The Therapeutic Use of Ayahuasca

This book tackles original ethnographies about various types of use of psychoactive plants, including ayahuasca, magic mushrooms, jurema, coca, tobacco, toé, Cannabis, snuff, sananga, kambô, yopo, timbó, and beverages such as caxiri. The chapters present a diversity of notions and practices relative to the use of such plants, highlighting the contexts of indigenous and non-indigenous uses, as well as intermediations and complex fluxes between them. The contributions discuss various themes, such as shamanism, agency, indigenous thought, gender, and performance. The different types of consumption of these substances, made by local and transnational populations, allow us to rethink classic anthropological categories such as ritual, sacred and profane, and healing. Pointing to the complexity of the contexts in which the uses of these psychoactive plants occur, this books also sheds light on the debate about the need for drug policy reform.

Herbs That Madden, Herbs That Cure: A History of Hallucinogenic Plant Use in Colonial Mexico," considers the development of the hybrid culture of hallucinogen consumption that developed in New Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Indigenous, European, African, and Asian peoples participated in the unsanctioned divinatory and medicinal use of psychoactive plants such as peyote, ololiuqui and teonanácatl mushrooms. Knowledge exchange related to these substances implied significant inter-caste interaction and influence, to the dismay of the missionary mendicant orders and the Holy Office of the Inquisition. The perpetuation of pre-Columbian forms of hallucinogen use exacerbated the efforts of the Catholic Church to eradicate remnants of Indian idolatry. The primary hindrance faced by Spanish colonial authorities regarding hallucinogen use was that colonizers generally failed to recognize the scope and importance of sacred hallucinogenic plants for Nahua peoples. The process of recognition took nearly a century, between the conquest of 1521 and the official publication of the edict against peyote in 1620. European alcoholcentrism and the weight of Renaissance demonology in the European imagination obscured the ability to perceive and eradicate hallucinogen use amongst surviving Indian communities during the earliest decades of the Spanish colonial enterprise. Inquisition transcripts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries demonstrate that Spanish clergy focused on the physical destruction of idols while neglecting other forms of worship such as hallucinogen use. This study traces the chronology of discourses that surrounded hallucinogen use in early modern New Spain by following the evolution of public and official discourses through European witchcraft treatises, colonial Natural Histories, Nahua codices, and Inquisition trial transcripts. v Acknowledgments This project would not have been possible without the support and love of many people. First and foremost I would like to thank my dissertation advisor, Fernando Operé, for his constant encouragement, patience, and feedback over the last three years. His extensive expertise and unique point of view as a historian encouraged me to grapple with the most pressing questions related to my topic. I am grateful to Professor Ricardo Padrón for his continued enthusiasm for this project, even in its earliest stages, when it was born as a chaotic epiphany in his Discourses of Empire in the Hispanic World class. Many thanks are due to Professor Allison Bigelow for offering her warm advice and encouragement throughout my writing process, and for sharing her extensive bibliographical knowledge that has been central to my work. Professor Carrie Douglass generously gave her time and guidance by way of many productive conversations concerning medicine and anthropology, all of which have helped me frame my approach. Miguel Valladares-Llata worked tirelessly to track down even the most obscure of references to help strengthen my argument and methodology. Professor William Van Norman's feedback on my first two chapters will be essential as I take this project forward. I owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Miruna Achim for her support and advice on how to navigate the Archivo General de la Nación. Her input related to my project and archival research saved me during my trips to Mexico City. I was stunned by the generosity of Professor Linda Arnold, who graciously shared all her research and resources when we met by chance at the AGN. Her contributions have significantly strengthened this project and facilitated my work. I would also like to thank my dear professors from the University of Oregon: Leah Middlebrook, Amanda Powell, Barbara May, and Luis Verano for telling me years ago that I was destined to write a dissertation. I would not have made it this far without your encouragement. vi So many of my peers at the University of Virginia have seen me through this process. For all your camaraderie and support, thank you. In particular, I would like to thank Stephanie Gates, my writing buddy, for helping me overcome my bouts of writer's block. Zack, Desiree, Sharrah, Diana, Paula, Esther, and Alicia, thank you for your friendship throughout the years. Adriana, our long walks and discussions combined with your constant encouragement were essential. My dear friend and hermana del alma Gaby Miller deserves all my gratitude for being nothing short of a dissertation angel. To the faculty and staff of the Department of Spanish, Italian & Portuguese, thank you for the emotional, financial, and academic support I have been so fortunate to receive over the past seven years. You are truly a family away from home, and for that I am grateful. And finally, I am eternally indebted to my loving family for all their love and support. My parents John and Krystal provided me with not one but two unique views of the world. My older siblings Blubird, Mysti, and Travis offered the right combination of torture and support that undoubtedly constituted my earliest preparation for the rigors of writing a dissertation. River, love of my life, thank you for carrying me through the toughest times with patience and laughter. Oliver, Theo, and Vandal, you are my guiding lights, and I love you. And finally, all my loving gratitude goes to my Grandma June, to whom I dedicate this work, for giving me her name and her fortitude. 1 For more on the treatment of indigenous peoples of Mexico as well as their rights, see "Evaluación de mitad de periodo…," by the CDI (Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas). xix Kashanipour's dissertation A World of Cures: Magic and Medicine in Colonial Yucatán also incorporates Inquisition trials as a way to root concepts of medicine and disease into the everyday experiences of colonial subjects. With regards to hallucinogens specifically, Angelica Morales Sarabia's article "The Culture of Peyote: Between Divination and Disease in Early Modern New Spain." sheds light on the dual role of peyote as divinatory aid and medicine in the early seventeenth century. Her work also considers how sixteenth-century erudite men such as royal physician Francisco Hernández, colonial physician Juán de Cárdenas and Franciscan missionary Friar Toribio de Benavente Motolínia failed to address the important role of women in hallucinogen use. 5 From the fields of ethnobotany, the work of Richard Evans Schultes and Peter Furst has shed light on the importance of these plants for indigenous communities in Mexico, while also drawing from historical references to demonstrate the resilience of native customs. In Sueño y extasis: Vision chamánicas de los nahuas y los mayas, Mercedes de la Garza has gathered information from across the disciplines in a comprehensive study of shamanic practices amongst the Nahua and Maya peoples, past and present. The compilation of essays Consuming Habits: Global and Historical Perspectives on How Cultures define Drugs edited by Jordan Goodman, Paul E. Lovejoy, and Andrew Sherratt sets the precedent for a multidisciplinary understanding of psychoactive substances in culture. These are just a sample of the many works that have influenced my approach and methodology. This study contributes to this body of work in three ways. Firstly, it synthesizes the many threads of scholarship relating to hallucinogenic plants into one multifaceted view by streaming 5 The writings of Francisco Hernández were compiled, translated, and published by Francsico Ximenez in 1615 under the title Cuatro libros de la naturaleza y virtudes medicinales de las plantas y animales de la Nueva España. Júan de Cárdenas published his Primera parte de los problemas y secretos marauillosos de las Indias in 1591. Torbio de Benavente Motolínia's writings appear in several editions. In this study I refer to Historia de los indios de la Nueva España: escrita a mediados del siglo XVI republished in 1914.

Ethnomycological Journals: Sacred Mushroom Studies , 2020

Richard Evans Schultes was the first to suggest the possibility that there may have been a cultic use of mushrooms in South America, specifically the Northeastern Andes region of the Amazon. Schultes and Hofmann noted that a Jesuit priest had mentioned that the Yurimagua of Northeastern Andes in Peru used a potion, possibly made from a tree fungus [perhaps a species of Psilocybe]. Schultes offered little information except that he mentioned the drink might have included, Psilocybe yungensis as part of the mixture. Schultes' references of that tree fungus appeared in The Botany and Chemistry of the Hallucinogens and later in an article describing some of the mushroomic gold pectorals on display at the Museo del Oro in Bogotá. In recent years, Juan Camilo Rodriguez Martinez, an amateur ethnomycologist, was residing in Bogotá, Colombia. During this period, while researching the various gold pectorals and pendant artifacts on display at the Museo del Oro in Bogotá, a particular gold pendant piqued JCRM's curiosity. It appeared that there seemed to be a possible connection between those artifacts and a few specific species of the known neurotropic fungi that occurred in Colombia. Richard Evans Schultes and Alec Bright were the first Westerners to bring to the attention of Western Civilization, news of the existence of the gold mushroomic artifacts, and pendants on display at the Museo del Oro in Bogotá, Colombia. And now it is JCRM who suggests that the ancient Muisca priests may have once used entheogenic mushrooms in a cultic manner in prehispanic Colombia. And quite possibly, the epicenter of that cultic activity occurred primarily in and around the municipality of Villa de Leyva in Boyacá, Colombia, as well as in other Departments in the surrounding regions. The Muiscas are an indigenous people native to Colombia. They are the original inhabitants of what is now the city of Bogotá and the surrounding countryside. That also includes the Cundiboyacense High Plateau to the south of the Department (State) of Santander, one of the 32 States in this beautiful country. In Colombia, botanists are aware that many entheogenic plants have medicinal value and are of spiritual significance amongst the indigenous populations who use such plants in ritual ceremonies, yet there appears to be little research in Colombia concerning the past or present use of psilocybian fungi. However, there is an online plethora of data on the ludible use of entheogenic fungi by foreign tourists. Many young foreigners come to Colombia seeking such fungi, yage, and other native medicinal entheogenic plants, often searching for new ways to communicate with God or to have some mind-altering ludible experience. The authors suggest that such ludible use of entheogenic plants, especially

Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs 2017: 50th Anniversary Symposium, 2018

Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 2015

This article offers critical sociological and philosophical reflections on ayahuasca and other psychedelics as objects of research in medicine, health and human sciences. It situates 21 st century scientific inquiry on ayahuasca in the broader context of how early modern European social trends and intellectual pursuits translated into new forms of empiricism and experimental philosophy, but later evolved into a form of dogmatism that convenienced the political suppression of academic inquiry into psychedelics. Applying ideas from the field of science and technology studies, we consider how ayahuasca's myriad ontological representations in the 21 st century -for example, plant teacher, traditional medicine, religious sacrament, material commodity, cognitive tool, illicit drug -influence our understanding of it as an object of inquiry. We then explore epistemological issues related to ayahuasca studies, including how the indigenous and mestizo concept of "plant teacher" or the more instrumental notion of psychedelics as "cognitive tools" may impact understanding of knowledge. This leads to questions about whether scientists engaged in ayahuasca research should be expected to have personal experiences with the brew, and how these may be perceived to help or hinder the objectivity of their pursuits. We conclude with some brief reflections on the politics of psychedelic research and impediments to academic knowledge production in the field of psychedelic studies.

Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 2019

Not much is known from an ethnohistorical perspective about the use of psychoactive substances in southern Central America; it is mainly through the archeological record that their presence in the past has been inferred. This article reviews evidence for the use of mind-altering plants and mushrooms in the societies that inhabited the current Costa Rican territory during pre-Columbian times, and explores the cultural significance of this activity. Historical, ethnographic, archeological, and paleobotanical information was examined and integrated with the data obtained from the analysis of 46 artifacts with a presumed linkage to psychoactive drug use that were selected from an exhaustive search in the collections of the Museums of the Central Bank of Costa Rica and the National Museum of Costa Rica. Preliminary results suggest the consumption of tobacco (Nicotiana spp. L.), morning glory (Ipomoea spp. L.), cohoba [Anadenanthera peregrina (L.) Speg.], psychedelic fungi [Amanita muscaria (L.) Lam. and Psilocybe (Fr.) P. Kumm. species], as well as various alcoholic and invigorating beverages was present in ancient times. This use was likely connected to shamanistic healing practices, social-ceremonial events, and the ritual activities of people who held positions of religious and political importance within society.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019

Over several millennia, various native plant species in South America have been used for their healing and psychoactive properties. Chemical analysis of archaeological artifacts provides an opportunity to study the use of psychoactive plants in the past and to better understand ancient botanical knowledge systems. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used to analyze organic residues from a ritual bundle, radio-carbon dated to approximately 1,000 C.E., recovered from archaeological excavations in a rock shelter located in the Lípez Altiplano of southwestern Bolivia. The site is located at an elevation of ∼3,900 m above sea level and contains evidence of intermittent human occupations during the last 4,000 years. Chemical traces of bufotenine, dimethyltryptamine, harmine, and cocaine, including its degradation product benzoylecgonine, were identified, suggesting that at least three plants containing these compounds were part of the shamanic paraphernalia datin...

Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 2018

This investigation focuses on the North Andes and includes discussion of monumental stone sculpture in the environs of San Agustín, Colombia, as well as Muisca, Quimbaya, and Darién (Sinú) goldworking traditions. Through formal and iconographic analyses of ceremonial paraphernalia, this paper shows that the primary ideologies of the cultures of this region involved the use of several psychoactive plants.

History of Science Society, 100th Annual Meeting, 2024

This paper, presented at the History of Science Society, refines and updates some of the ideas in the "Settler Colonialism and Psychedelic Plants" paper posted here two years ago. I explain some of the historiographical problems with dominant understandings of Maria Sabina in narratives about psychedelic science, and introduce some aspects of the history of the Sierra Mazateca that tend to be overshadowed by the emphasis on this story.