No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Lower Pecos and Coahuila Peyote: New Radiocarbon Dates
Abstract
Peyote, a psychoactive cactus native to the Chihuahuan Desert, has been preserved from excavations at only two archaeological sites: Shumla Caves in the Lower Pecos region of southwest Texas and shelter CM-79 near Cuatro Ciénegas in Coahuila, Mexico. We determined three indistinguishable radiocarbon ages of 5160 ± 45, 5200 ± 35, and 5210 ± 35 14C years BP, yielding a mean age of 5195 ± 20 14C years BP for the three specimens from Shumla Caves. For one of the Cuatro Ciénegas specimens we obtained the first direct radiocarbon date of 835 ± 35 14C years BP. This study demonstrates the use of peyote by inhabitants of the Lower Pecos region of the Chihuahuan Desert about 6000 calendar years ago, and confirms its use by inhabitants of the Cuatro Ciénegas region of the Chihuahuan Desert in Late Prehistoric times. The Shumla Caves' specimens are composed of an aggregate of ground peyote mixed with other plant material, i.e., they appear to be manufactured peyote effigies, and are definitely not intact peyote buttons.
... Pedro dates back between 1500-1200 BC (Jay 2019: 15;Sharon 2019), it has been estimated that peyote usage dates to 5700 BC (Bruhn et al. 2002;Terry et al. 2006). When considering anthropological studies on peyote, these date to the early nineteenth century with the work of anthropologists such as Ruth Shonle. ...
... Mescaline (chemically 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine) is one of multiple alkaloid compounds found to endogenously occur in the species of cacti popularly known as peyote and San Pedro, both of which maintain millennia of traditional usage across the Americas. 8 Whereas the oldest graphic evidence for San Pedro dates between 1500-1200 BCE (Jay 2019: 15; Sharon 2019), it has been estimated that peyote usage dates to 5700 BCE (Bruhn et al. 2002;El-Seedi et al. 2005;Terry et al. 2006). Although the taxonomy of San Pedro is debated, the family of cacti is thought to have evolved approximately 30 to 40 million years ago in elevations above 2,000 meters across the Andes (Jay 2019, 17). ...
... Peyote is another of the two best-known mescaline-containing cacti with a history of traditional usage that dates back several millennia (Bruhn et al. 2002;El-Seedi et al. 2005;Terry et al. 2006). Peyote's ritual use throughout the prehistoric period in Mexico is well established (Guerra-Doce 2015), as is its transcultural diffusion among other native groups across Mexico and North America (Shonle 1925;La Barre 1938;Opler 1938;Ott 1993, 85). ...
... Most of the dates published in recent decades have been used to address narrowly focused research questions. Assays were on objects currently in curation, such as burial items (Steelman et al. 2004, Shafer 2009, Turpin 2012a, peyote effigies (Terry et al. 2006), sandals (Sonderman 2017), and coprolites (Poinar et al. 2001, Sonderman et al. 2019. Numerous other dates have been obtained from earth ovens, burned rock middens, and hearths (e.g., Cliff et al. 2003, Johnson and Johnson 2008, Roberts and Alvarado 2012, Basham 2015, Knapp 2015, and contribute to an ongoing research focus on hot rock cooking. ...
... To investigate the impact of the newest calibration curve (IntCal13) on previously published split-sample dates, I used the R_Combine command in OxCal v4.3 to average assays that purportedly date the same event. Additionally, R_Combine was used to reevaluate assays that had been averaged previously, including duplicated University of Texas assays that had been published under one lab number (i.e., Tx-622, Tx-629, Tx-633, Tx-140) and more recent assays reported both individually and as a weighted average (i.e., Steelman et al. 2004 andTerry et al. 2006 A Bayesian approach to chronological modeling is presented in Chapter 4. As discussed, a visual evaluation of radiocarbon data often results in an overestimate of the duration of the archaeological event of interest, resulting in "a fuzzy prehistory which floats timelessly across centuries, an impression of change playing out over similarly extended timescales" (Whittle et al. 2011:19). That said, the Bayesian analysis method I am employing is intended to evaluate the start and end of earth oven plant baking and evergreen rosette fiber artifact manufacture, not to deduce fluctuating use of these technologies at a high resolution. ...
Archaeological radiocarbon assays Lower Pecos were compiled (n=473), spanning the Paleoindian through Proto-historic periods, including one hundred newly reported Ancient Southwest Texas Project assays. The data set was then critically vetted to identify potentially unreliable or irrelevant dates. Using Bayesian methods, the radiocarbon data are used to investigate timing of plant baking and the manufacture of fiber goods from evergreen rosettes. Relative human population fluctuations are investigated using a summed probability distribution of radiocarbon dates. The results of these analyses are compared with environmental proxy data and radiocarbon assays dating the intermittent presence of bison in the region. Correlations in these data are preliminary yet promising and warrant further investigation with more sophisticated analyses and a larger sample size of well-reported radiocarbon data.
... Further, I. alvarius entheogen would have had to be transported from Southwest Texas ( Figure 25) along existing Indian trade routes into the American Northeast (Tanner, 1996, see map by Sanderson Associates). Peyote, found in Texas (Figure 25), retains its potency (2% mescaline) over thousands of years (Terry, Steelman, Guilderson, Dering, & Rowe, 2006), while5-MeO-DMT retains its potency over a much shorter period. Although no literature indicated how long and at what temperatures, 5-MeO-DMT remains active, if it is like is cousin, N, N-dimethyltryptamine, its salts retain their potency significantly longer than when kept in solution. ...
... Similarly made pre-Columbian visionary stone effigies appear to represent the I. alvarus toad in Figures 35 and 36. Further, the Native Americans of the Lower Pecos region of southwest Texas have a history of ritual peyote use and the manufacture peyote effigies extending back 5,000 years (Powell, 2017;Terry et al., 2006). ...
Historical documents relating to early Mormonism suggest that Joseph Smith (1805–1844) employed entheogen-infused sacraments to fulfill his promise that every Mormon convert would experience visions of God and spiritual ecstasies. Early Mormon scriptures and Smith’s teachings contain descriptions consistent with using entheogenic material. Compiled descriptions of Joseph Smith’s earliest visions and early Mormon convert visions reveal the internal symptomology and outward bodily manifestations consistent with using an anticholinergic entheogen. Due to embarrassing symptomology associated with these manifestations, Smith sought for psychoactives with fewer associated outward manifestations. The visionary period of early Mormonism fueled by entheogens played a significant role in the spectacular rise of this American-born religion. The death of Joseph Smith marked the end of visionary Mormonism and the failure or refusal of his successor to utilize entheogens as a part of religious worship. The implications of an entheogenic origin of Mormonism may contribute to the broader discussion of the major world religions with evidence of entheogen use at their foundation and illustrate the value of entheogens in religious experience.
... La evidencia arqueológica indica que las propiedades del peyote han sido reconocidas y veneradas durante miles de años por los indígenas de lo que hoy es el norte de México y el sur de Estados Unidos (El-Seedi et al., 2005;Schultes y Hofmann, 1992;Terry et al., 2006). Restos de peyote seco en sitios arqueológicos en el norte de México y el suroeste de Texas atestiguan la importancia del peyote y su uso ritual desde hace aproximadamente 5 800 y 6 000 años (Andreacchio, 2013;Cassels y Sáez-Briones, 2018;Heinrich et al., 2014;Schaefer, 2006). ...
Muchas de las sustancias psicodélicas con potencial terapéutico para la medicina moderna forman parte de la biodiversidad presente en el territorio nacional, como es el caso del peyote (Lophophora williamsii). Con el cambio de paradigma en materia de regulación de enteógenos que intenta transitar de una prohibición absoluta hacia esquemas alternativos, la discusión para desarrollar los potenciales terapéuticos del peyote en el país es pertinente. Asumimos el carácter multidimensional del problema; discutimos sobre la regulación y no sobre legalización. La posible instauración de modelos regulatorios con una tendencia a la medicalización amenaza con imponer un discurso biopolítico a expensas de las prácticas culturales del peyote y expone el conocimiento tradicional a acciones de biopiratería. Así mismo, la implementación de un modelo de apertura hacia diversos tipos de usuarios afectados por la prohibición supondría una legitimización de la presión que pone en riesgo la conservación de la especie. Ambos umbrales regulatorios aluden limitaciones de la política internacional contra las drogas y las políticas de salud pública. En este trabajo presentamos los fundamentos científicos que refutan los criterios vigentes bajo los cuales conviven normas contradictorias: la de excepcionalidad y la de prohibición.
... Shafer suggests that changes in artifact manufacturing techniques and plant utilization could be due to the arrival of a new population or culture group in the area, which either displaced or assimilated into the existing inhabitants (Shafer 2013:69-74). Evidence of mescal beans, peyote, and datura, all well-known hallucinogenic substances, also appear in the record around this time (Boyd and Dering 1996;Campbell 1958;Terry et al. 2006;Turpin and Eling Jr 2017). ...
This thesis aims to further define the characteristics of Red Linear style anthropomorphic figures, identify regional variations, and establish its temporal relationship with other regional rock art styles of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas and Coahuila, Mexico. In 2013, Boyd et al. presented a list of diagnostic attributes for the Red Linear style, shedding light on the styles unique features. Additionally, they identified 38 Red Linear figures under the Pecos River style, suggesting that the Red Linear style as either older than or contemporaneous with the Pecos River style. Building on Boyd et al.'s foundation, this thesis incorporates anthropomorphic attributes from 15 additional Red Linear sites documented during Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center’s Alexandria Project, resulting in a comprehensive list of 614 Red Linear anthropomorphs across 25 sites. Statistical and geospatial analyses were employed to
discern patterns of regional variation within the Red Linear style. To pinpoint the chronological context of the Red Linear style, I selected seven anthropomorphs with clear diagnostic Red Linear attributes for radiocarbon dating. Results derived from these figures position the Red Linear style between 4830±35 and 4275±35 RCYBP. These findings bolster Boyd et al.'s conclusions, offering an enriched understanding through absolute dating methods, pivotal for subsequent research endeavors in the region.
... Lophophora williamsii (peyote) is a typical succulent member of the Cactaceae family [37], but it has received forensic attention because of its natural mescaline (β-3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine) content. ...
Natural compounds in plants are often unevenly distributed, and determining the best sampling locations to obtain the most representative results is technically challenging. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) can provide the basis for formulating sampling guideline. For a succulent plant sample, ensuring the authenticity and in situ nature of the spatial distribution analysis results during MSI analysis also needs to be thoroughly considered. In this study, we developed a well-established and reliable MALDI-MSI method based on preservation methods, slice conditions, auxiliary matrices, and MALDI parameters to detect and visualize the spatial distribution of mescaline in situ in Lophophora williamsii. The MALDI-MSI results were validated using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Low-temperature storage at −80°C and drying of “bookmarks” were the appropriate storage methods for succulent plant samples and their flower samples, and cutting into 40 μm thick sections at −20°C using gelatin as the embedding medium is the appropriate sectioning method. The use of DCTB (trans-2-[3-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-2-methyl-2-propenylidene]malononitrile) as an auxiliary matrix and a laser intensity of 45 are favourable MALDI parameter conditions for mescaline analysis. The region of interest semi-quantitative analysis revealed that mescaline is concentrated in the epidermal tissues of L. williamsii as well as in the meristematic tissues of the crown. The study findings not only help to provide a basis for determining the best sampling locations for mescaline in L. williamsii, but they also provide a reference for the optimization of storage and preparation conditions for raw plant organs before MALDI detection.
Key Points
... Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is a small, spineless cactus with psychoactive properties, which grows in a limited area situated at the junction of southern Texas and northern Mexico. Recent archaeological studies suggest that for thousands of years before the "discovery" of America, populations living in the area of peyote growth were familiar with the plant and its psychoactive properties (Dawson 2018;Terry et al. 2006). When the Spanish encountered peyote a couple of decades after their conquest of the Aztecs, they vigorously opposed this ecological practice: the Inquisition in New Spain issued an edict of faith banning the use of peyote in June 1620 (Chuchiak 2012). ...
... Although the plasma oxidation technique was developed to date organic vehicle/binders in rock paintings, we have generally found no meaningful difference when dating other types of organic artifacts (Chaffee et al. 1993;Steelman andRowe 2002, 2004;Rowe 2005Rowe , 2009Terry et al. 2006;Armitage et al. 2012). ...
Plasma oxidation for ¹⁴ C sampling utilizes low-pressure (133 Pa), low-energy (<50 W), and low- temperature (<50°C) Ar- and O 2 -plasmas generating CO 2 for AMS dating. O 2 -plasmas on empty chambers remove organic contamination. When clean, a new specimen is inserted and Ar-plasmas dislodge adsorbed atmospheric CO 2 from surfaces. Finally, O 2 -plasmas oxidize organic materials to CO 2 for AMS analysis. During some Ar-plasmas we observed anomalous pressure increases and unexpectedly high CO 2 . Residual gas analysis detected water, hydrogen and oxygen species with Ar and CO 2 indicating water plasmas that produced excited oxygen species that prematurely oxidized specimen organic matter. Evolution of excess CO 2 during Ar cleaning compromises the ability to affirm that atmospheric CO 2 was removed. Standards, TIRI Belfast Pine and VIRI I Whalebone, were dated to determine whether water-induced oxidation was a confounding influence in dating. TIRI wood was sampled twice, once a water-soaked specimen in an Ar plasma and once with water-vapor-plasma only. The TIRI dates agreed with six earlier dates on usual specimens. A colloidal extract from VIRI I whale bone was also sampled and dated twice using both water–plasma oxidation in an Ar-plasma and in an O 2 -plasma. Dating agreement suggests that water plasmas do not pose undue risks of contamination.
... Hunter-gatherer groups occupied these shelters throughout the Holocene, leaving behind one of the best-preserved and longest records of Native American lifeways in North America (Turpin, 1991;Shafer, 2013). Excavation of dry rock shelter deposits has yielded a wide assemblage of artifacts, such as tools made from stone, bone, and wood, and items made from plant fibers such as baskets, sandals, and cordage (Shafer, 1986;Boyd and Dering, 1996;Terry et al., 2006). Mobiliary art in the form of small painted pebbles, engraved stone plaquettes, and freshwater mussel shells are not uncommon in the dry shelters (Parsons, 1986;Castañeda et al., 2019a). ...
The Lower Pecos Canyonlands was the first study area where the method of plasma oxidation was employed to extract organic material from prehistoric rock paintings for accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating. During the developmental phase of this method, Rowe's laboratory at Texas A&M University obtained 32 radiocarbon measurements for Lower Pecos rock art: 29 dates for 16 paintings of the Pecos River style, and 3 additional dates for paintings of other styles found within the region. We evaluate these legacy dates based on contextual, compositional, and measurement elements, concluding that these experimental results are problematic and should not be used to draw archaeological conclusions. Building on knowledge gained during the development of the technique, Rowe established field and laboratory methods to address issues impacting the reliability and precision of radiocarbon results. Steelman's laboratory at Shumla Archaeological Research & Education Center has implemented these and additional protocols, including: (1) proper documentation of sampling locations so that the provenience of the sample is known (contextual); (2) analysis of unpainted control background samples to identify the presence or lack of contaminants in the rock substrate (compositional); (3) chemical pretreatment with base to remove any potential humic acid contamination (compositional); and (4) improved laboratory procedures to ensure that laboratory contamination is avoided (measurement). Using this methodology, Steelman's laboratory has obtained eleven radiocarbon results for four rock art sites in the region: 6 dates for Pecos River style paintings; 1 date for a red zigzag painting of another style; and 4 oxalate minimum/maximum ages. Three of these AMS measurements are from a single composition and pass a χ²-test consistent with being coeval. To our knowledge, this data also presents the first minimum, direct, and maximum age for a single pictograph. This review suggests that future dating research in the region will produce a refined chronology for age comparisons between different rock art sites, painting styles, and even sub-styles – adding to our knowledge of the hunter-gatherers who lived in this painted landscape.
... Rockshelters here contain some of the best-preserved and longest records of hunting and gathering lifeways in North America, from 13,000 years ago to European contact (McCuistion, 2019). Preserved within these dry rockshelters are deeply stratified deposits containing a wide assemblage of artifacts, such as tools made from wood, stone, and bone, matting, basketry, snares, fire-starting kits (Shafer, 2013), and medicinal and sacramental plants (Boyd and Dering, 1996;Terry et al., 2006). Preserved on the walls of these rockshelters are rock paintings, or pictographs, spanning greater than four thousand years of production (Kirkland and Newcomb, 1967;Shafer, 1986;Turpin, 1990Turpin, , 1995Boyd, 2003Boyd and Cox, 2016;Harrison Macrae, 2018). ...
This study demonstrates a novel approach to overcoming challenges associated with obtaining reliable radiocarbon dates for rock paintings. Using two independent methods, we obtained ages for Pecos River style paintings at Eagle Cave in Langtry, Texas. The first method employed plasma oxidation to isolate organic carbon directly from the paint layer for accelerator mass spectrometry C-14 measurement. The second method treated mineral accretion layers with phosphoric acid to isolate calcium oxalate for plasma oxidation cleaning, combustion, and C-14 measurement to obtain minimum and maximum ages for the paintings. Radiocarbon dates for the paintings are statistically indistinguishable, with a weighted average of 3280 ± 70 years BP calibrated to 1740-1420 cal BC (3690-3370 cal BP) at 2 sigma (95.4%) probability. Radiocarbon assays obtained for the overlying accretion layers are younger and underlying accretion layers are older. The chronological stratigraphy of the accretion and paint layers supports the validity of both dating methods. With accurate and reliable dating methods, rock paintings in the region can be studied alongside excavated cultural deposits to provide a more complete understanding of this hunter-gather society. These methods for dating rock paintings can be applied to many rock art provinces around the world.
... The Aztec origin of the word "peyote" suggests that, for thousands of years before the "discovery" of America, populations living in the area of peyote growth along the lower Rio Grande and south into Mexico as far as Querétaro, were familiar with the plant and its psychoactive properties; recent archeological studies indicate that peyote is likely to have been known and used by native North Americans since at 5700 years ago (El-Seedi et al. 2005;Terrya et al. 2006). It can thus be assumed that the peyote cactus has been used for millennia as an entheogen 1 by American indigenous peoples and cherished for its curative properties, where it has been employed to treat such varied ailments as toothache, labor and breast pain, fever, skin diseases, rheumatism, diabetes, colds, and blindness (Schultes 1938). ...
This paper explores the complex evolution of the role anthropologists have played as cultural experts in the regulation of the entheogenic use of the peyote cactus throughout the 20th century. As experts of the “peyote cult”, anthropologists provided testimonies and cultural expertise in the regulatory debates in American legislative and judiciary arenas in order to counterbalance the demonization and prohibition of the medicinal and sacramental use of peyote by Native Americans through state and federal legislations. In the meantime, anthropologists have encouraged Peyotists to form a pan-tribal religious institution as a way to secure legal protection of their practice; in 1918, the Native American Church (NAC) was incorporated in Oklahoma, with its articles explicitly referring to the sacramental use of peyote. Operating as cultural experts, anthropologists have therefore assisted jurists in their understanding of the cultural and religious significance of peyote, and have at the same time counseled Native Americans in their interaction with the legal system and in the formatting of their claims in appropriate legal terms. This complex legal controversy therefore provides ample material for a general exploration of the use, evolution, and impact of cultural expertise in the American legal system, and of the various forms this expertise can take, thereby contributing to the contemporary efforts at surveying and theorizing cultural expertise. Through an historical and descriptive approach, the analysis notably demonstrates that the role of anthropologists as cultural experts has been marked by a practical and substantive evolution throughout the 20th century, and should therefore not be restrictively understood in relation to expert witnessing before courts. Rather, this paper underlines the transformative and multifaceted nature of cultural expertise, and highlights the problematic duality of the position that the two “generations” of anthropologists involved in this controversy have experienced, navigating between a supposedly impartial position as experts, and an arguably biased engagement as advocates for Native American religious rights.
... After a more careful analysis, it has been determined that these plant findings, previously classified as peyote buttons, were in reality aggregates of ground cactus along with other unidentified plants, which were given a similar rounded and flattened shape and size to those of real peyote buttons. Chronological analyses performed on three of these conglomerates have enabled a dating to the Eagle Nest subperiod of the Middle Archaic Period of the Texan tradition, with absolute ages of around 3200 BC (Terry, Steelman, Guilderson, Dering, & Rowe, 2005). ...
Modern sophisticated archeometric instruments are increasingly capable of detecting the presence of psychoactive plant sources in archeological contexts, testifying the antiquity of humanity’s search for altered states of consciousness. The purpose of this article is to provide a general picture of these findings, covering the main psychoactive plant sources of the world, and identifying the most ancient dates so far evidenced by archeology. This review is based on the archeological literature identifying the presence of psychoactive plant sources, relying on original research documents. The research produced two main results: (a) a systematization of the types of archeological evidence that testify the relationship between Homo sapiens and these psychoactive sources, subdivided into direct evidence (i.e., material findings, chemical, and genetic) and indirect evidence (i.e., anthropophysical, iconographic, literary, and paraphernalia); and (b) producing a list of the earliest known dates of the relationship of H. sapiens with the main psychoactive plant sources. There appears to be a general diffusion of the use of plant drugs from at least the Neolithic period (for the Old World) and the pre-Formative period (for the Americas). These dates should not to be understood as the first use of these materials, instead they refer to the oldest dates currently determined by either direct or indirect archeological evidence. Several of these dates are likely to be modified back in time by future excavations and finds.
... This compendium of radiocarbon dates from North Central Mexico was compiled because students and researchers in these two states have no access to many of the reports in which the dates are given so they are essentially doomed to reinvent the wheel. Much later, peyote from the burial cave CM79 was dated along with samples from Texas by Terry et al. (2005). ...
The addition of 108 radiocarbon assays to the 268 dates reported in 1991 does not measurably alter the age estimates of a 10-part chronology originally proposed by David S. Dibble. None of the assays run in the last 27 years notably change the overall prehistoric trajectory of the Lower Pecos region, especially when it is recognized that the putative boundaries are fluid and permeable. Twenty-six dates, 24 of which are new, on bundled burials confirm that they are primarily a Late Archaic/Blue Hills mortuary practice. In general, sinkhole burials are earlier and cremations range from 380 to 2100 yBP. Various fiber features and artifacts in dry rock shelters gained in representation largely due to the inclusion of 41TE307, a small site on the far western periphery of the Lower Pecos, and to targeted subjects, such as sandals, painted mats and bundled burials. Many of the other dates are however derived from thermal features, such as burned rock middens and exposed hearths, to the degree that suggests it is probably time to concentrate on other aspects of the material culture. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 88/2017
... In archeology study, if an object contains carbon and unsure of its age, the radioisotope of Carbon-14 is used to determine its age. This process is called as radiocarbon dating (Terry et al., 2006;Richter et al., 2009;Joris et al., 2008). ...
Radioisotopes can be defined as the radioactive isotopes of an element. They refer to the atoms that contain an unstable combination of neutrons and protons. The combination can occur naturally or by altering the atoms. Nowadays, radioactive materials have become major contributing pollutants for a lot of cases of disability and mortality in all over the world. They have become a serious fear of the human, environment, and aquatic organism, although they are exposed to low levels of exposure. Therefore, to overcome these problems, the effective and easier prevention strategies should be taken and encouraged by all related parties such as industries, residents, and government. Radioisotope becomes as an essential part in medical, radiography and other fields of research including the environmental study. One of the applications is they can be used as the indicators in order to identify the pollutant sources. This method can be applied in surface water around industrial area and non-industrial area. As the example, the standard limit concentration of Uranium is 10ppb while for Thorium is 0.50 ppb. The study regarding radioisotope usually uses analytical instruments, for example, Inductively Coupled-Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). Basically, this paper will give ideas on overview of radioisotope study and reference for acquiring a better quality of surface water in the present and future by using the environmental forensic study application.
... This is turn suggests that these Caddo, either through intermediaries or through pilgrimages of their own, had knowledge of or had journeyed to the peyote gardens of southern Texas (e.g. El-Seedi et al. 2005;Terry et al. 2006) long before they had the horse. The rim panel has a continuous scroll engraved motif (Thurmond 1990: Figure 6f) repeated four times around the vessel (Figure 147). ...
... Entre las plantas americanas con efecto psicoactivo se destacan Erythroxylum coca (coca), Banisteriopsis caapi (yajé o ayahuasca), Lophophora williamsii (peyote), Echinopsis lageniformis (achuma), Nicotiana tabacum (tabaco) Anadenanthera colubrina y A. peregrina (vilca o cebil) y ciertas variedades de hongos (Schultes y Hofmann, 1980y 2000Smet, 1985;Carlini, 2003;Nichols, 2004;Halpern y Sewel, 2005). Evidencia temprana del uso de sustancias psicoactivas involucran semillas de peyote y de Sophora secundiflora halladas con restos botánicos del vegetal alucinógeno Ugnadia speciosa, en varios sitios arqueológicos de Texas y el norte de México, con fechas estimadas entre 6440 y 5000 A.P. (Schultes y Hofmann, 1980;Furst, 1994;Terry et al., 2006). ...
In order to contrast the hypothesis of the existence of a vast cultural exchange network between the Amazon Region, the Central Altiplano and the Pacific coast, the archeological evidence related to the consumption of psychoactive substances in Northern Chile is examined. The avail-able evidence is interpreted configuring some propositions concerning the manners of handling and the possible pharmacotherapy associated to the consumption, to place this praxis in a more specific cultural geographical and chronological context.
... Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is a small cactus of the Chihuahuan Desert and Tamaulipan Thornscrub regions of the Borderlands of Mexico and Texas ( Fig. 1) that has a history of human use dating back at least 6,000 years (Terry et al. 2006). Currently its principal uses are medicinal sensu lato, including ceremonial use in meetings of the Native American Church (NAC), an organization which was founded in Oklahoma in 1918 (Stewart 1987) and which has subsequently spread to include congregations throughout the 50 states as well as Canada and Mexico (Terry, pers. ...
The peyote cactus, Lophophora williamsii, is presently classified as a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance in the USA, with an exemption for use as a sacrament in bona fide religious ceremonies of the Native American Church (NAC). Any botanist or other researcher seeking to work with peyote or any of its alkaloids, must comply with applicable (nontrivial) regulatory requirements. This paper presents an examination of the prohibition efforts that paved the way for current peyote regulation, accompanied by documentation of the religion-based political origins of such efforts, which involved the "acculturation" of Native Americans (i.e., the destruction of American Indian cultures). We also look at the historical emergence of a nationally organized and coordinated effort by missionaries and other prohibitionists to sell a federal anti-peyote law to Congress, which manifested itself repeatedly over a period of more than fifty years, before finally realizing success in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. In view of ongoing changes in the legal/regulatory status of Cannabis sp. (another Schedule 1 plant that was targeted for illegality during the prohibitionists' rise to political predominance), we compare and contrast the two plants with speculation on peyote's future.
... This is turn suggests that these Caddo, either through intermediaries or through pilgrimages of their own, had knowledge of or had journeyed to the peyote gardens of southern Texas (e.g. El-Seedi et al. 2005;Terry et al. 2006) long before they had the horse. The rim panel has a continuous scroll engraved motif (Thurmond 1990: Figure 6f) repeated four times around the vessel (Figure 147). ...
... C-14 is commonly used as a marker in geology and archaeology. It makes it possible to determine the age of objects dating back to more than 40,000 years [33][34][35][36]. ...
Radioactive isotopes, both natural and artificial, present in the environment, may be convenient indicators that can be used to study many physical and chemical processes as well as the transport of pollutants in the ecosystem. The studies have shown that in identification of particulate matter emission sources a radioactive lead isotope (Pb-210) can be used. The Pb-210 increased activity concentration in the top soil layers suggests its current atmospheric deposition. This conclusion is confirmed by the results of the Principal Components Analysis, conducted using the measured radionuclide content in 0-30 cm deep soil layer samples.
... The Native American Church (NAC) is a modern permutation of the sacramental and religious use of peyote in North America; a practice that archaeological evidence suggests is several thousand years old (Adovasio and Fry 1976;Bruhn et al. 1978;Terry et al. 2006). While evidence indicates that some American Indian groups have practiced a form of peyote religion, or peyotism, for several hundred years, the expansion of these religious practices across the United States did not take place until the late nineteenth century (Anderson 1980;La Barre 1975;Slotkin 1956;Stewart 1987). ...
This chapter will seek to outline the parameters of the “Trust Responsibility” as it relates to protections for the religious use of peyote by American Indians, to explain the significance of this doctrine in the preservation of tribal entities and American Indian culture, and to examine its shortcomings in relation to the preservation of the cultural institution of peyotism. Since American Indians first received a federal exemption for religious use of peyote in 1965, many groups seeking legal protection for the religious use of psychoactive substances have sought to capitalize on this exemption in the form of an Equal Protection challenge, arguing that their religious use of psychoactive drugs is parallel to the American Indian use of peyote. In many of these cases, the Native American Church has taken an opposing legal stance, one that is often misunderstood or mischaracterized. These Equal Protection challenges can be seen as threatening the unique political status of American Indians, embodied in the Trust Responsibility, a circumstance generally unrecognized by religious challengers. The importance of the Trust Responsibility will be examined in light of these Equal Protection challenges, and further critical examination of this doctrine will be made to understand how it has been used to exclude some American Indians, and how the static views of culture and cultural identity inherent in this doctrine may ultimately threaten, rather than preserve, traditional American Indian practices such as peyotism.
... Coult.), a psychoactive cactus occurring only in the United States and Mexico, is just one example of such a plant. Archaeological evidence suggests that the unique properties of peyote have been recognized and revered by indigenous Americans for thousands of years (EL-SEEdi et al. 2005, tErry et al. 2006, and modern peoples continue to use the cactus as a religious sacrament, including the Huichol, Tarahumara, and members of the Native American Church (NAC). Among Native American peyotists (adherents of the peyote religion) peyote is considered a sacrament and a deity, and is highly regarded as both a physical and spiritual medicine. ...
For thousands of years indigenous communities throughout the globe have recognized the therapeutic value of particular hallucinogenic plants. Peyote, a psychoactive cactus, is considered a medicine by many Native Americans, and has been hailed as a cure for alcoholism despite having no “scientifically” accepted medical use. The notion that hallucinogenic compounds may have therapeutic applications, however, is increasingly supported by scientific research. Despite the heavy focus of allopathic medicine on pharmacology, the therapeutic value of peyote must be understood in holistic terms. By uniting Gordon CLARIDGE’s work on the Total Drug Effect with the work of MOERMAN and JONAS on the Meaning Response, and with Toksoz KARASU’s Agents of Therapeutic Change, a therapeutic model emerges that can explain how the symbolic, ritual, and community components of the peyote ceremony combine with peyote’s distinctive pharmacological properties to produce a unique and efficacious healing experience.
... Throughout the Late Pleistocene, into and during the Holocene, humans occupied Northern Mexico and Southern USA. The Coahuilan Indians of the CCB are known to have been nomadic hunter-gatherers but conditions were wetter during the Late Pleistocene into the Holocene in these now arid/semi-arid areas making living conditions more favourable, leading to long periods of human occupation and producing well stratified archaeological cave deposits in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin [Palmer, 1882;Taylor, 1956Taylor, , 1964Taylor, , 1966Taylor, , 1968Taylor, , 2003Terry et al., 2006 (Cervus canadensis) and buffalo (Bison bison) [Gilmore, 1947]. The species present within this complex suggest a cooler, wetter climate than today. ...
With over 200 pools, lakes and rivers supporting over 70 species of endemic flora and fauna, the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin, Coahuila, NE Mexico is an extremely important and extensively studied area in terms of conservation. The palaeoenvironment, however, is relatively understudied with only two reconstructions published to date – Meyer [1973] and Minckley and Jackson [2008]. This project has analysed a 15 m carbonate sediment core for multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental information and combined this with stable isotope, modern hydrological and geoarchaeological information in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin.
This study has analysed water samples from 26 of the >200 pools, lakes and rivers in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin suggesting an evaporative through-flow system, buffered by groundwater reservoirs. Analysis of stable δ18OCARB, δ13CDIC and δ13CORGANIC isotopes as well as pollen analysis, 14C AMS and U-series dating techniques has allowed a chronologically well constrained palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin. The results of this study suggest the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin contains palaeoenvironmental information spanning at least the Late Pleistocene (~85 ka BP) to the present and has undergone extensive environmental and climatic change, controlled by stadial-interstadial cycles. Data analysed in this study suggest that stadial conditions are climatically wetter, increasing the presence of temperate vegetation types and moisture availability from groundwater discharge. Interstadial conditions are climatically variable, punctuated by high variability in groundwater discharge and increased presence of arid vegetation species.
This study reports a new in situ human footprint trackway, combining the use of stable isotopes and U-series dating, placing the footprint locality at 7.24 ka BP during a climatically wetter period of the Holocene (Unit 7). The results of this study suggest the importance of temperate vegetation types e.g. Carya during this wetter period of the Holocene. The presence of nut and seed bearing vegetation would have provided sustenance to the Coahuilan Indians and also emphasises the importance of a groundwater reservoir in this arid region of northern Mexico, effectively buffering the hydrological system in climatically variable interstadial conditions
... Hypotheses ascribing motivation to produce the rock art generally involve ritualistic activities, including those associated with scalar stress related to the increased population density (Turpin 1990b), religious ceremony and cosmological beliefs (Boyd 1996(Boyd , 2003. There are also elements depicting peyote buds in the rock art that connect to the use of hallucinogens (Boyd and Dering 1996), and actual peyote buds have been discovered in several archaeological excavations in the region (Terry et al. 2006). More recently, Sobolik (2008) suggested that the pictographs were produced as territorial markers for the semi-migratory population practising the seasonal round subsistence strategy (Shafer 1981). ...
The likely sources of iron-oxide pigments used in prehistoric rock paintings in the Lower Pecos Archaeological Region were identified on the basis of chemical fingerprinting using LA–ICP–MS. The chemical signatures of 13 red rock paint samples collected from two south-west Texas sites were compared with three potential source materials (ochre, siltstone and rhyolite), and two pigment cakes (crayons) that were excavated near the sampling sites. The significant chemical similarities between the paint and siltstones suggest that siltstone was used as the source of the colour. The overlapping chemical signatures for one of the pigment cakes and siltstone further suggests that some of the prehistoric people inhabiting the area 3000–4000 years ago had acquired the skills to extract iron oxide from siltstone and process it into paint pigments.
... El uso ritual del peyote en la prehistoria americana tiene una antigüedad superior a los 5.000 años. Así, se han encontrado en Cuatro Ciénagas, Coahuila, México y en la cueva de Shumla, en Texas, restos de peyote asociados a un contexto ritual y a otros elementos chamánicos, como sonajeros rituales de escápula de ciervo, varillas y raspadores de hueso y cánulas con incienso 15 . Numerosas culturas mesoamericanas, incluidos mayas y aztecas, lo consumieron. ...
Resumen
Introducción
El continente americano es rico en hongos y plantas psicoactivas, y numerosas culturas precolombinas mesoamericanas las emplearon con fines mágicos, terapéuticos y religiosos.
Objetivos
Se revisan las evidencias arqueológicas, etnohistóricas y etnográficas del uso de sustancias alucinógenas en Mesoamérica.
Resultados
Cactus, plantas y hongos alucinógenos se utilizaron para provocar estados alterados del nivel de conciencia en ceremonias rituales y curativas. Los mayas ingerían el balché (hidromiel y extracto de Lonchocarpus) en ceremonias grupales para lograr la embriaguez. También emplearon enemas rituales con sustancias psicoactivas para inducir estados de trance. Olmecas, zapotecas, mayas y aztecas usaron el peyote, los hongos alucinógenos (teonanacatl: Psylocibe spp.) y las semillas de ololiuhqui (Turbina corymbosa), que contienen mescalina, psilocibina y amida del ácido lisérgico, respectivamente. La piel del sapo Bufo spp. contiene bufotoxinas, con propiedades alucinógenas y fue usado desde el periodo olmeca. El toloache (Datura estramonio), el tabaco silvestre (Nicotiana rustica), el lirio de agua (Nymphaea ampla) y la hoja de la pastora (Salvia divinorum) se utilizaron por sus efectos psicotropos. Piedra fúngicas de 3.000 años de antigüedad se han encontrado en contextos rituales en Mesoamérica. Las evidencias arqueológicas del uso del peyote se remontan a más de 5.000 años. Diversos cronistas, entre ellos Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, relataron sus efectos en el siglo xvi.
Conclusiones
El empleo de sustancias psicotrópicas fue muy común en las sociedades precolombinas mesoamericanas. En la actualidad chamanes y curanderos locales las siguen usando en ceremonias rituales.
... El uso ritual del peyote en la prehistoria americana tiene una antigüedad superior a los 5.000 años. Así, se han encontrado en Cuatro Ciénagas, Coahuila, México y en la cueva de Shumla, en Texas, restos de peyote asociados a un contexto ritual y a otros elementos chamánicos, como sonajeros rituales de escápula de ciervo, varillas y raspadores de hueso y cánulas con incienso 15 . Numerosas culturas mesoamericanas, incluidos mayas y aztecas, lo consumieron. ...
INTRODUCTION: The American continent is very rich in psychoactive plants and fungi, and many pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures used them for magical, therapeutic and religious purposes. OBJECTIVES: The archaeological, ethno-historical and ethnographic evidence of the use of hallucinogenic substances in Mesoamerica is reviewed. RESULTS: Hallucinogenic cactus, plants and mushrooms were used to induce altered states of consciousness in healing rituals and religious ceremonies. The Maya drank Balché (a mixture of honey and extracts of Lonchocarpus) in group ceremonies to achieve intoxication. Ritual enemas and other psychoactive substances were also used to induce states of trance. Olmec, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec used peyote, hallucinogenic mushrooms (teonanacatl: Psilocybe sp.) and the seeds of ololiuhqui (Turbina corymbosa), that contain mescaline, psilocybin and lysergic acid amide, respectively. The skin of the toad Bufo sp. contains bufotoxins with hallucinogenic properties, and was used since the Olmec period. The jimson weed (Datura stramonium), wild tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), water lily (Nymphaea ampla) and Salvia divinorum were used for their psychoactive effects. Fungal stones dating from 3000 BC have been found in ritual contexts in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence of peyote use dates back to over 5000 years. Several chroniclers, mainly Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, described their effects in the sixteenth century. CONCLUSIONS: The use of psychoactive substances was common in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies. Today, local shamans and healers still use them in ritual ceremonies in Mesoamerica.
This book reevaluates Carl Jung’s ideas in the context of contemporary research in the evolutionary sciences.
Recent work in developmental biology, as well as experimental and psychedelic neuroscience, have provided empirical evidence that supports some of Jung’s central claims about the nature and evolution of consciousness. Beginning with a historical contextualisation of the genesis of Jung’s evolutionary thought and its roots in the work of the 19th century Naturphilosophen, the book then outlines a model of analytical psychology grounded in modern theories of brain development and life history theory. The book also explores research on evolved sex based differences and their relevance to Jung’s concept of the anima and animus.
Seeking to build bridges between analytical psychology and contemporary evolutionary studies and associated fields, this book will appeal to scholars of analytical and depth psychology, as well as researchers in the evolutionary and brain sciences.
Free preview chapter and full book for purchase at Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Carl-Jung-and-the-Evolutionary-Sciences-A-New-Vision-for-Analytical-Psychology/Clark/p/book/9781032624518
Also available for purchase on Amazon.
Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is an entheogenic and medicinal cactus native to the Chihuahuan desert. The psychoactive and hallucinogenic properties of peyote are principally attributed to the phenethylamine derivative mescaline. Despite the isolation of mescaline from peyote over 120 years ago, the biosynthetic pathway in the plant has remained undiscovered. Here, we use a transcriptomics and homology-guided gene discovery strategy to elucidate a near-complete biosynthetic pathway from l-tyrosine to mescaline. We identified a cytochrome P450 that catalyzes the 3-hydroxylation of l-tyrosine to l-DOPA, a tyrosine/DOPA decarboxylase yielding dopamine, and four substrate-specific and regiospecific substituted phenethylamine O-methyltransferases. Biochemical assays with recombinant enzymes or functional analyses performed by feeding putative precursors to engineered yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) strains expressing candidate peyote biosynthetic genes were used to determine substrate specificity, which served as the basis for pathway elucidation. Additionally, an N-methyltransferase displaying broad substrate specificity and leading to the production of N-methylated phenethylamine derivatives was identified, which could also function as an early step in the biosynthesis of tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids in peyote.
Lophophora williamsii (Lem. ex J.F.Cels) J.M.Coult., known under the vernacular name peyote, is one of the most popular and well-known cactus because of its powerful psychoactive properties. Nonetheless, the authority of its basionym, Echinocactus wil-liamsii Lem. ex J.F.Cels, has erroneously been attributed to Joseph zu Salm-Reifferscheid-Dyck and dated from 1845. Herein, we bring to light that the first description was provided by the French horticulturist Jean François Cels in 1842. A historical review of the nomenclature behind this species is provided and the name neotypified. Given that the later isonym by Salm-Reifferscheid-Dyck is being proposed for conservation, the implications of our finding are discussed.
Through a socio-legal and historical exploration of ecological controversies, this dissertation attempts to demonstrate the following thesis: that Western legal systems have historically tended to exclude the ecological practices and traditions of indigenous and other marginalized communities; and that the emergence and progressive structuration of discourses and legal regulations aiming at the protection of the environment have not resulted in a structural questioning of these dynamics. Yet, despite these patterns of discrimination within the law, our inquiry shall reveal that there exist a variety of avenues that could allow more inclusive legal arrangements, recognizing the ecological pluralism inherent to every human society. Can marginalized minorities, and most notably indigenous communities, be prevented from hunting endangered species, living in protected areas or using psychoactive substances, when these prohibitions violate their core ecological values? Under what conditions can legal institutions find a way beyond ethnocentrism and articulate ecological pluralism despite persisting colonial legacies? These are among the questions that this dissertation endeavors to address.
This book examines the scholarly work of Terence Grieder, an early pre-Columbian art historian of wide-ranging interests and often provocative stances. Through a series of topical essays focused a variety of Pre-Columbian art historical topics, former students, professional colleagues, and other intellectual descendants discuss his major ideas through examples drawn from their own work. The work of those he mentored and interacted with is, in the end, the most important testament to his continuing influence in the field.
An early 1980s University of Texas (UT) radiocarbon (¹⁴C) decay-based assay of colon contents from mummy SMM recovered from southwest Texas (41VV656) placed the death at 1150 ± 70 ¹⁴C years ago. This mummy of a “relatively tall, gracile adult male” was discussed in some detail in a comprehensive paper on Late Archaic mortuary practices in the Lower Pecos River region. The megacolon of the mummy was described as a condition that is usually associated with Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. A red colored deerskin strap had encircled the mummy, restraining the distended colon, and a portion of the strap was submitted for additional radiocarbon dating to test the reliability of the original UT date. Using low energy plasma radiocarbon sampling (LEPRS) at the Office of Archaeological Studies, Center for New Mexico Archaeology, we extracted CO2 by oxidation of organic material from four pieces of the strap and obtained eight ¹⁴C dates at the ETH-Zürich MICADAS AMS facility. Multiple samples were prepared to deal with the possibility of contamination from lacquer/shellac/varnish that was probably applied during the 1930s and of contamination from decades of handing. Our best estimate of the age of that burial is an average of four dates on a piece of the strap where all surfaces had been physically removed to avoid potential surface contamination. This average is 780 ± 30 ¹⁴C years BP, 370 years more recent than the previous UT determination. It is likely that the original radiocarbon date is incorrect, and the difference is consistent with two other redatings of UT ¹⁴C dated contexts where more recent assays have been roughly 400 years younger when compared to the UT laboratory dates.
Archaic period hunter-gatherers of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas and Coahuila, Mexico, created complex rock art murals containing elaborately painted anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures. These figures are frequently portrayed with dots or lines emanating out of or into their open mouths. In this article, we discuss patterns in shape, color, and arrangement of this pictographic element and propose that artists used this graphic device to denote speech, breath, and the soul. They communicated meaning through the image-making process, alternating brushstroke direction to indicate inhalation versus exhalation or using different paint application techniques to reflect measured versus forceful speech. The choices made by artists in the production of the imagery reflect their cosmology and the framework of ideas and beliefs through which they interpreted and interacted with the world. Bridging the iconographic data with ethnohistoric and ethnographic texts from Mesoamerica, we suggest that speech and breath expressed in the rock art of the Lower Pecos was tied to concepts of the soul, creation, and human origins.
It has been shown that the metal on struck coin surfaces demonstrates residual elastic compression while the metal on cast coin surfaces demonstrates no stress at all or, sometimes, elastic tension. Non-destructive X-ray diffraction (XRD) (the so-called 'sin 2 Ψ method') is applied in this work for residual elastic stress analysis. It is quite an effective tool in the authentication of coins by establishing the production method of such objects (struck or cast).
Mind-altering substances have been used by humans for thousands of years. In fact, ancient societies sometimes encouraged the consumption of drugs. Focusing on the archaeological study of how various entheogens have been used in the past, this volume examines why humans have social and psychological needs for these substances. Contributors trace the long-term use of drugs in ancient cultures and highlight the ways they evolved from being sacred to recreational in more modern times.
By analyzing evidence of these substances across a diverse range of ancient cultures, the contributors explore how and why past civilizations harvested, manufactured, and consumed drugs. Case studies examine the use of stimulants, narcotics, and depressants by hunter-gatherers who roamed Africa and Eurasia, prehistoric communities in North and South America, and Maya kings and queens.
Offering perspectives from many different fields of study, contributors illustrate the wide variety of sources and techniques that can provide information about materials that are often invisible to archaeologists. They use advanced biomolecular procedures to identify alkaloids and resins on cups, pipes, and other artifacts. They interpret paintings on vases and discuss excavations of breweries and similar sites. Uncovering signs of drugs, including ayahuasca, peyote, ephedra, cannabis, tobacco, yaupon, vilca, and maize and molle beer, they explain how psychoactive substances were integral to interpersonal relationships, religious practices, and social cohesion in antiquity.
In 2012, Perttula requested permission from to the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma's Repatriation Committee to analyze small samples (ca. 1-2 grams of ceramic paste, or sherds ca. 1-2 square centimeters in size) from the paste of five vessels from Features 31 and 95 at the Washington Square Mound site (41NA49) (Perttula et al. 2010) in East Texas to identify residue traces of the Caddo's use of peyote in the 13th-15th centuries A.D. The Caddo Nation of Oklahoma gave their permission to conduct these ceramic vessel residue studies.
Archeological studies in the USA, Mexico and Peru suggest that mescaline, as a cactus constituent, has been used for more than 6000 years. Although it is a widespread cactus alkaloid, it is present in high concentrations in few species, notably the North American peyote (Lophophora williamsii) and the South American wachuma (Trichocereus pachanoi, T. peruvianus and T. bridgesii). Spanish 16th century chroniclers considered these cacti “diabolic”, leading to their prohibition, but their use persisted to our days and has been spreading for the last 150 years. In the late 1800s peyote attracted scientific attention, mescaline was isolated, and its role in the psychedelic effects of peyote tops or “mescal buttons” was demonstrated. Its structure was established by synthesis in 1929, and alternative routes were developed providing larger amounts for pharmacological and biosynthetic research. Although its effects are attributed mainly to its action as a 5-HT2A serotonin receptor agonist, mescaline binds in a similar concentration range to 5-HT1A and 2A receptors. It is largely excreted unchanged in human urine, and its metabolic products are apparently unrelated to its psychedelic properties. Its low potency is probably responsible for its relative neglect by recreational substance users, as the successful search for structure-activity relationships in the hallucinogen field focused largely on finding more potent analogs. Renewed interest in the possible therapeutic applications of psychedelic drugs may hopefully lead to novel insights regarding the commonalities and differences between the actions of individual classic hallucinogens.
Peyote, a psychoactive cactus native to parts of Texas and Mexico, has been used in human rituals in North America for several thousand years. During the Spanish Conquest the first law prohibiting peyote’s ceremonial use was introduced. Conflicts between colonial powers and indigenous peoples over the use of peyote have continued into the present; with peyote access and possession strictly regulated in the United States. While exemptions have been established for the religious use of peyote by Native Americans, U.S. laws on peyote remain clouded by misunderstanding and stark divides in notions of sacrament, religious practice, addiction, medicine, and general differences in worldview. Peyotism, the religious use of peyote, emerged among the Plains tribes during the mid to late-1800s and spread rapidly on the reservations where peyote came to be revered as a holy medicine, a symbol of resistance, and also helped to rebuild communities broken by ethnocide. Peyote continues to play an important role within various tribes as a religious sacrament, a medicinal treatment for addiction, spiritual maladies, and historical trauma, and as a source of indigenous confidence and pride. The legal status of peyote is a precarious one, one that is exacerbated by diminishing supplies of the cactus in the United States and by the appropriation and exploitation of Native American religious practices by non-Natives seeking legal protection to both use and profit from peyote. The relationship between people and peyote is complex and multifaceted, and this study attempts to examine the major cultural threads at the heart of this relationship, particularly the sacramental and medical use of peyote by Native Americans, its market exchange, and the various legal controls imposed on peyote, and tie them together in a comprehensive and pertinent manner.
Scarce records documenting the use of peyote (Lophophora williamsii) in Spanish Colonial New Mexico prior to the 1680 Pueblo Revolt provide no indication of when or by whom it was introduced, or how frequently it might have been used by colonists and Native peoples. Used ritually throughout most of Mexico's Central Plateau and adjacent Sierra Madre, as well, among Aztec and Tarascan peoples at contact, its use by prehispanic Southwestern pueblo people has not been identified. Among the more conspicuous effects of taking peyote are visual phenomena, including the characteristic colors, red and yellow. “Sorcerer” and likely, a Tewa curing society member, Popé's vision of three “figures” in a kiva at Taos emitting “fire from all the extremities of their bodies,” I suggest, may indicate a heretofore unexpected role for peyote use in New Mexican history.
Existen registros escasos que documentan el uso del peyote (Lophophora williamsii) durante el periodo colonial español en Nuevo México, antes de la revuelta de los indios pueblo in 1680, los cuales no proporcionan datos acerca de cuándo o quiénes lo introdujeron, ni con qué frecuencia lo pudieron emplear tanto los colonos como los grupos indígenas. Si bien se utilizó con fines rituales en zonas del Altiplano mexicano y las adjacentes de la Sierra Madre, así como entre los aztecas y los tarascos en la época del contacto, su uso prehispánico entre los grupos pueblo del suroeste no se ha identificado. Entre los efectos sobresalientes del consumo de peyote se encuentran fenómenos visuales, incluyendo los colores característicos rojo y amarillo. El “hechicero” y posiblemente un integrante de la sociedad de curanderos tewa, la visión de Popé de tres “figuras” en una kiva en Taos que emite “fuego de todas las extremidades de sus cuerpos”, sugiero que pueden indicar un papel que hasta ahora no se esperaba del uso del peyote in la historia de Nuevo México.
Anthropologists have studied the use of hallucinogens as a spiritual tool by indigenous populations since the turn of the 20th century. However, literature is sparse in describing use by non-indigenous populations. Using a study population of students from a university in the Southwest United States, the current study investigated the spiritual development and meaning that college students place on their use of hallucinogenic substances. The spiritual framework developed by Love and Talbot (1999) and a transpersonal anthropological approach were used to guide the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant. Results indicated that participants used hallucinogens for both spiritual and recreational purposes with hallucinogen use playing an important role in their continued exploration of spirituality, which was an integral part of their lives. This pilot study could serve as a primer for future research on the role of hallucinogen use in the spiritual experiences of contemporary U.S. college students, and other non-indigenous Western populations.
The Method
Step 1: Feature AnalysisStep 2: Ethnographic Review and Formulating HypothesesStep 3: Testing HypothesesConclusions
NoteReferences
Lophophora williamsii (peyote) is a cactus whose crowns are commercially harvested for religious use as an ingested psychoactive sacrament by members of the Native American Church. Over the past quarter century peyote has become progressively less available, due in part to improper harvesting techniques and excessive harvesting. Since anatomical aspects of the regrowth of peyote and best harvesting practices were explicated in a previous study (Terry & Mauseth 2006), the principal focus in the present study was to determine the effects of harvesting where only best practices were employed. We assessed the effects of (1) harvesting per se (a single harvesting event evaluated after two years), (2) repeated harvesting (two harvesting events two years apart), and (3) not harvesting at alt. After two years, the once-harvested group had a 90% survival rate and the unharvested control group had a 98% survival rate, a difference that was not statistically significant. The above-ground volume of the unharvested plants was significantly larger than that of the regrown harvested plants. While the regrown harvested plants had on average more crowns, their crowns were significantly smaller, in comparison to those of the unharvested plants. After two years, the surviving plants in the harvested group were divided into two subgroups, one of which was harvested for a second time. The other subgroup consisted of plants that had been harvested only once (at the start of the study) and were not reharvested. The weights of the crowns obtained in the second harvest were significantly lower than the weights of the crowns obtained in the first harvest from the same plants two years earlier. The net effect of a single harvesting was a reduction of plant above-ground volume by almost 80% after two years of regrowth. These data reflect what is occurring on a massive scale in habitat where peyote is commercially harvested. The annual numbers of crowns being harvested have not yet decreased drastically, due to the increased number of crowns produced as regrowth in response to harvesting. But the average size of the crowns in the regulated peyote market has decreased markedly due to too-early harvesting of immature regrowth crowns. These results-with emphasis on the conspicuous reduction in mean size of individuals-are typical of overharvested populations of wild-collected species, such as ginseng. The conclusion for conservation management is that reducing the frequency of harvesting of wild peyote would allow regrowth crowns to mature in size-thus reducing the number of crowns per dose required for sacramental consumption. It would also allow regrowth crowns to mature sexually, which would effectively de-suppress the production of seed for the next generation.
Lophophora williamsii (peyote) is a small, spineless, greenish-blue cactus found in Mexico and the southwestern United States. Ingestion of the cactus can result in hallucinations due to its content of mescaline. In the United States, L. williamsii is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance. In this study, we use DNA analysis of the chloroplast trnL/trnF region and chloroplast rbcL gene to identify the individuals of Lophophora. Using the rbcL gene, Lophophora specimens could be distinguished from outgroups, but species within the genus could not be distinguished. The trnL/trnF region split the Lophophora genus into several groups based on the length and substructure of an AT-rich segment of the sequence. Our results indicate that the genetic variability at the trnL/trnF locus is greater than previously recognized. Although DNA structures at the trnL/trnF region and rbcL gene do not align with the classification of Lophophora species, they can be used to aid in forensic analysis.
We evaluated the pharmacological consequences of tissues other than crown being included with harvested peyote. Mean mescaline concentrations were determined for crown, non-chlorophyllous stem, and root, using mature individuals from the same population in South Texas. Samples of each tissue—crown, non-chlorophyllous stem, and root—were taken from each of 13 individual plants. Samples were dried, triturated, defatted, and extracted with methylene chloride, using an acid-base aqueous wash to recover the alkaloids. The concentration of mescaline in each sample was determined by HPLC. The average mescaline concentration in non-chlorophyllous stem was an order of magnitude lower than that in crown, whereas the mescaline concentration in root was two orders of magnitude lower than that in crown. These results show that non-chlorophyllous stem is a poor source of mescaline, and root is an extremely poor source. These results have important implications for conservation, suggesting that non-traditional harvesting of peyote for religious or medicinal use involving the cutting of non-chlorophyllous tissue are contributing to the death of plants and the subsequent failure to regenerate new crowns. Therefore, this practice should be reevaluated by peyote harvesters and users.
Red Linear is one of four presently defined prehistoric pictograph styles in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas and Coahuila, Mexico. Based on interpretation of images and two experimental radiocarbon dates, the style was presumed to have been brought into the region by
intrusive bison hunters around 1280 B.P. This would place production of Red Linear after the large, polychromatic Pecos River style paintings (4200-2750 B.P.). However, during a recent rock art recording project we identified Red Linear overlain by presumed older Pecos River style. This prompted
our re-examination of Red Linear through analysis of 444 figures from 12 sites. We produced a list of diagnostic attributes for Red Linear and documented stratigraphic relationships through macro- and microscopic field analysis. We identified 38 examples of Red Linear under Pecos River figures,
thus inverting the relative chronology for the two styles and forcing a reconsideration of previous assumptions regarding the culture that produced the art. This paper demonstrates the potential afforded by analysis of rock art assemblages to reveal inter- and intrasite patterning of attributes
and provide insight into relative chronologies. Further, it cautions against the use of variation in artistic style as a marker for ethnicity.
In February 1908 newspapers throughout Oklahoma reported that the hotel lobbies of Guthrie, the capital of the new state of Oklahoma, were crowded with Indian men, women, and children. At the thirty-sixth day of the first Oklahoma legislature, just sixty days after the state was established by merging Indian and Oklahoma Territories, more than a hundred prominent representatives of the Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Osage, Ponca, Arapaho, Iowa, and Sac and Fox tribes filled the legislative hall. On four occasions, twice during the constitutional convention and twice at the first Oklahoma legislature six months later, Indian leaders assertively voiced their concerns about laws that restricted their rights to practice their medicine and religion.
At the Senate legislative hearings, Chessie McIntosh, a member of the Creek Nation, a lawyer, and a delegate at the earlier constitutional convention for the unsuccessfully proposed state of Sequoyah, expressed the importance of the moment:
Ladies and Gentlemen, in conclusion, I thank the people of the great State of Oklahoma for the consideration given the Indian in the late Constitutional Convention; I thank you for what I have never seen in any Legislature before, and I have been to the assembling of more than one state legislature—I have never seen where the Indians were invited into the Legislative Chamber and asked to present his wants. I thank you for that, and for the perpetuation of the souls of the different Nations to agree to come as you have done in the Great Seal of the State of Oklahoma, and I hope and trust that the Indian will make one of the best citizens of this State.1
These debates and discourses at the juncture of state formation structured the chartering of the Native American Church (NAC) in Oklahoma ten years later in 1918, creating the legal foundation for the practice of Peyotism throughout the United States and Canada, where it is now the largest intertribal Indigenous religion in North America.
In the five hundred years of European and American globalization of the world, seldom have Indigenous peoples been invited to a constitutional convention and first legislature to express their perspectives and concerns. The use of peyote by the Indigenous peoples of the southern plains and northern Mexico is ancient, dating back thousands of years to at least 5200 BP.2 Indigenous peoples expressing their desires to practice their traditional medicines and religions directly to lawmakers at the formation of a state is a rare occasion in the United States or elsewhere in the world. Rarely in the five-hundred-year history of the European and American colonization of the world were the rights of the Indigenous peoples considered at the juncture when new political entities established their constitutions and first laws. Typically, nation-states attempt to extinguish Indigenous rights to land and resources, refuse to grant their political legitimacy, and severely persecute traditional healing and religious practices. Not until 1978 did the United States grant religious freedom to Native Americans.3 Peyotists were not protected by federal law until 1994, when President Clinton signed the amendments to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.4 Not until September 2007 did the United Nations declare that nations recognize Indigenous rights to their spiritual and religious traditions as well as their traditional medicines and health practices.5
This article portrays this critical juncture in 1907 when the American nation-state imposed its full legal, economic, political, and value system upon more than forty Indigenous nations by merging Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory into the state of Oklahoma. This critical political and cultural event, where Indigenous peoples expressed their rights for religion and medicine, is not documented nor analyzed in the literature. Even though Sidney Slotkin in his 1956 book, The Peyote Religion, details many of the legal and political events in defense of Peyotism, there is no mention of these hearings at the formation of the state of Oklahoma.6 A photograph and six paragraphs in the 1987 book Peyote Religion by Omer Stewart briefly mention this historic event in the chapter on how Peyotism was suppressed.7 Only a few sentences are in the latest book on Peyotism by Thomas Maroukis.8
Indigenous scholars such as Seminole...
The author, starting from what is currently known about cup-marks and their distribution in the north-western Italian alpine area, formulated a hypothesis on their material and ritual functions in the Neolithic period. It is conceivable that cup-marks were originally carved in connection with the ritual use of Amanita muscaria, and that they may later have assumed other functions as well.
There are regional differences in how archaeologists conduct their research on the Archaic period. The rich array of techniques
and approaches used to examine this period in the West include human behavioral ecology and other evolutionary perspectives,
technological style and aspects of practice theory, neuropsychological theory, and more. Recent research in the Great Basin,
Southwest, Great Plains, Columbia-Fraser Plateau, and coastal California is surveyed to highlight commonalities and differences
in the questions asked of the archaeological data and in the techniques that are used.
KeywordsWestern North America-Archaic period-Hunters and gatherers-Early agriculture
Este trabajo de investigación tiene por objeto describir y analizar cómo llega la ayahuasca a España y cómo se difunde su uso. Se describen las principales modalidades de chamanismo amazónico que se practican en España.
The cultural trajectory of Lower Pecos prehistory originates in stereotypic Paleoindian big game hunters who apparently entered the region some twelve thousand to fourteen thousand years ago. Based on the two known sites of this age, the economy was oriented toward the procurement of megafauna such as elephants, camels, horses, and bison, although the earliest kills were probably individuals or pairs of animals that were trapped and slain (Bement 1986). The later Folsom and Plainview hunters had apparently perfected the jump technique of bison hunting, suggesting organizational skills consistent with group procurement strategies that centered upon migratory herd animals (Dibble 1970). The extinction of the large game herds and the onset of a trend toward aridity triggered a transition to Archaic lifeways about ninety-four hundred years ago. The people apparently exploited a broader resource base, developing a reliance on plant products, both as food and as raw material for the burgeoning fiber industry, while retaining established lithic traditions. The transition culminated in a robust adaptation that gives the outward but perhaps misleading impression of great stability for a period of some four thousand years. Rockshelters became the nucleus of the settlement pattern, showing differentiated activity areas of a domestic nature where fiber, wood, bone, and hide were worked, as was the everpresent stone. Mortuary customs included disposal of the dead in convenient vertical shaft caves regardless of age or gender. Then, about fifty-five hundred years ago, the cultural system began a series of internal adjustments, presumably in response to an increasingly arid environment. The end result was the consolidation of traits into the full-blown Archaic expression that defines the Lower Pecos as a distinct cultural entity. A model that parsimoniously explains this development was formulated by analogy to emerging complex societies documented ethnohistorically and archeologically in arid lands around the world. In this model, changes in the distribution of essential resources, most prominently potable water, triggered responses in the settlement pattern and procurement strategies leading to a disproportionate concentration of people along the major rivers. Aridity does not imply a shortage of food, especially if desert succulents increase at the expense of grasslands, but gathering and processing of thorny plant foods and small mammals requires specialized techniques and knowledge. The responsibility for food procurement, especially hunting and gathering in the uplands, would have been delegated to mobile task groups who operated from their bases on the rivers. Diversification broadened the diet to include labor-intensive processing of a wider range of foodstuffs, activities that took place in open camps and rockshelters as well. New methods of social control were mandated by the redistribution of human populations, who were in effect circumscribed by the availability of water. The inevitable tensions introduced by proximity elicited a restructuring of society that was accompanied by the intensification of ritual that was, in turn, manifested by the florescence of publicly produced mural art. A common belief system, rooted in the principles of shamanism and expressed in cave paintings, held sway over the area that is now defined as the Lower Pecos cultural region. This period of time is the apogee of the Lower Pecos cultural trajectory: the consolidation of an ethnic identity that trembled on the verge of societal complexity that was never achieved, possibly for lack of the ability to generate an adequate surplus- the necessary and sufficient condition for sedentism. Sometime around three thousand years ago, the insular Lower Pecos cultural persona relaxed, perhaps disrupted by the advent of new people with a different economic strategy and social structure. A mesic interlude permitted the grasslands of the Great Plains to expand to the Rio Grande, drawing herds of bison and their attendant hunters. Even episodic, perhaps seasonal, influxes of people bearing a fully developed cultural system of their own must have had a perceptible effect on the resident population; at present it can only be discerned in settlement patterns, tool types, and possibly art styles. The return to aridity and the retreat of the grasslands created a vacuum filled by desert-adapted people who came north across the Rio Grande from northern Mexico. Soon, the archeology of the Lower Pecos found affinities with that of central Texas, sharing in the generalized Late Archaic lithic assemblage while perfecting its fiber industry, retaining its characteristic burial customs, and keeping a balance between rockshelters and open camp site occupations. Measures of population density again rise, reaching and exceeding the heights achieved during the Middle Archaic peak, but the processes behind the increase are less clear. The Late Prehistoric period experienced a cultural upheaval, including changes in settlement patterns, site types, mortuary customs, art styles, and artifact types. Pictograph styles show affinities with northern Mexico and the Big Bend region of Texas, lithic tool types are shared with the rest of Texas, and mortuary customs appear to be introduced from the north and northwest. Clearly, people, rather than ideas, were on the move. Late in prehistory, one intrusive group is identified by a distinctive artifact assemblage, including small arrow points and ceramics, a preference for promontories with sweeping views, and residences that used paired stones as pole supports for a thatch or hide cover. The people of the Infierno phase may be precursors to ethnohistorically described bison hunters who again seasonally congregated at the mouth of the Pecos River during yet another mesic interlude. The Spanish found little of value in the Lower Pecos, isolating it as part of the great uninhabitable desert of their northern frontier, but native peoples found refuge in the rugged terrain. Indigenous groups were soon replaced by Apaches who, in turn, were driven south by the Comanches where they sometimes joined the Kickapoos, staunch allies of the Mexicans, in resisting their common enemy. Under American hegemony, a concerted effort to clear the way west resulted in the extirpation of native people by the time the second transcontinental railroad was completed in 1882.
Archaeological investigations in northeast Mexico and Trans-Pecos, Texas have shown that the use of psychotropic drugs in this region goes back to around 8500 BC. The aboriginal inhabitants of this ...
The Mexican territory has been divided into 11 morphotectonic provinces that have physiographic and geologic-tectonic features distinctive enough to individualize them from such other neighboring ones. The relief, dominated by mountains, is rugged. The geological composition is varied and complex comprising sedimentary, volcanic, intrusive, and metamorphic rocks. The petrology, stratigraphy and structure of these rocks are described. The rock bodies extend from the Mid-Proterozoic to the Recent; but by and large, the Precambrian and Paleozoic make up a much smaller portion of the territory than the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. -from Author
The use of plasma-chemical extraction in radiocarbon dating of rock paintings is discussed. Radiocarbon dating of rock art allows an inventory of images to be studied along with other cultural remains of a given archaeological time period. Assigning painted images to a particular prehistoric culture allows archaeologists to gain information on artistic, cultural, and religious aspects of a people. Most dates on pictographs worldwide have been accomplished through measuring radiocarbon in either charcoal pigments or beeswax, the latter occurring only in a limited area of Australia.
The focus of this paper is the conversion of radiocarbon ages to calibrated (cal) ages for the interval 24,000–0 cal BP (Before Present, 0 cal BP = AD 1950), based upon a sample set of dendrochronologically dated tree rings, uranium-thorium dated corals, and varve-counted marine sediment. The 14 C age–cal age information, produced by many laboratories, is converted to Δ 14 C profiles and calibration curves, for the atmosphere as well as the oceans. We discuss offsets in measured l4 C ages and the errors therein, regional 14 C age differences, tree–coral 14 C age comparisons and the time dependence of marine reservoir ages, and evaluate decadal vs . single-year 14 C results. Changes in oceanic deepwater circulation, especially for the 16,000–11,000 cal BP interval, are reflected in the Δ 14 C values of INTCAL98.
The focus of this paper is the conversion of radiocarbon ages to calibrated (cal) ages for the interval 24,000-0 cal BP (Before Present, 0 cal BP = AD 1950), based upon a sample set of dendrochronologically dated tree rings, uranium-thorium dated corals, and varve-counted marine sediment. The 14C age-cal age information, produced by many laboratories, is converted to Δ14C profiles and calibration curves, for the atmosphere as well as the oceans. We discuss offsets in measured 14C ages and the errors therein, regional 14C age differences, tree-coral 14C age comparisons and the time dependence of marine reservoir ages, and evaluate decadal vs. single-year 14C results. Changes in oceanic deepwater circulation, especially for the 16,000-11,000 cal BP interval, are reflected in the Δ14C values of INTCAL98.
Mescaline, anhalonine, lophophorine, pellotine, and anhalonidine have been identified in alkaloid extracts of a prehistoric
specimen of Lophophora from a burial cave in west central Coahuila, Mexico. The specimen is associated with radiocarbon dates of A.D. 810 to 1070
and is one of the oldest materials ever submitted to alkaloid analysis.
Archaeological exploration of the Shumla Caves, Big Bend Basket Maker Papers No. 3, Witte Memorial Museum
- G C Martin
G.C. Martin, Archaeological exploration of the Shumla Caves, Big Bend
Basket Maker Papers No. 3, Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, no
date, pp. 19e22, 78e79.
Contributions to Coahuila Archaeology with an Introduc-tion to the Coahuila Project
- W W Taylor
W.W. Taylor, Contributions to Coahuila Archaeology with an Introduc-tion to the Coahuila Project (Research Paper No. 52), Center for Archae-ological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, 1988, pp. 36, 159.
OxCal Program v3.5, University of Oxford Radiocar-bon Accelerator Unit
- C Ramsey Bronk
C. Bronk Ramsey, OxCal Program v3.5, University of Oxford Radiocar-bon Accelerator Unit, 2000 Electronic document, http://www.rlaha.ox. ac.uk/oxcal/oxcal.htm.
An archaeological survey of Texas
- E B Sayles
E.B. Sayles, An archaeological survey of Texas, Medallion Papers 17,
Gila Pueblo, Globe, Arizona, 1935.
Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Españ, Tomo II, Libro VIII, Cap. V and Tomo III
- B De
- Sahagun
B. de Sahagun, Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Españ, Tomo II, Libro VIII, Cap. V and Tomo III, Libro X, Cap. XXIX, Carlos Maria de Bustamante, 1829 edition of 1582 book, Mexico City.
Chronometric studies of prehistoric rock-paintings in North America
- Rowe
M.W. Rowe, Chronometric studies of prehistoric rock-paintings in North
America, in: C. Chippendale, D.S. Whitley, L.L. Loendorf (Eds.), Discovering North American Rock Art, University of Arizona Press, Tucson,
2004, pp. 294e319.
- E Dinerstein
- D Olson
- J Atchley
- C Loucks
- S Contreras-Balderas
- R Abell
- E Iñigo
- E Enkerlin
E. Dinerstein, D. Olson, J. Atchley, C. Loucks, S. Contreras-Balderas,
R. Abell, E. Iñigo, E. Enkerlin, C. Williams, G. Castilleja (Eds.),
Ecoregion-based Conservation in the Chihuahuan Desert: A Biological
Assessment, World Wildlife Fund, Washington, 2001, pp. 1e3.
Art and Environment in Native America
- P T Furst
P.T. Furst, Hallucinogens in Precolumbian art, in: M.E. King, I.R. Traylor
(Eds.), Art and Environment in Native America, Texas Technical University, 1974, pp. 55e107 (Special Publications of the Museum, No. 7).
Peyote – an American Indian heritage from Mexico
- Schultes
R.E. Schultes, Peyote e an American Indian heritage from Mexico, El
Mexico Antiguo 4 (1938) 199e208.
Hallucinogens in Precolumbian art
- Furst
Review of O.C. Stewart, peyote religion: a history
- Furst