Indianscalled tabacohose leaves they set on fire to inhale thesmoke fo - PDF document

1  ÒIndiansÓcalled tabaco,hose leaves t
 ÒIndiansÓcalled tabaco,hose leaves they set on fire to inhale thesmoke for the same ÒdiabolicalÓpurpose.Smoking is in fact themost common method oftobacco use,but there are others,including licking,sucking,drinking,inhaling as snuff,and intes-tinal absorption by enema.was not until the th century that the antiquity ofplanthallucinogensÓas triggers ofshamanic ecstasy was firmlyestablished.In South America,the earliest evidence concernsSan Pedroichocereus pachanoi,lumnar cactus that is native to Peru and Ecuador.Its princi-pal visionary alkaloid is mescaline,first isolated from the pey-ote cactus in Germany in and brought to popularattention in in Aldous HuxleyÕs The Doors ofPerception.Peyote (phophora williamsii) is a small cactus native to thenorth-central Mexican desert and the lower R’o Grande valley.ist

2 orically,it was used by the Aztecs and o
orically,it was used by the Aztecs and other indigenouspeoples.For Huichols,who take peyote to be the herbal trans-formation ofa divine deer and who gather it on arduous pil-images in the state ofSan Luis Potos’,peyote stands at theheart oftheir indigenous religion.Except for sharing mescaline,and that both are succu-lents,peyote and San Pedro are unrelated.Spines ofSan Pedrohich is highly valued by Andean shamans and Mestizocuranderosand their clienteles,have been excavated in sitesdating to ut in ceramics ofthe great Chav’n civ-ilization ofPeru,which flourished around -.".,wesee the cactus,itself,in direct association with the jaguar,theprincipal animal alter egoofAmazonian shamans.The proven age ofSan Pedro use was put to shame by dis-ies in ancient Desert Culture rock shelters in southernxas.Among

3 cultural debris in these caves,archaeolo
cultural debris in these caves,archaeologistshave found two ritual intoxicants,the red bean-like seeds,mis-named Òmescal beans,ÓofSophora secundifloraflowering treenative to the southern plains;and peyote.The seeds were firstported by Cabeza de Vaca in as an item oftrade amongxas Indians,and thereafter as a ritual intoxicant in shamanis-ic initiation ceremonies sometimes called ÒDeer Dance.ÓThis ritual intoxication practice,shared by a number ofibes in the southern Plains,died out in the last quarter ofthe 19th century.The amazing thing is,that on the evidenceofradiocarbon dating,the practice endured for some tenthousand yearsÑnotwithstanding that one ofthe alkaloidsisolated from the seeds is cytisine,capable ofcausing con-ulsions and even death from respiratory failure when takenin large doses.The oldest date

4 s for ceremonial caches ofSophora secun-
s for ceremonial caches ofSophora secun-diflora .".came from a Desert Culturecave in the Trans-Pecos region ofTexas called Bonfireelter,where the caches were associated with the bones ofextinct Bison antiquust another Trans-Pecos location,ightful Cave,the earliest occurrence ofSophora was dated


...‡   Huichols have mixed feelings about the solanaceous Daturarelatives, crediting them with both good and evil powers. On a visit toandelier National Monument, an Anasazi pueblo in northern New Mexico,Guadalupe de la Cruz R’os, widow of the late Huichol shaman-artistm—n Medina, implores a large flowering Datura inoxianot to do harm. Carved slate snuff tablet and forked bird bone inhaler, excavated by MaxUhle. (Tiahuanaco, Peru.Tablet L. 4, W.2Ó; Tube L. 4, W.1 ter T. Furst; RIGHT