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Upper Palaeolithic beginnings for the use of psychotropic flora. La Barre, while repeatedly stressing the shamanistic character of native religions in the Americas, notes that the ecstatic nature of shamanism is `culturally programmed for an interest in hallucinogens and other psychotropic drugs' (Ripinsky-Naxon 1993:44). Hallucinogenic plants of the type used in shamanism thus require some sort of clarification. While by definition such plants are toxic Ð if we mean by that something which has a distinct biodynamic effect on the body Ð this does not mean that such plants are invariably poisonous, though some are in certain dosages (e.g. Datura or Sophora secundiflora). As far as known, none of the hallucinogenic plants utilized in shamanism is addictive. It is also important that we make the distinction that these plants do not simply modify moods but are capable of producing a dramatic and often profound change in perception. Colours are enhanced, spirits may appear, the sacramental plant appears godlike to the shaman who has invoked it ceremonially, and perhaps a cosmic bridge or smoke tunnel appears in the shaman's vision, allowing him to ascend to the heavens. In every way the sacred plant is a doorway to a realm that is awesome and wondrous, and the undertaking is not one which is taken lightly. To this extent, then, the ritual use of hallucinogenic plants is not recreational but transformative Ð one undertakes the vision-quest to `learn' or to `see', not to èscape' into a world of `fantasy' (Drury 1982:45). Psychologists have produced various terms to describe the substances which produce such radical shifts in consciousness. Dr Humphry Osmond, an English psychiatrist, coined the term psychedelic meaning `mind-revealing' or `mind-manifesting' but a term preferred by many is psychotomimetic: substances within this category are capable of inducing temporary psychotic states of such intensity that the `visionary' or `dream' world appears profoundly real. In shamanic societies experiences like this are highly valued. Sacred plants remove the barriers between humankind and the realm of gods and spirits, and from them one receives wisdom and learning. The gods know; the sacred plants speak (Drury 1982:45). Michael Harner (1973:24) has pointed out that for example, common themes emerge in a cross-cultural examination of South American yageÂ experiences. The drug is capable of causing the sensation of aerial flight and dizziness, and visions of exquisite cities, parks, forests, and fantastic animals. It is common for the drug to suggest the flight of the soul of the participant. According to Harner the Jivaro tribe actually refer to the soul flight as a `trip' while among the Conibo-Shipibo Indians of eastern Peru the ayahuasca experience allows the shaman to leave his body in the form of a bird, capable of killing a distant person at night. Among those drugs which have a shamanic use are Banisteriopsis caapi, known variously in the western Amazon as ayahuasca, caapi or yageÂ; datura, which is identified with the American south-west and Mexico, as well as among tribes in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru; Mescal Beans, used in the Red Bean Dance of the Plains Indians, the Morning Glory or Ololiuqui used by curanderos (healers) in Oaxaca, the Peyote cactus used by Mexicans and North American Indians, and the Psilocybe mexicana, an important narcotic mushroom used, once again, in Oaxaca (Harner 1973:23). Generally, the psychotropic components of sacred plants are contained in the alkaloids, resins, glucosides and essential oils found in the leaves, bark, stem, flowers, sap, roots or seeds of the plants. The regions richest in naturally occurring hallucinogenic plants are Mexico and South America (Drury 1982:45). As we have seen, most literature will always refer to these sacred plants utilized by shamans as hallucinogenic, psychedelic, even as psychotomimetic, and are often talked about as drugs. These terms have become so invested with distorted connotations, as to make it incongruous to speak of a shaman ingesting these plants. I would rather like to make use of the term entheogen as defined by Jonathan Ott (1994:91) as a cultural term to include all the shamanic inebriants Ð sacraments, plant-teachers, the stock-in-trade of shamans the world over. The term means literally `realizing the divine within,' and can be seen as the user realizing that the divine infuses all of creation, or specifically that the entheogenic plant is itself infused with the divine. This again puts the sacred, which has been raped by modern society, back into the use of these shamanic inebriants. Ayahuasca The use of ayahuasca has already been mentioned as common among the vegetalistas of Peru. The major active constituents of ayahuasca are the beta-carboline alkaloids harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) (McKenna 1995:351). Harner (1973:172±3) summarizes as the main cultural themes associated with the drug: (a) the sensation of separation of the `soul' and the physical body; (b) visions of predatory animals; (c) contact with the supernatural and heaven and hell states; (d) visions of distant locations and persons; and (e) explanatory visions of events such as thefts and mysterious homicides. However, several of these may be linked. The so-called out-of-the-body experience is associated with the sensation of flight, but can also produce visionary and symbolic experiences (Drury 1982:109±110). Ayahuasca, like other plant teachers, is used to 54 ISSN 0256±6060±Unisa Lat. Am. Rep. 16(2) 2000
explore both this world and other parallel worlds that are usually beyond our normal perception. By ingesting it, the ayahuasquero is freed from the normal space-time boundaries of this world and, with training, freely moves from world to world (Wolf 1991:105). The main function of ayahuasca is thus to induce an altered state of consciousness, because as Fred Alan Wolf (1991:10) remarks, `Shamans perceive reality in a state of altered consciousness.' Ayahuasca, and probably other entheogens, was not discovered accidentally. These plants were necessary for our evolution as a species. They enabled us to reconnect with our planet. They provided us with spiritual and mythic insights into our own natures. In every culture shamans were and still are those people most sensitive to the vibrations of the planet, and they were connectors taking their tribes outside the realms of physical existence, enabling the tribes to remember and rekindle their sacred functions (Wolf 1991:106). Ayahuasca had been discovered in archaeological findings in Ecuador. Other psychotropic plants were also used as far back as 3000 BC. Ecuador has been inhabited by humankind for the past 11 000 years and there a plethora of drawings exists on pottery, from the Santa Elena peninsula, 4000±2000 BC, showing people chewing leaves and inhaling ground plants is to be found. Drawings also show the existence of shamans. Some of the drawings appear to reveal the mental effects produced by these sacred plants (Wolf 1991:103). Ayahuasca ritual Ritual is the outer enactment of an internal event. In all religions, and also in shamanism and ceremonial magic, those that perform a ritual believe that what they are doing is not simply theatrical but accords with some sort of sacred, inner reality Ð that for a time they are caught up in a mystical drama, perhaps involving union with a god, identification with a source of spiritual healing or the act of embodying some sort of transcendental power. In such a way the shaman, priest or magician believes he is tapping into a dimension which is much larger and more awesome than the world of familiar reality. It is very much a case of participating in a mystery Ð of leaving the everyday realm and, for a sacred and special period of time, entering the Cosmos (Drury 1982:32). Clearly in such rituals there are physical observances Ð that one can actually see externally Ð and symbolic, mythic processes that are represented by the ceremonial sequence of events (Drury 1982:35). The shaman's activities depend closely on the ability to sweep the audience along with the power of his or her performance, which must have its effect both on the audience and on the shaman. Shamans use many props and symbols to represent their psychic experience and to affect the experience of their clients (Vitebsky 1995:52). Skeptics have long maintained that shamans rely on conjuring tricks. Certainly, some shamans use spectacular effects some of the time, but they claim that their tricks, like their equipment, are not the main point. The point of such tricks is to make others aware, through an outward expression, of the shaman's inner power (Vitebsky 1995:88). Among the Mehinaku, where the theatrical side to the shaman's role is unusually developed, and where the successful shaman is above all a good performer, the dramaturgical approach to the art seems particularly appropriate (Ripinsky- Naxon 1993:73). But being a shaman is ultimately a public role and the shaman's inner experience reaches its culmination and its full significance only as part of public performance. To say that shamanic action is sometimes highly theatrical is not to imply that the shaman is ònly acting', as though this were something false. Rather, the performance transforms the inner reality or consciousness of a whole range of people who are involved in a number of different ways. It is this which makes the question of trickery irrelevant (Vitebsky 1995:120). Shamanic performance is a highly skilled activity in which the delicate collective mood is vulnerable to collapse, resulting in the failure of the purpose of the ritual. In this light, healing power is a form of artistry. Many anthropological approaches imply that ritual performance acts out some hidden cultural script, but it is perhaps more appropriate to suggest that the culture itself is constantly being formed and reformed through these performances (Vitebsky 1995:121± 123). One can only conclude that the world of the shaman, bizarre as it must sometimes seem to outsiders, is nevertheless totally real to the person experiencing it (Drury 1982:36±37). For a description of an ayahuasca ceremony, I will refer to one given by Luna (1991:33), which I have found to be very typical: The vegetalista sings an icaro [magic incantation] over the preparation and gives [a portion of the preparation in] a small gourd to the participants. At the end he will also take the brew. For some time they will be waiting for the effects to come. Then the vegetalista gives the order to blow out all candles, and in the dark, [he] begins to `call the visions,' by singing the appropriate icaro and agitating his schacapa, a rattle usually made of the leaves of Pariana sp. [palm]. It is normally agreed that in the beginning people see lights and geometrical designs. After some time appear visions of animals, plants, and such. They come ìn waves'. When there are several vegetalistas present, they each sing their icaros simulta- ISSN 0256±6060±Unisa Lat. Am. Rep. 16(2) 2000 55
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VOLUME 16 NO 2 2000 UNISA CENTRE FO
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UNISA CENTRE FOR LATIN AMERICAN STU
Page 5 and 6: Editorial The wide range of interes
Page 7 and 8: ABSTRACT In an attempt to identify
Page 9 and 10: final military liberation in 1819)
Page 11 and 12: enrichment. Solving the resource ca
Page 13 and 14: ample resources in many sectors, en
Page 15 and 16: Spanish rule in Nuevo Reino de Gran
Page 17 and 18: syndicates exploit to the maximum t
Page 19 and 20: then, seriously considered compromi
Page 21 and 22: and Colombia with a reason to bypas
Page 23 and 24: war has made state and nation build
Page 25 and 26: FIGURE 2 Development diamond Source
Page 27 and 28: particularly in the case of Colombi
Page 29 and 30: survival by capturing, controlling
Page 31 and 32: `capture', control and financial ex
Page 33 and 34: mercenary `security' companies and
Page 35 and 36: Mail and Guardian, (1999). Àngola'
Page 37 and 38: The cultural formation of Brazil an
Page 39 and 40: The following is an effort to provi
Page 41 and 42: the twentieth century many ruptures
Page 43 and 44: NOTES 1 For an excellent history of
Page 45 and 46: ABSTRACT Undertaking a research pro
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Page 49 and 50: sclerops) and the otter (Ptenorura
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Page 69 and 70: The current YanomamoÈ scandal: Nee
Page 71 and 72: UCLAS Reports Cultural studies high
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