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NiamhNyx
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Psychotropic plant use in the Americas
#8288265 - 04/15/08 06:55 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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So this is a paper I wrote just now, in a couple of hours. It's for my final exam in archaeology. Since I just speed wrote it there might be some sloppy corners, but I thought people here might find it interesting so I'm posting it.
Psychotropic Plant Use in the Americas: Evidence and Analysis
Intoxicants have been utilized extensively by contemporary and past cultures in the New World, particularly in Mesoamerica and South America, where a wide variety of psychotropic plants grow. Tracing the origin of the use of psychotropic substances is difficult, perhaps impossible, yet archaeological evidence demonstrates the significant antiquity of such practices in many areas. In some areas it is likely that psychotropic plants held a significant influence over the development of religious ideologies. From early, Archaic and Formative stage use to later, Classic and Post Classic use, the method of ingestion and ritual surrounding it changes significantly. I will discuss the variety of plants utilized ritually, the methods of consumption and the significance of shifts in consumption patterns from formative to Classic and Post Classic societies. According to El-Seedi et al. (2005), some of the oldest conclusive evidence for the use of hallucinogenic plants in the New World is found in Texas. Peyote buttons from the Witte Museum collection, excavated from the Shumla Caves in 1933, were recently radiocarbon dated to 5700 yrs. B.P, and thin-layer chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry tests resulted positive for mescaline, a tryptamine alkaloid. Items similar to those used in contemporary peyote ceremonies were recovered from the same site, including rattles, cedar incense, bone or wooden rasping sticks and feathers. Mescal beans have also been recovered from far older strata in the same area, however they cannot be considered conclusive evidence for the consumption of mescaline as they are also commonly used for adornment and may have been used similarly in the past.
In South America, plants containing the powerful hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine (DMT) are commonly smoked, insufflated or combined with a Monoamine Oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) such as Banisteriopsis caapi, which allows the former to be orally active, in a beverage commonly known as ayahuasca. There is vast archaeological evidence for the use of DMT snuffs, primarily those made from Anadenanthera spp. Evidence for the consumption of beverages is more ambiguous as any associated paraphernalia (cups, etc.) is less use specific and thus more difficult to interpret. The strongest evidence for the transition from a snuffing to a drinking complex is found in iconography and analogy to later Incan practices. The antiquity of ayahuasca consumption in the Amazon is impossible to determine, as the humid rainforest environment is not conducive to the preservation of plant remains or paraphernalia constructed of organic matter (bone, wood, etc.) The dry conditions found in the central Andes region of Northern Chile, Bolivia and Peru provides excellent preservation and thus a great deal of material has been recovered from sites of significant antiquity.
The earliest evidence in the Andes for the use of hallucinogenic plants, is a variety of smoking pipes with Anadenanthera residue. In the site of Inca Cueva in Puna de Jujuy, Argentina, two smoking pipes were recovered in association with gourds, knotted bags, spiral baskets and Anadenanthera and Prosopis. Chemical analysis of the pipes yielded evidence of dimethyltryptamine. They radiocarbon date to 2130 B.C. (4080 +/- 80 B.P.) (Torres 1996). In nearby Huachichocana, 4 stone pipes associated with an adolescent male were recovered from the stratigraphic layer E2. They radiocarbon date to 3400 +/- 130 B.P. Two pipes were placed near his mouth, and the other two were near his lower legs, on either side of his body. In close association were two turtle shells, two rattles, two “camelid kidney stone noise makers” and two staffs decorated with turquoise inlays. Although no Anadenanthera seeds were found, chemical analysis of pipe residue tested positive for tryptamine alkaloids (Torres 1996).
A wide variety of snuffing paraphernalia has been recovered from Peru, Bolivia, northern Argentina and northern Chile, covering a wide time scale. The earliest evidence is found in Huaca Prieta and Asia in the Omas River basin, and is associated with the final stages of the pre-ceramic period. The artifacts from Asia radiocarbon date to 1225 +/- 25 B.C. (Torres 1996).
The highest concentration of snuffing kits in the Andes is in the San Pedro de Atacama region of northern Chile. Since the 50’s, 612 kits have been found. Many kits consist of a woollen pouch, a wooden tray, a tube made of bone or wood, a spoon, a mortar and pestle and one or several leather pouches of snuff.
Smoking and snuffing are activities that are relatively easy to do on a personal basis, requiring only basic paraphernalia and relatively straight forward, low labour preparation techniques. It is a practice associated with earlier, Formative stage cultures in the Andes and moves out of favour in the Classic and Post-Classic stages of cultural development. Religious ideologies in the Archaic and Formative stages tend to be more shamanistic, focused towards a direct and personal experience of the divine. Smoking or snuffing serve as a straight forward method of establishing a direct and personal religious experience. Iconography associated with earlier snuffing paraphernalia includes images of plants, animals and mythical characters, likely those encountered during the experience. Wari ceramic shards depict images of Anadenanthera, often in association with elite individuals. Knobloch (2000) hypothesises that this may constitute evidence for a “drinking complex” in which Anadenanthera and possibly an MAOI such as Banisteriopsis caapi would have been added to chicha beer and distributed in a mass ceremony, led by an emerging priesthood. The shift from personal modes of consumption to priest mediated group oriented modes of consumption denotes a significant ideological shift away from egalitarian forms of religious practice to religions of control. When access to the sacred is mediated through an elite priesthood, it becomes possible to manipulate people into consenting to their own position of subservience. A religious paradigm of direct, personal experience is not conducive to the consolidation of political power and thus is necessarily transformed alongside political structures. Political and religious institutions mirror one another and shift alongside one another. The religious paradigm a society adopts provides ideological validation for it’s political structure. In order to validate the increasing centralization of political power, the elite would have adopted elements of the religious practices of those they wished to control, incorporating them into an increasingly centralized and priesthood-mediated religious complex.
The preparation of beer, such as chicha, is labour intensive and the production of large quantities requires intensive agriculture and large surpluses. Aside from the labour requirements, the subjective effects of alcohol are also more conducive to manufacturing cooperation and a sense of group solidarity than hallucinogens, which provide a much more internal experience. Over time, hallucinogenic plants become restricted for the use of the elite and fewer and fewer people are allowed access to them.
Hallucinogenic plants have had a significant influence on the development of religious ideologies in Mesoamerica and South America. Tracing the origin of use is extremely difficult if not impossible in most areas due to poor preservation, yet it is fair to say that such substances have been used for a long time in many areas. With shifts in social structure, the use of hallucinogens also shifted, becoming incorporated into a priest-mediated religious paradigm reflective of the centralized political structure of the emerging State level societies.
Works Cited El-Seedi, Hesham R. et al. 2005, Prehistoric Peyote Use: Alkaloid Analysis and Radiocarbon Dating of Archaeological Specimens of Lophophora williamsii from Texas, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Vol. 101, issues 1-3, pp 238-242.
Knobloch, Patricia J. 2000, Wari Ritual Power at Conchopata: An Interpretation of Anadenanthera Colubrina Iconography, Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 11, No. 4, (Dec 2000), pp 387-402. Torres, Constantino et al. 1991, Snuff Powders from Pre-Hispanic San Pedro de Atacama: Chemical and Contextual Analysis. Current Anthropology, Vol. 32, No. 5 (Dec., 1991), pp. 640-649
Torres, Constantino 1996, Archaeological Evidence for the Antiquity of Psychotropic Plant Use in the Central Andes, Annali dei Musei Civici-Rovereto, Vol. 11. <http://www.museocivico.rovereto.tn.it/UploadDocs/17_art10.pdf>;
Edited by NiamhNyx (04/15/08 07:10 PM)
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MushmanTheManic
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: NiamhNyx]
#8288307 - 04/15/08 07:01 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Paragraphs?
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NiamhNyx
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: MushmanTheManic]
#8288365 - 04/15/08 07:09 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Ah, there were paragraphs! Let me fix that...
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Middleman
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: NiamhNyx]
#8288447 - 04/15/08 07:23 PM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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Nice write up.
I know some Native Americans up north who say there was much hallucinogen use among Natives in Northern America and Canada, but they took great care to hide the knowledge from the Europeans...
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backfromthedead
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: Middleman]
#8288586 - 04/15/08 07:58 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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In Astoria near the Azurescen honey patch there is an Indian head totem that looks exactly like a Psilocybe cap. Wish I had a pic.
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NiamhNyx
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: Middleman]
#8288609 - 04/15/08 08:05 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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From what I understand folks up here in the PNW were using mushrooms, but I am under the impression that it was less extensive than it was down south perhaps? There's so little written about it... But there definitely are a LOT more psychedelics that grow down south, so it only makes sense that they would be used more down there.
I know that the use of peyote spread north pretty quickly amongst indigenous populations around the time of colonization. I'd like to research that in greater detail.
Upon a reread, this is kinda poorly organized and could use a bit of editing, but alot of the info is pretty interesting, imo.
Edited by NiamhNyx (04/15/08 08:06 PM)
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Righteous_King
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: NiamhNyx]
#8290459 - 04/16/08 06:04 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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I would like to mention that mescal beans do not contain any mescaline, though they were probably used to induce a delirium-like state.
Also you could talk about coca use in the Andes, there is much evidence that ritual use of this plant is one of the oldest in the Americas.
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NiamhNyx
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: Righteous_King]
#8290635 - 04/16/08 07:52 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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I definitly could talk abut coca use... but i'm handing this in in an hour and it's too late for more research!
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Icelander
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: NiamhNyx]
#8291100 - 04/16/08 11:16 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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It just seems like rehash. Exuming the dead to make guesses from the corpse.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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NiamhNyx
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: Icelander]
#8293046 - 04/16/08 07:30 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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...and the rest of the material culture. it's interesting and it's the only reason we know a damn thing about our history, allowing as to make grand statements about human nature and bla bla bla. it contibutes hugely to contemporary philosophy. you can't know where you're going unless you know where you come from.
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Icelander
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: NiamhNyx]
#8293706 - 04/16/08 09:10 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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I know exactly where I am going and I don't know much about my cultural history. Gee, how did I pull that one off?
Also the only thing I really know is what I have experienced for myself or personally observed. The rest could all be lies, mistakes, misinterpretations etc.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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NiamhNyx
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: Icelander]
#8294439 - 04/17/08 12:08 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Sure. But alot of the philosophy you draw on draws on arguments from anthropology.
I also wasn't talking about anyone's specific cultural history (although I think that's valuable to understand as well), but rather the broader picture of the major developments and shifts in human culture as a whole. For example: we know we can be cooperative given the context because we know people were cooperative for a significant majority of our time on the planet. This has real world implications as far as how we choose to live and what our expectations are.
Besides, whether or not you think this or that academic pursuit is valuable or not, it's at least intellectually stimulating and pleasurable to know about so why the hell not study it? It makes for interesting conversational material in the very least, which makes for people finding you more interesting, which makes for more better friendships and a more fulfilling social life.
Whatever way you shake it, I think it's worth learning interesting things.
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Sophistic Radiance
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: NiamhNyx]
#8294539 - 04/17/08 12:37 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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It really depends on whether or not you care about the future. Do you care about the future, Icelander?
I wrote a paper on psychedelics for my abnormal psychology class last year. I also wrote it in a few hours, in a mad espresso-fueled dash. In summation it basically said "we should study psychedelics because they're really crazy and we really don't know shit, man." It was crap and I'm deeply ashamed to have submitted such a generic and empty paper.
I like yours a lot though, especially how you worked in the cultural/technological development of societies and how it's reflected in their use of psychoactives.
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
Edited by Tchan909 (04/17/08 12:45 AM)
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NiamhNyx
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Thanks, I appreciate that... although upon second and third readings I find it lacking in many ways. I actually wrote a longer paper on the same subject but it was more technical, talking alot about specific excavations, and didn't include as much about how the shift in religious expression mirrors the shift in political structures so I posted this one instead.
But really, this is the kind of stuff I want to work on. If I'm gonna be an academic I might as well research things that are of significant personal interest and that I find pleasure in learning about.
And hey, don't be too hard on yourself. Everyone submits a hollow and meaningless paper every now and again. I also pretty sure that profs recognize that not everything they recieve accounts for the student's best possible work. Sometimes you just can't think of the right thing to say to bind the discussion together until after you've submitted your work. I would have gotten an A instead of and A- on my first drug paper if only I'd included that paragraph about political structure... but I just couldn't organize my thoughts enough, no matter how straight forward the idea is.
Edited by NiamhNyx (04/17/08 01:04 AM)
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doitagain
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: NiamhNyx]
#8294808 - 04/17/08 02:38 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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fyi mescaline is not a tryptamine
-------------------- now i hear the police comin after me
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Icelander
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: NiamhNyx]
#8296175 - 04/17/08 01:23 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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This has real world implications as far as how we choose to live and what our expectations are.
Really? How so?
Of corse study anything that interests you. I was just commenting on the paper you wrote. I assumed you wanted comments on it.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Icelander
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It really depends on whether or not you care about the future. Do you care about the future, Icelander?
Not really.
The future in the sense you speak of is a repeat of the past. History shows this. To a point you can learn this from history. My comment was for the most part on the quality of this individual paper though.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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NiamhNyx
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: Icelander]
#8296427 - 04/17/08 02:23 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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But you didn't say anything at all about the paper I wrote. You made a general statement that seemed to refer more to the field of archaeology as a whole than to the specific content of my essay.
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Chronic7
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: NiamhNyx]
#8296522 - 04/17/08 02:46 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Im liking the info from the radiocarbon dating, really makes you look back on humanity and how each of our one life times is like a microscopic dot (if even that) on the history of the planet but collectively we are the shit.
Also thinking about tripping with a simple human mind back at 2000B.C....woah!!!
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Chronic7
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Re: Psychotropic plant use in the Americas [Re: Chronic7]
#8296573 - 04/17/08 02:57 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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To comment on your paper it seems pretty good but theres stuff you could add in from egyptian use of lotus flower as a sedative & hallucenogenic, christian drawings/tiles of amanitas, plus im sure alot lot more, maybe cover more of the globe then south america?
The guy marking the paper might just think, ok mexicans get high, so what? Assuming your teacher is a racist like most of mine were...
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