Learn more about maca root and its naturally occuring phytochemicals here:

http://www.macaroot.com/

“A 4,200-year-old structure marking the summer and winter solstices that is as old as the stone pillars of Stonehenge.”

GATEWAY: Archeologist Robert Benferís team found this clay sculpture of a frowning face at the Buena Vista site near Lima. The disk, marks the position of the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice. (Robert Benfer / University of Missouri)

From the May 14, 2006 Los Angeles Times

Celestial Find at Ancient Andes Site

The discovery in Peru of a 4,200-year-old temple and observatory pushes back estimates of the rise of an advanced culture in the Americas.

By Thomas H. Maugh II
Times Staff Writer

Archeologists working high in the Peruvian Andes have discovered the oldest known celestial observatory in the Americas — a 4,200-year-old structure marking the summer and winter solstices that is as old as the stone pillars of Stonehenge.

The observatory was built on the top of a 33-foot-tall pyramid with precise alignments and sightlines that provide an astronomical calendar for agriculture, archeologist Robert Benfer of the University of Missouri said.

The people who built the observatory — three millenniums before the emergence of the Incas — are a mystery, but they achieved a level of art and science that archeologists say they did not know existed in the region until at least 800 years later.

Among the most impressive finds was a massive clay sculpture ó an ancient version of the modern frowning “sad face” icon flanked by two animals. The disk, protected from looters beneath thousands of years of dirt and debris, marked the position of the winter solstice.

“It’s really quite a shock to everyone Ö to see sculptures of that sophistication coming out of a building of that time period,” said archeologist Richard L. Burger of Yale University’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the discovery.

The find adds strong evidence to support the recent idea that a sophisticated civilization developed in South America in the pre-ceramic era, before the development of fired pottery sometime after 1500 BC.

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