Case file · Folklore / legend
Yacurunas and the underwater cities
Mestizo healers around Iquitos describe the yacuruna, 'water people', who live in shining cities under the rivers and can lure people below; anthropologist Luis Eduardo Luna documented this world in his 1986 study of vegetalismo.
1986 CE · -3.75, -73.25 · status: legend
The account
Vegetalistas learn from plant teachers, with ayahuasca, and can call on river spirits, mermaid-like sirenas and the great water snake yacumama. The year is that of Luna's study, not the origin of the belief.
Connections in the atlas
- Pablo Amaringo paints ayahuasca visions
- Harner's ayahuasca vision on the Ucayali
- The Chullachaqui of the Peruvian forest
- Dance of the Dolphin: the encantados
- Richard Spruce meets caapi on the Uaupés