El contexto cultural de un alucinógeno aborigen

The Cultural Context of an Aboriginal Hallucinogen: Banisteriopsis caapi

By G. Reichel-Dolmatoff Colombian Institute of Anthropology

Introduction

Knowledge and use of hallucinogens, as is well known, is very widespread among Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and this custom may probably go back to very remote prehistoric times, perhaps even preceding the arrival of human beings on the American continent. From North America to the southern regions, there is information about Indigenous groups that have used, or still use, certain plants with psychotropic effects in order to achieve hallucinatory states of varying intensity and character.

Since the nineteenth century, botanists, pharmacologists, and psychologists have worked to identify and describe many of these plants, to analyze their chemical components, and to study their effects on the individual. In recent years this work has advanced considerably, and there is now a very extensive bibliography on the subject. Anthropologists, however, have still studied this topic very little. When one consults the extensive literature on American hallucinogens, one sees that very few works treat in any detail the cultural aspects connected with the use of these substances.

At the same time, it seems probable that for Indigenous people the hallucinatory experience is of great importance, since it may be closely, and in part even causally, connected with their magical-religious concepts, mythology, symbolism, and, in general, with the handling of diverse states of consciousness and perception. These are, of course, fundamental for our understanding of the mental and psychological processes that govern or regulate these societies.

The purpose of the present article is to describe the use of a hallucinogen (Banisteriopsis caapi) among the Tukano Indians of the Vaupes territory in the northwestern Colombian Amazon, in order to place this custom within its cultural context and to trace its links with a series of other activities and expressions characteristic of this Aboriginal group. The data presented here are based, for the most part, on personal investigations carried out in recent years among the Indigenous people mentioned.¹1I owe my thanks to the University of the Andes, which in 1967 and 1968 sponsored my investigations. I am very sincerely grateful to Dr. Roberto Galan Ponce of the Department of Biology at the University of the Andes for reading and commenting on the manuscript of the present work. Naturally, responsibility for the ideas expressed here is exclusively mine.

The distribution of the use of the hallucinogen based on preparations of Banisteriopsis in South America has recently been traced by Friedberg (1965). In Colombian territory these hallucinogens are used by practically all the tribes of the Amazon basin and the Orinoco plains (Uscategui, 1959). I have also personally observed their use among the Noanama and Embera Indians of the Choco, a forested zone of the Pacific coast from which this custom has spread as far as Panama (Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1960, pp. 130-132).

The vernacular name by which this plant, as well as the beverage prepared from it, is known varies considerably. The term yaje or yage, probably taken from the lingua geral of Brazil, is commonly used in the northwestern Amazon. The plant is also designated by several other names according to the local Indigenous language. Thus, for example, in the dialects of the Tukano linguistic family, the Eastern Tukano of the Vaupes call it caapi, or more correctly gahpi, kahpi; among the Cubeo it is mihi; among the Guahibo of the Eastern Plains, kapi; the Noanama of the Choco call it dapa, and the Embera call it pilde. In the Peruvian and Ecuadorian montana the plant is generally called ayahuasca. These various designations, sometimes synonyms and sometimes generic names applied by Indigenous people to any hallucinogenic plant, have caused some confusion in the literature, so that it is sometimes difficult to know exactly which botanical species is being discussed (Schultes, 1957).

The botanical and ethnobotanical aspects of the various Colombian Banisteriopsis species have been treated in detail by Schultes, whose works on the subject are fundamental (Schultes, 1957, 1960, 1963a, 1963b, 1967, 1969). Among other authors who have dealt with these species, one may mention Bristol (1966), Cuatrecasas (1958), Garcia Barriga (1958), Perez Arbelaez (1956), and Uscategui (1959). The particular species of this malpighiaceous plant to which the present work refers was first identified as B. caapi by the English botanist Richard Spruce, who in 1851 observed its use in the region of Ipanore on the lower Vaupes River. Later, several other species were distinguished, namely B. quitensis, B. inebrians, and others. The last two species do not seem to occur in Vaupes territory, where the plant is mainly B. caapi (Schultes, 1957, p. 37) and possibly B. rusbyana. The full designation of the species treated here is therefore Banisteriopsis caapi (Spruce ex Grisebach) Morton (Schultes, 1957, p. 4). For brevity, this article will use the term yaje.

Phytochemical and pharmacological study of the psychotropic substances derived from Colombian malpighiaceous plants began almost half a century ago. Although certain advances have been achieved, it remains a field of marked interest. Fischer (1923) seems to have been the first to isolate from yaje a crystalline alkaloid, which he called telepathine, but without making a rigorous botanical identification of the species he used. The same problem also confronted other contemporary researchers (Barriga Villalba, 1925; Albarracin, 1925; Perrot and Hamet, 1927a, 1927b). Barriga and Albarracin called the alkaloids they isolated yajeine and yajeinine.

This lack of exact botanical determinations of the materials used in laboratory examinations proved a very serious obstacle to identifying the chemical components, especially because information was accumulating that Indigenous people, in preparing their hallucinogenic beverages, sometimes mixed several plants, not all of which had been clearly identified. This raised the problem of the great variety of ways in which the beverage was prepared, a detail on which available data were not always complete.

According to the existing literature, while in some regions of Colombia, such as Putumayo and Caqueta, the Indians made an infusion for several hours before consuming it, in other regions, such as Vaupes, the custom was to macerate it in cold water. On some occasions leaves or other parts of very different plants were also added, a practice that varied according to the tribe in question and according to the effect expected from the drink. Other plants were eventually added to reinforce the hallucinogenic action of the basic preparation. The use of these additional ingredients remains of great importance in current research, since laboratory results naturally depend on their exact identification. Some observations on this aspect of the research are found in Schultes (1957, 1960).

In 1928 Elger established that the alkaloid described by Fischer was identical with harmine, isolated years earlier from the Near Eastern shrub Peganum harmala, whose hallucinogenic properties had been known since antiquity (Gunn, 1937). The terms telepathine, yajeine, and banisterine, which researchers had used up to that point, thus proved to be simple synonyms for harmine. Later, when more precise botanical identifications were obtained, it became possible to determine the presence of harmine in B. caapi (Chen and Chen, 1939) and B. inebrians (O'Connell and Lynn, 1953). In addition, Hochstein and Paradies (1957) found other beta-carboline derivatives in the stems of B. caapi, namely harmaline and d-tetrahydroharmine (Bristol, 1966, pp. 115-116; Naranjo, 1967, p. 394; Schultes, 1969, p. 250), and B. rusbyana was found to contain appreciable quantities of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (Agurell, Holmstedt, and Lindgren, 1968).

The psychotropic effects of these components of B. caapi and other malpighiaceous species have been described by several authors, who refer in their studies to schizophrenic patients, groups of normal individuals, observations made among Indigenous people, and even personal experiences (see, among others, Harner, 1968; Naranjo, 1965, 1967; Pennes and Hoch, 1957; Turner, 1963). In general terms, the literature describes these effects as follows: ingestion of an infusion or maceration based on Banisteriopsis initially causes dizziness, nausea, and vomiting, followed by more or less marked states of euphoria or even aggressive excitement. Suddenly, visual hallucinations appear in brilliant colors. These may be of sublime beauty, but they may also contain elements of terror and anguish. In these visions animals sometimes appear, frequently felines and reptiles, or the person feels himself flying through the air, visiting distant places, or communicating with divinities, demons, or tribal ancestors.

The circumstances under which the hallucinogenic beverage is consumed among Indigenous groups of the northwestern Amazon vary considerably, according to the different authors. On some occasions these are collective ceremonies of a magical-religious character, such as initiation rites for young men, funerary rites, or the yurupari ritual. At other times a single individual, generally a shaman or healer, consumes the drink in order to diagnose an illness and divine its cure, or to establish the identity of a supposed enemy. Women do not participate in drinking the beverage, nor do young men who have not yet reached puberty, although both may be present while the men consume it.

For observations made among Colombian Indians, we have the following sources: Rocha (1905) on the Ingano of Mocoa, Caqueta; Koch-Grunberg (1909) on the Tukano of the Vaupes; Bruzzi (1962) on the same people; Goldman (1963) on the Cubeo of the Vaupes; Bristol (1966) on the Sibundoy of the upper Putumayo; Der Marderosian, Pinkley, and Dobbins (1968) on the Kofan of the Putumayo; Mallol de Recasens (1963) on the Siona; Schultes (1960) among the Indians of the Caqueta and Vaupes; and Reichel-Dolmatoff (1960, 1968) among the Indians of the Choco and the Tukano of the Vaupes. A brief note by Stradelli (1890) refers to the use of yaje among the Pira-Tapuya (Tukano) of Taraca on the lower Vaupes. For the same region bordering Brazil, we also have Spruce's classic description (1908), based on his observations among the Tukano of the lower Vaupes, and some data from Biocca (1965) on the Tukano of the same region.

Rocha himself did not take yaje, but only reports information supplied by Indians and mestizos of the Mocoa region. According to him, the hallucinations of the first thirty to forty-five minutes are extremely pleasant: the person sees beautiful landscapes, appetizing fruits, and lascivious dances of half-naked women, all accompanied by music. Others believe themselves to be powerful chiefs or have visions of angels and heavenly virgins. They imagine that they consume drinks and foods and that, turning into jaguars, they pursue tapirs and deer running through the forests. A short phase of drowsiness follows, and then terrifying visions appear: serpents and demonic personifications attack the person, mistreat him, and humiliate him. Despite the romantic language Rocha employs, his account is not without interest and is transcribed at length in Appendix I (Rocha, 1905, pp. 43-46).

Spruce attended a yaje ceremony in 1852 among the Tukano of Urubu-coara, near Ipanore on the Vaupes River. He describes the effects as follows: "In two minutes or less after drinking it, its effects begin to be apparent. The Indian turns deadly pale, trembles in every limb, and horror is in his aspect. Suddenly contrary symptoms succeed: he bursts into perspiration, and seems possessed with reckless fury, seizes whatever arms are at hand... In about ten minutes the excitement has passed off, and the Indian grows calm, but appears exhausted." Spruce drank a small portion and reacted only with nausea. He continues: "White men who have partaken of the caapi in the proper way concur in the account of their sensations under its influence. They feel alternations of cold and heat, fear and boldness. The sight is disturbed, and visions pass rapidly before the eyes, wherein everything gorgeous and magnificent they have ever heard or read of seems combined; and presently the scene changes to things uncouth and horrible." (Spruce, 1908, II, pp. 419-421).

Koch-Grunberg, who attended several ceremonies among the Tukano of the Tiquie River half a century later, says the following: "According to what the Indians told me, everything appears much larger and more beautiful than it is in reality. The house appears immense and splendid. One sees a multitude of people, above all many women. The erotic seems to play a principal role in this intoxication. Great multicolored snakes coil around the house posts. All the colors are very luminous" (Koch-Grunberg, I, p. 299). On one occasion Koch-Grunberg took two small cups of the beverage and describes his reaction as follows: "Indeed, after a while, and especially on going outside the house into the darkness, a strange, trembling, very intense light appeared before my eyes, and while writing, something like red flames passed rapidly over the paper" (Koch-Grunberg, I, p. 318).

Goldman describes the use of yaje among the Cubeo of the Cuduyari River, where the plant is called mihi. Regarding its effects, he says that the sequence of mihi transports a man from vague and mild visions of whiteness to intense hallucinatory experiences, bursts of violence, and finally loss of consciousness. At first, the Indians say, vision becomes blurred, things begin to look white, and one begins to lose the faculty of speech. The white vision turns to red. One Indian described it as a room spinning with red feathers. This passes and one begins to see people in the bright coloring of the jaguar. With stronger forms of mihi, hallucinations take on disturbing and fearful forms: violent people milling about, shouting, weeping, threatening to kill. One fears that he no longer has a home. House posts and trees come alive and take the form of people. There are sensations of an animal biting one's buttocks and of feet being tied. The earth spins and the ground rises to the head. There are moments of euphoria too: music, singing, and the sound of flowing water. Goldman emphasizes that the Cubeo do not take mihi for pleasure, but for the intensity of the total experience (Goldman, 1963, pp. 210-211).

Bruzzi participated in two yaje ceremonies among the Tukano of Caruru-cachoeira and drank a small dose, but did not hallucinate. Some Indigenous participants, however, said they had seen luminous globes or flames. This negative experience led Bruzzi to think that the effects described among Indigenous people should be explained by the easy excitability of their imagination (Bruzzi, 1962, pp. 230-231).

Schultes took yaje on several occasions and writes that the narcosis among these people is pleasant, characterized, among other strange effects, by colored visual hallucinations. In excessive doses, it is said to produce frightening nightmarish visions and a feeling of reckless abandon, but consciousness is not lost and use of the limbs is not unduly affected (Schultes, 1960, p. 170). Referring to the decoction of B. inebrians used in the upper Caqueta and Putumayo, he says that the drink had a very strong psychotropic effect. Its intoxication began with giddiness and nervousness, followed by profuse sweating and nausea, then a period of lassitude during which a play of colors, at first mainly hazy blue, increased in intensity and eventually gave way to deep sleep interrupted by dreams and accompanied by feverishness. No uncomfortable after-effects, apart from severe diarrhea, were felt the next day (Schultes, 1960, pp. 175-176). Referring to the cold maceration used in the Vaupes, generally prepared only from B. caapi, he says that, as far as he could judge from six or seven experiences, its effects differed little from those of the boiled concoction used in the Putumayo, except that intoxication was longer in coming on and much more of the drink had to be taken (Schultes, 1960, pp. 176-177).

Mallol de Recasens's work (1963) is of special interest. She obtained from a Siona Indian several color drawings representing his yaje hallucinations, together with the informant's personal comments and the interpretations given by the shaman to whom the informant had communicated the content of his visions. In analyzing the drawings, Mallol de Recasens observes that the yaje plant occupies a central position and symbolizes a concept of female fertility. Many other symbolic elements are likewise interpreted as sexual representations, while others are interpreted as expressions of deep conflicts concerning the maternal image, the authority of the shaman, and the influence of Catholic missions. Although the author considers her work only a methodological contribution, it is actually a very important attempt to place the hallucinatory experience within a broader cultural frame.

These citations are enough to give an idea of the descriptions found in the literature. To summarize this introductory section, it remains only to explain briefly the physical and social setting in which yaje is consumed among the Indigenous people of the Vaupes, based on the authors cited. Generally, the circumstances are as follows: several pieces of the fresh vine, about the thickness of a finger, are macerated in a wooden mortar, after which cold water is added. The liquid is passed through a strainer to remove fibers and small pieces of bark, and it is collected in a ceramic vessel decorated and used only for this purpose. At nightfall the men, adorned with feathers and with their bodies painted, gather inside the communal house, the maloca, where, seated on small stools, they recite, converse, and sing. Occasionally groups of them rise to dance to the sound of panpipes, rattles made of dry seeds, and large wooden tubes struck against the floor. One or two men distribute the drink, offering it in small gourds to the participants, who drink the liquid with gestures of disgust. The men who distribute it approach with ritualized gestures, sometimes walking in leaps and rapidly exclaiming ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma ("take it!"). The dances and songs continue, and during the intervals more doses are distributed, sometimes as many as six or eight.

Up to this point we have summarized the facts observed by different authors. But we now ask: what does this custom mean? What sense does the hallucinatory experience have for the Indigenous person? What does it mean in social organization? How is it related to mythic traditions, religion, symbolism, and all mental and psychological processes? In a word, what is the cultural dimension of the use of this hallucinogen? In what follows we will try to answer, if only in part, some of these questions.

The Mythological Context

In the course of my investigations I collected a series of myths in which many references to yaje appear. According to the Tukano of the Vaupes, the yaje plant was created in mythic times as one of the most important constituent elements of their culture. I will briefly summarize here the myth of the creation of humanity.

The solar divinity is a masculine fertilizing principle of phallic character. At a certain moment this phallus, symbolized by the rays of the sun and by the ceremonial staff of shamans, was placed vertically over a specific topographic point located on the equatorial line. On the day of the vernal solstice, at midday, the vertical rays of the sun cast no shadow on the vertical faces of certain rocks lying on the riverbanks, and this portentous sign marked the central and sacred places where the sun fertilized the earth. Such places include the rocks of the Ipanore rapids on the lower Vaupes and the Stone of Nyi near the Meyu rapids on the lower Pira-parana. The petroglyphs seen on these rocks commemorate this act. Drops of semen descended through this phallic staff or ray, and humanity was formed.

The first humans then ascended the rivers in a great anaconda that served as their canoe and combined uterine and phallic symbolism.² The long journey of the Canoe-Anaconda represents the dispersion of humanity, which established itself along the rivers where there are great rapids. These rapids also have a uterine, gestational character, and successive new social groups emerged there when the canoe arrived. During this long journey, the divinity guiding the canoe also created a series of cultural elements and institutions and established his moral and social code.2For details of the interpretation, see Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1968.

According to a Desana myth, at one of these stations, called dia vii, the house of water below Ipanore, a woman named gahpi mahso, the Yaje-Woman, appeared. While the men were gathered inside the house drinking chicha, she gave birth outside, and the child turned out to be the yaje vine. The woman brought the child inside, which caused great consternation among the men. The creature had human form, but the myth says: "the child had the form of light; it was human but it was light; it was yaje." On seeing the child, the men became as if intoxicated, because the woman "drowned them with visions." She asked, "Who is the father of this child?" A man sitting in a corner, with saliva dripping from his mouth, tore off the child's right arm and said, "I am!" The others did the same; they seized the child, tore him apart, and scattered his limbs. "They grabbed the umbilical cord," says the myth, and in this way "our progenitors obtained yaje."

The symbolism concealed in this mythic account is very complex. The key concept is expressed by the term "to drown." To clarify it, we must refer to another mythic cycle, the one related to the yurupari ritual. With this word, taken from the lingua geral, much of the Amazon basin designates a rite in which several bark trumpets play a central role. These trumpets are sacred, and women must neither see nor hear them, since the rite is carried out only by a group of initiated men. Elsewhere I have given a detailed description of this ritual (Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1968, 127ff.), and here I summarize only the essential points.

Among the Tukano of the Vaupes, yurupari is the commemorative representation of the incest that Father Sun committed with his own daughter in the time of Creation, and the ceremony in which these flutes are played has as its principal theme the promulgation of the strict exogamous laws characteristic of the Tukano. In most Tukano dialects, yurupari is called miria-pora, a term derived from miriri, to drown or submerge oneself, and pora, children or descendants. Indigenous informants explained to us that this refers to a concept of procreation, of coitus, an act that among the Tukano is often compared to a state of drowning, drunkenness, or hallucination. During sexual intercourse, the man "drowns" and "sees visions." If a person dreams that he is drowning, that predicts drunkenness. The term miriri also has the sense of becoming saturated, confused with something, gratified, or overflowing. The name miria-pora thus alludes to the sexual act, above all in an incestuous sense, as appears in the myth that recounts the extraordinary sin of the solar divinity.³3The myth of the origin of yaje exemplifies a widely distributed cycle of myths involving a bloody sacrifice in which a group of men participates and from which a benefit for humanity is then derived. Compare, for example, the myth of Dionysus.

When the Yaje-Woman "drowns" the men, the myth says literally: "gahpi nomeri miria-vaya" - yaje-images-drowned-them. The word nomeri means "figures, images," and one informant who had been in a Catholic mission used this term to describe the brilliant reflection of fireworks against a night sky. On the other hand, nomeri also describes the action of a woman who paints her face with red dots. An informant says: "When taking yaje, one sees red things that walk and jump. Yaje is feminine and produces images." We can now better interpret the meaning of the myth of the creation of yaje. Intoxication with this hallucinogen is compared, first of all, with a sexual act that also carries the connotation of incest.

According to another version of the creation myth, the origin of yaje took place at the Mihá rapid. There the Yaje-Woman conceived the child after being fertilized through the eye. In Tukano symbolism we often find this equivalence between eye and vagina, and in this case the act of fertilization is designated as inyasaase, a term derived from inyase, to see, and saase, to deposit, in the sense of impregnating. When labor pains began, the men were all "stunned" (vihsipeo), a word that also means to go astray, to be mistaken, and that is used to describe a psychic state during which a person's behavior is openly contradictory. The same term is used to describe an aberrant act that opposes religious norms. It is in this sense that the men were disoriented. This state intensified when the Yaje-Child was born and his mother entered with him through the door. She then went toward the center of the house, where there was a hearth and where a fiber box containing the dance ornaments the creator had given to men had also been placed. It was a moment of anxiety and great agitation. The myth says: becteonyati paro - "Oh, it was unbearable!"

We must pause here to refer to some symbolic elements in this scene. First, among the Tukano, the large communal houses, or malocas, have uterine symbolism and are directly designated as the "uterus of the sib." The door of the house symbolizes the vagina, and the center of the house is the most sacred place, where ceremonial objects are deposited on certain occasions. Second, the hearth is another uterine symbol, since it is the place where transformation occurs, where a crucial component of existence, food, is produced. The box in which the ornaments are kept likewise symbolizes a feminine element, since its contents are interpreted in seminal, fertilizing terms: they are the men's "ornaments." The scene in which the Yaje-Woman enters through the door and penetrates the house amid the men's bewilderment is therefore equivalent to a sexual act.

One of the men present, however, did not lose his judgment, and when the others threw themselves upon the child to dismember him, he was the one who "took the first branch of yaje." The others, according to their social rank, each took possession of "his yaje."

The myth then changes scene. In the house with the men were many animals, and some of them, especially certain monkeys and the tapir, had been deeply affected by the yaje intoxication, that is, by the sexual act. In a tumultuous scene, amid exclamations and laughter, these animals began to devour their tails. The tails of monkeys, as well as monkeys themselves, symbolize the penis and uncontrolled, incestuous male sexuality. In the obscene language of Tukano men, allusive terms are frequently used. Informants comment that "eating one's tail" here means coitus, and they add that the animals that ate their tails were copulating under the influence of yaje. At the same time, the men armed themselves with a ceremonial staff, the same phallic staff through which humanity had descended to earth, and with it drove the influence of yaje out of the house. One commentary says: "With this staff they rejected it. Yaje was supposed to produce only pleasant sensations, but in some it produced the opposite, and for that reason they rejected it. They rejected it with a penis."

The myth continues: "The visions ended. They had found their drink. All the people thus acquired their traditions, rites, and songs." The narrator explains that the Tukano phratry took the second branch of yaje and that "from there the line continued," implying that the line of descent was being compared to a long vine.

In another myth, also narrated by the Tukano, the Yaje-Child survived and became an old man who jealously guarded his secret of hallucinogenic action. The myth says: "From that old man they formed the semen, for he was the possessor of yaje. The desire to possess this penis led to the creation of semen. The old man was the owner of yaje, that is, the owner of the sexual act. They are the children and he is the father."

Seen within the context of Tukano mythology, yaje therefore has a markedly sexual character. Hallucination and coitus are equated, but not in a sense of gratification or procreation; rather, the experience is anguishing because it is related to the problem of incest.

The Ritual Context

In the myths we observed that the yaje vine is identified with a human being and that, during the dismemberment of the Yaje-Child, each man takes away a certain part of the child's body. This parallel is important for the Tukano because it forms the basis for the criterion by which certain parts of the vine are chosen for preparing the beverage, and also because in this way each phratry - Tukano, Desana, Pira-Tapuya, Uanano, Barasana, and so on - has its specific yaje attribute, chosen by its ancestor during the sacrifice of the child.

Each exogamous Tukano phratry consumes its own yaje, determined by external details of the vine and also by the characteristics of its hallucinogenic effect. The Desana, for example, mention at least four classes of yaje traditionally corresponding to them: "knot yaje" (korepida), "guamo yaje" (merepida), "tooka yaje," and "duhtu-puu-sereda yaje."⁴ The Pira-Tapuya, or Fish-People, another Tukano phratry, say they use a category called gahpi-da vai, yaje-branch-fish. The Barasana of the Pira-parana say they use the following classes of yaje: "red jaguar yaje," to become accustomed to the general effects of the hallucinogen and to have visions relating to coca and tobacco in yellow colors; "guamo yaje," to have hallucinations relating to ceremonial songs; "head yaje," to see in the hallucinations the various colors of jaguars; and "blood yaje," to have red visions. They also mention a "yaje of the forest animals" that produces predominantly red and blue hallucinations, and a "snake yaje" that is said no longer to be obtainable in the region.4Tooka or too is a small unidentified plant that plays a very important role in Tukano seminal symbolism. Duhtu is a species of Xanthosoma; puu means leaf; the suffix da expresses the idea of a string, vine, or thread.

Another class, called "fish yaje," is said to be exclusive to Tukano shamans, who take it to establish contact with the Master of Animals. It is also said to produce hallucinations concerning the fertilizing power of the solar ray and male domination over women. A class called "meat yaje" is said to belong to the Karapana phratry. Each Tukano phratry thus has its "own" hallucinations. Yet they are not exclusive; an individual from one phratry may see images in his hallucinations that "belong" to another phratry. These are partial visions that enter into a total image and are immediately distinguished as "foreign."

In each yaje plant, the Indigenous people distinguish branches or pieces of different colors, such as green, red, or white. These colors refer not only to the external appearance of the vine but, above all, to the predominant color of the hallucinations caused by its use. A certain yaje belonging to the Desana makes one see "feather crowns that jump" or snakes in the form of necklaces coiling around the house posts. Another class of yaje is said to produce hallucinations of "snakes that jump." Of course, when we speak here of different classes of yaje, we are not referring to distinct botanical species but to a magical classification established by Indigenous people. It is possible, however, that beneath this classification lies traditional experience that certain parts of the vine, such as roots, lower trunk sections, or fresh branches, contain different concentrations of the hallucinogenic component and thus cause different visions.

Knowing how to combine certain stems taken from various vines is one of the chief concerns in preparing the drink. The combination does not depend on chance availability but above all on the effect desired, and that effect also depends on the occasion on which the beverage is consumed. Each ceremony, and even more, each dance, requires its specific preparation. The goal, then, is to control the intensity and quality of hallucinations.

It is known that the effects of yaje can be pleasant or unpleasant, causing states of euphoria or terror. It seems possible that these two effects follow each other chronologically as phases during the same intoxication, but it is also possible that some persons tend to have pleasant experiences while others have unpleasant ones. The ideal, according to the Indians, would be to have only beautiful and pleasurable visions that the person can enjoy passively in a state of rest. Nausea, intoxication that leads to uncontrolled behavior, and terrifying visions are considered dangerous. Some people are said to become aggressive and begin to quarrel with companions; others tear off their ornaments and even remove their loincloths; they urinate and defecate in public and behave "like animals."

Obviously the effect depends on many factors that are difficult to control: the properties of the plant, the mode of preparation, the social and psychological atmosphere of the gathering, and the consumer's personality. The effect is therefore largely unpredictable, and when taking yaje the person always runs the risk of having extremely anguishing visions. This fact greatly concerns the Indians, who, beyond combining the components used, try to influence the effects of yaje magically in order to eliminate its distressing aspects. There is therefore a long series of spells and songs that must be pronounced when preparing the beverage.

When a spell is recited over the yaje stems, it generally uses a formula of exorcism also used in curing certain illnesses, summarized essentially in the exclamation ahpiko suu tooka ai tuunyeanugukama, meaning that the harmful component is "smeared with milk, smeared with tooka, and banished." Informants agree that both milk, whether maternal or the whitish sap of certain plants, and tooka, a small unidentified plant with a white juice, have a markedly seminal character. The act is thus symbolic sexual insemination, curative in character, after which the danger is neutralized (Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1968, pp. 133-142). When this formula is pronounced over the yaje stems, it eliminates the dehko-boga, the "force of the liquid," that is, in this case, the harmful component of the drink, which is now banished "to the mouth of the rivers."

In theory, preparing yaje is a highly complex and formalized process involving a series of requirements and restrictions. The stems must be cut by men in a certain part of the forest, at a certain time of day, and according to their position on the vine. They must then be macerated in a wooden trough using a heavy pestle, sometimes a club, and the blows must be made with a specific rhythm and sound intensity. It should be said here that one cannot rule out the possibility that the Tukano add to the preparation based on B. caapi some ingredients that may increase the hallucinogen's effects. In a ritual description obtained from the Desana, it is said that both this phratry and that of the Pira-Tapuya sometimes add a plant called bayapia, which "makes us nauseated." Unfortunately, we lack details on this very interesting aspect.

The maceration of the stems always takes place outside the house. There, cold water is added and the liquid is strained into a special vessel. This vessel is an important ritual object: a ceramic container about 25 centimeters high, with a globular body, a high cylindrical base, and two small handles at the rim of the opening. These handles are perforated so that, by passing a cord through them, the vessel can be carried or hung. The yaje pot (gahpi soro) must be made by an old woman who, to smooth and polish the inner and outer surfaces, uses a special very hard, smooth, yellow stone. The Tukano interpret this stone as "a phallus that shapes" the vessel, which is a uterine receptacle. In effect, the yaje pot represents for the Indigenous people a uterus, the mother's womb, and likewise a cosmic model of transformation and gestation.

On its exterior, against the natural dark background, the vessel bears polychrome paintings in white, yellow, and red. The first two colors represent the principle of fertilization, and the last represents fecundity. On the cylindrical base a vagina and clitoris are sometimes painted, thus representing the "door." When the yaje pot is not in use, it is kept suspended from a pole outside the house beneath the overhanging roof. When yaje is prepared, the vessel is cleaned of dust and the painting may be retouched. Before use, the pot must be purified with tobacco smoke, as must the small stick with which the drink will be stirred before consumption. When the vessel is filled with the liquid, a man carries it inside the house and places it in a dark place. Of course, all this is ideal conduct, promulgated in myths and narratives explaining ritual norms; in reality, preparation is sometimes carried out with only minimal ritual manifestations.

In collective consumption of the hallucinogenic drink, the procedure, based on my own observations, is broadly as follows. The men, adorned and painted, sit on their stools with their backs to the entrance. At nightfall a large torch of resin is lit, placed roughly in the center of the house, giving off an intensely red light. Between the representatives of the house and those of the exogamous phratry invited for the event, a long ceremonial dialogue now unfolds. The myth of creation and the genealogies of the phratries are recited. With the phallic staff, which through a small sounding chamber also serves as a rattle, the origin of humanity is commemorated, and then various musical instruments are played, such as panpipes and whistles. The dances that begin are accompanied by songs, and the men mark the beat with large tubular staffs whose lower ends are struck against the ground. They also wear seed rattles on their ankles and elbows. One musical instrument consists of a turtle shell with a wax body attached to the end of the plastron; holding the shell under the left arm, one rubs the wax with the right hand, producing a rapid sound resembling a frog's croak.

Each distribution of yaje is announced by a trumpet call from an instrument made of ceramic and decorated with polychrome paintings. The head of the house, before whom the vessel is placed on the ground, stirs the liquid with a small stick, making a dry rattling sound, and fills two small gourds (gahpi koa) with the drink, offering them to the men while rapidly chanting ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma ("take it!"). Walking before the row of seated men, he offers each one a cup and returns each time to his place to refill the gourds. According to the ritual, the distributor must approach from "below," the other end of the house, and "ascend" toward the participants with quick steps. He must suddenly bend down and stamp hard with one foot, a ritual position called guburo moari (foot-making). At other times, bending in this way, he raises only one foot, called yurimeneri. Other ritual gestures include the drinker making gestures of disgust, twisting his mouth, and then spitting exaggeratedly, implying that he must master himself greatly to swallow the beverage. Sometimes the distributor quickly strikes his bent arms against his trunk, producing a dull sound accompanied by the exclamation tsave, demonstrating joy and activity.

Usually six to eight small cups of the beverage are distributed at intervals of about an hour. Between distributions, the men sing, dance, and converse. It should be noted that in these men's dances one does not observe pelvic movements or other gestures alluding to sex. It is important to note that as the effects of yaje increase, so too does the precision of the dancers' steps. The general rhythm and individual movements become increasingly coordinated, and over time the dancers seem to form a single body moving in a highly controlled and precise rhythm.

Frequently a man takes a staff or club and, assuming a ritualized posture of challenge, exclaims: "Thus I would impale the head of my enemy!" This theme is sometimes elaborated, and the men rise and gesture violently. Another ritualized attitude consists of hurling insults at the yaje pot. The men shout: "I am going to drink your contents, but afterward I will kick you! When you are empty, I will urinate on you! I will fill you with excrement!" The men address the pot as a female being that challenges them, that offers a danger they are prepared to face.

Hallucinations are designated by the generic term gahpi gohori, "yaje-figures." According to informants, gohori derives from gokhsise, reflection or halo; gohori is "something that is seen," though it is added that it is neither tangible nor imaginary, but a projection. Indigenous people say that the order of hallucinations is fixed and that certain images are seen only after the third cup, the fourth cup, and so on. They also emphasize that to obtain clear and pleasant hallucinations, sexual abstinence and a very light diet are necessary during the preceding days, and that during the ceremony it is very necessary to sweat and participate actively in the dances.

The whole ceremony contains a rhythmic, cyclic element, a concept of acts or encounters. The trumpet is sounded, the drink is ingested, and then there is dancing. Then comes a brief rest and the hallucinations appear. Then the trumpet sounds again and the process is repeated. In each encounter, so to speak, the person does not know in advance what will happen. Some see colors and confused forms; others see a whole mythological scene; others vomit and see nothing. There is an element of chance, an intense expectation that dominates the men.

On occasion an old man or a man with shamanic attributes speaks aloud and explains the hallucinations as if everyone saw exactly the same thing. He says, for example: "This trembling that is felt is the winds of the Milky Way," or "That red color is the Master of Animals."

In the darkness at the other end of the house sit the women. Their function is to encourage the men by occasionally emitting a sharp laugh or exclaiming words of challenge and contempt for the "cowards" who continue vomiting or who may reject the drink. The men often then shout nuri-mahsa ("people of cohabiting") or kore-mahsa ("vagina-people"), but these exclamations are not directed at individual women or at the women present in the maloca; rather, they are addressed impersonally to the feminine element of the phratries with which an exogamous relation exists.

The strict ritualization described above is, of course, not observed in every case. Sometimes only a few men gather to take yaje, chanting and conversing in a corner, and even during important ceremonies some details of ritual gestures or words are occasionally omitted.⁶6Some informants say that on rare occasions an old woman may also take yaje, but we could not confirm this.

The Symbolic Context

The objective reason why an individual or human group habitually consumes a hallucinogen is, of course, of the greatest interest to anthropology. Is it an escape from reality? A religious rite? A philosophical experience through which one seeks a state of sublimation, equilibrium, or integration? Or is it that one probes a new experiential dimension of another "reality," or seeks a Dionysian, orgiastic experience? In any case, the answer to the question of why a hallucinogen is consumed will lead us into very deep and complex dimensions of the psychocultural mechanisms of the group in question and will reveal intimate and hidden motivations that only rarely manifest themselves in other aspects of social conduct.

According to the Tukano of the Vaupes, the objective of taking yaje is to return to the uterus, to the fons et origo of all things, where the person now "sees" the tribal divinities, the creation of the universe and humanity, the first couple, the creation of animals, and the establishment of social order, especially with reference to exogamous law. During the ritual, the person enters through the "door" of the vagina painted on the base of the vessel and, inside the container, joins the mythic world of Creation. This drawing on the vessel is called gorosiri, place of origin, uterus, or, very significantly, place of return, place of death. This return to the uterus is also an acceleration of time and is equivalent to death. According to Indigenous statements, the person "dies" but then revives in a state of wisdom because, upon awakening from the trance, he is now confirmed in the truth of his religious system, having seen with his own eyes the mythic personifications and scenes.

On the other hand, the return to the womb is an incestuous act, since the person identifies with a phallus that penetrates the maternal breast or womb, where he now passes from an embryonic state to a state of rebirth. This transformation, which takes place during hallucinations, is considered an extremely dangerous process because not everyone knows how to conceive it as a purification in which the person must strip himself of all earthly corporality. Some continue to maintain ties with the profane world, and when they now enter the sacred world, they suffer the terrifying consequences of an extraordinary act.

According to the Tukano, after an initial phase of indefinite luminosity, of moving forms and colors, the scene becomes clear and significant details are defined. One sees the Milky Way and the distant fertilizing reflection of the sun; one sees the first woman emerge from the river waters and the first pair of ancestors take form. One sees the supernatural master of the forest and water animals, the gigantic prototypes of predatory animals, the origin of plants and of life itself. The principles of evil also appear: jaguars and snakes, representatives of illnesses and forest spirits that stalk the solitary hunter. At the same time, one hears their voices, perceives the music of mythic time, and sees the ancestors dancing at the dawn of Creation. One sees the origin of dance ornaments, feather crowns, necklaces, bracelets, and musical instruments. One sees the division into phratries, and the yurupari flutes promulgate the law of exogamy. Behind these visions, new "doors" open, and through their openings one glimpses other, still deeper dimensions. Cosmic levels are crossed until one perceives, ever more strongly, the fertilizing energy of the sun in an atmosphere of yellow light.⁷ While male personifications and forest animals are clearly distinguished, female personifications and fish appear only in symbolic forms.7One informant says: "Man needed supernatural communication and therefore sought yaje" (igu duharagu irikoa amari arimi gahpi koapure).

But not everything is seen in a single hallucination, nor every time. Occasionally the individual awakens from trance in a state of great calm and deep satisfaction. At other times he could grasp only partial visions, fleeting and unsettling images difficult to interpret. And still other times the person is overwhelmed by the nightmare of jaguar jaws or by the threat of snakes approaching while he, paralyzed with terror, feels their cold bodies coiling around his limbs.

The hallucinatory experience is, for the Indigenous person, essentially a sexual experience. To sublimate it and pass from the erotic and sensual to a mystical union with the mythic stage, the intrauterine stage, is the final objective, achieved by some but longed for by all. The clearest expression of this objective appears in the words of an Indigenous man educated by missionaries, who said: "Taking yaje is a spiritual coitus; it is spiritual communion, as the priests say."

The interpretation of these ideas belongs to the fields of psychology and psychiatry. For the anthropologist, the most interesting observation is this: Indigenous people affirm that everything we would designate with the term art is inspired by and based on the hallucinatory experience. We must elaborate this idea, which is of very great interest and raises a surprising problem.

The Tukano, at least those groups still living in relative isolation, sometimes cover the front of their houses with large geometric or figurative drawings executed with mineral colors on bark walls. When asked the meaning of these paintings, they answered simply: "That is what we see when we take yaje; they are gahpi gohori, yaje figures." The same answer was received when we asked about other artistic expressions, such as the ornaments used to decorate utensils. These decorated objects are mainly ceramics, bark cloths, stools, gourds, maracas, trumpets, and dance sounding staffs.

Examining these objects in detail, one immediately notices that certain decorative motifs are consistently repeated. The same motif may be found painted on a house wall, then incised on a maraca, and then decorating a bark-cloth loincloth. These decorative elements coincide, form series, and are then combined with others, creating an art style characteristic of the Tukano. Observing our interest in these decorative motifs, the Indigenous people explained quite naturally that these were simply motifs they had seen in their yaje hallucinations.⁸8Indigenous people affirm that these are not only visual hallucinations; they also hear music and see dances. They say that both their present dances and their music, vocal and instrumental, are based on hallucinations.

Going further, however, produced still more surprising results. It is practically routine for an ethnologist who works with Indigenous people to offer them pencils or paints and ask them to draw anything that comes to mind. In this way one can obtain more or less successful drawings, perhaps showing a little house, a turtle, or a fish. Many examples of this "primitive art" have been published, but fundamentally they cannot be considered representative of a creative and proper artistic expression, since they are mere replicas of a real model, made according to the manual skill of the draftsman.

In the course of our research on yaje, we asked Indigenous men to make drawings of their hallucinations, and we obtained without difficulty a long series of drawings. We offered them a choice of twelve colored pencils and sheets of white paper, 28 by 22 centimeters, mounted on a wooden tablet. All were adult men who frequently took yaje; they were non-acculturated Indigenous men, not living in contact with civilization, and none spoke Spanish. The men devoted themselves to the task with great interest and concentration, spending one to two hours on each drawing. Some immediately made their own drawing tools from splints and fine fiber cords: a long ruler, a shorter one, a ruler with a wavy edge, a semicircle, and a circle. The models for these small tools were much larger implements used to paint the walls of the malocas. For my drawings they first traced a rectangular frame and then divided the space into convenient sectors. Often, before drawing a motif on the paper, they first traced it in the dust on the floor and then copied that model onto the sheet. The colors spontaneously chosen were exclusively red, yellow, and blue, with brown used only very rarely. They commented on the lack of several shades, since the Tukano distinguish in great detail between light yellow, orange-yellow, reddish-yellow, and so on, and evidently would have preferred to make the drawings using a wider range of colors.

Later we recorded on magnetic tape the explanation each artist gave of his work. Sometimes this consisted of a few laconic comments; sometimes it involved long and detailed elaborations. Comparing the small corpus of drawings, we observed that certain motifs were repeated consistently. We then prepared a series of numbered cards, drawing on each one a motif taken and copied from the large drawings. Showing these cards to many men who had not made drawings for us and asking for their interpretation, we observed that in most cases the interpretations coincided. We could thus establish that these motifs were codified and had the fixed value of ideographic signs. At the same time, we observed that the interpretation of these signs often referred to aspects of sexual physiology and, in relation to it, to the law of exogamy.

The motifs isolated in this way can be grouped as follows:

1. Male organ.
2. Female organ.
3. Fertilized uterus.
4. Uterus as passage.
5. Drops of semen.
6. Anaconda-canoe.
7. Phratry.
8. Group of phratries.
9. Descent.
10. Incest.
11. Exogamy.
12. Box of ornaments.
13. Milky Way.
14. Rainbow.
15. Sun.
16. Plant growth.
17. Thought.
18. Stools.
19. Maracas.
20. Tobacco fork.

Before discussing individual motifs, something must be said about Tukano color symbolism. Yellow and whitish colors symbolize a seminal concept and are always associated with the idea of masculine or solar fertilization. The various shades represent different degrees of intensity of this fertilizing energy, with an orange-yellow tone representing the highest degree. These yellow and whitish colors are characteristic of many substances that for the Tukano have a markedly seminal character and are symbolically equivalent to male semen: saliva, dew, the juice of certain plants, the gelatinous component of certain fruits, cassava starch, cotton, honey, sun rays, and other phenomena. Red, by contrast, signifies the opposite complementary principle, since it symbolizes female fecundity. It is the color of the uterus, fire, and heat. These two groups of colors, one "cold" and the other "hot," one male and the other female, are essentially beneficial.

The third fundamental color is blue. Blue is sexually neutral and morally ambiguous. Above all it symbolizes a principle of communication expressed through thought, ritually smoked tobacco smoke, and songs and spells. Since communication may have either beneficial or harmful motivations or results, blue may be good or bad, and its character depends to some degree on its meaningful combination with other colors. If yellow and red are associated, the principle is beneficial, one of complementary and reciprocal relation. But when red is associated with blue, an oppositional component appears. Though this may be institutionalized, as in the case of two exogamous phratries, it may also symbolize a struggle in which the "bad" component attempts to impose itself on the "good."

The male organ is indicated by a triangle accompanied on each side by a vertical line ending in a volute. This sign is called vahsu, the name given to the fruit of the rubber tree (Hevea pauciflora var. coriacea). The fruit is edible and, during the rainy season, a preferred food, though not always accessible. It is attributed a marked seminal character, both because of the latex of the tree and the gelatinous mass covering the fruits; both are associated with semen.

The female organ (lore) is represented by a rhombus. If a small circle is added in the center, it means fertilization. An ellipse or oval containing several circles or semicircles represents a fertilized uterus. A U-shaped element represents the entrance to the uterus and, in a transferred sense, a "door" or "sky." It indicates the rupture of a cosmic level and passage into another dimension of perception. The motif should be seen as a frame enclosing a cavity, so that the small vertical body in the center represents the clitoris.

Rows of circles or round dots symbolize male semen. In a transferred sense they may symbolize descent or life itself. Several parallel wavy lines drawn horizontally in different colors represent the Anaconda-Canoe in which humanity arrived. A rhombus with a central point represents a phratry. According to whether the point is red or blue, it refers to "our people" or to "other people." A group of red and blue rhombuses with central points of the opposite color represents the opposition between a group of exogamous phratries. A vertical row of rhombuses, sometimes simplified as a zigzag line, represents descent, a concept of fecundity and social continuity.

A spiral symbolizes incest and represents forbidden women. It is the sign of yurupari. The motif is said to derive from the mark a yurupari flute leaves when placed mouth-down in the mud. These flutes are made from a bark tube wound in a spiral. By association, the form is compared to a land snail. A motif resembling a fleur-de-lis symbolizes exogamy, the permitted women. It is said to derive from the appearance of two fish traps placed back to back. These traps, woven from splints, have a sexual character and are compared to a vagina into which fish enter; in this case, the fish have a phallic character.

Two or more concentric rectangles symbolize a box with dance ornaments, that is, a uterine element. Vertical rows of small dots represent the Milky Way. Parallel semicircles represent the rainbow, which symbolizes a vagina. A circular motif represents the sun as a fertility principle. When there are several concentric circles, it may also symbolize a vagina. A stylized plant form symbolizes plant growth in general. Vertical wavy lines symbolize creative thought and, at times, the energy of the solar creator himself. Small rectangles containing short parallel lines symbolize men's wooden stools, which are decorated in this manner; on some occasions these stools have a ritual character. A motif representing maracas extends by implication to the songs and spells accompanied by their rattling. A bifurcated motif represents the wooden fork on which the ritually smoked cigar is placed; it too has a marked sexual character.

There are, of course, many other motifs that seem to have ideographic meaning, but this sample is sufficient to pose the problem. Besides the motifs described above, there are representations of men and animals, more or less stylized, as well as flowers and fruits. The drawings also contain lines, patches of color, or poorly defined motifs that do not seem to have precise meaning; they are simply "things that are seen."

How are we to explain the Indigenous assertion that during hallucinations all participants, or at least many of them, "see" or, better, perceive the same basic motifs? Could it be that a certain component of the hallucinogen produces visions of the same type, the same constellation of forms and colors, perceived similarly by different individuals? Our informants say that the motifs described above appear above all in an initial phase of hallucination,⁵ and that in later phases one sees mythic scenes and figures of men and animals, though these are no longer as stylized and clear as the visions of the first phase.5The symmetrical motifs of the initial phase of hallucinations are sometimes called too-puri, from too, plant, puu, leaf, and ri, plural, that is, "small branches, leaves." The expression toondari, clusters, is also used.

First, it is evident that in Indigenous interpretation of hallucinations, processes of projection and feedback from prior cultural experiences operate, that is, from a visual and circumstantial memory. From childhood the individual has seen two categories of models: those offered by nature and those represented by human artifacts. The physical environment offers models such as Amazonian rain forest vegetation, rivers, sandy beaches, clouds, flowers, fruits, butterflies, and some birds. In interpreting hallucinations, flowers and fruits frequently appear, and people speak of petals, vines, branches, clusters, and other plant forms. Certain birds are also mentioned, and of course phenomena such as the stars, the rainbow, the Milky Way, and others. One must also remember that in the semi-darkness of the forest, the vivid colors of a jaguar are striking, and that many snakes are very strongly colored.

On the other hand, there are manufactured objects. From earliest childhood the individual has seen decorative motifs on ceramics, painted bark cloths, or houses adorned with large drawings, and their meanings have been explained to him. Adolescents who have not yet taken yaje already have vague knowledge of the most common signs: male, female, incest, exogamy. One can therefore think that in a hallucinatory state the person projects his visual cultural memory onto the confused curtain of colors and forms and then "sees" certain motifs and personages. Individual hallucinations do not form, among the Tukano, an intimate and secret aspect; they are discussed freely. During hallucinations, one person may ask another what they mean. This free communication of experiences could lead to consensus, to the fixation of certain images, and in this way, whatever the vision might be, its interpretation would adapt to a cultural model.

Second, one might also think that certain images or motifs are produced more or less constantly by the biochemical action of the hallucinogen. Motifs such as halos, stars, circles or luminous dots, and multicolored wavy lines seem to form part of a broad range of hallucinations, not created exclusively by ingestion of B. caapi but also by other drugs, and could thus constitute a common basis for the hallucinatory experience. Paintings or drawings made by individuals under the influence of LSD, mescaline, peyote, or other drugs frequently have certain elements in common that could hardly derive solely from shared cultural experiences of the artists. There is an element of rhythm, of pulsation, that seems more likely to be caused by an organic basis than by culturally determined visual memory.

The problem becomes more complex if we consider it from the point of view of artistic inspiration. It is striking that many of the motifs discussed above appear frequently in the petroglyphs and pictographs of the region, and even far beyond its limits.⁹ Nor would it be difficult to find parallels for these motifs in other prehistoric manifestations, for example in ceramic decoration or stone carvings of ancient Indigenous cultures. One might argue that these are such elementary motifs that they can arise independently in any place or period: circles, rhombuses, dots, spirals, and little more. But are they truly so elementary? It would be difficult to claim that the sign of the "door" or that of exogamy are basic forms. It might be more possible to think of large cultural zones where, since time immemorial, a certain hallucinogen was consumed and where, on its basis, a traditional interpretation formed that created a true artistic style. Could archaeology then guide us toward a zoning of such symbolic systems? Assuming that the use of hallucinogens in Indigenous America is very ancient and generally related to the magical-religious sphere, one may also assume that ceremonial objects were made and decorated by specialists or at least by persons who shared the religious symbolism of their culture.9Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1967.

It is of special interest here to consider so-called phosphenes: subjective images that appear in our field of vision in darkness or semi-darkness, independently of external light, and that, originating in the eye and brain, constitute a perceptual phenomenon common to all human beings (Oster, 1970). Phosphenes can be produced spontaneously or by stimuli such as electrical impulses or hallucinogenic drugs. In the latter case, experimental observation has shown that phosphenes often form abstract motifs. Max Knoll, working with a group of 1,000 individuals, established a series of fifteen phosphenes that are in large part identical to the codified motifs of the Tukano.

But we must distinguish between form and meaning. We are then faced with the problem of why the motifs in Tukano hallucinations are interpreted above all in terms of incest and exogamy. Hallucination certainly induces not only the projection of seen or supposed forms, but also, perhaps to an even more intense degree, the projection of psychological conflicts latent in the culture. The problem of incest deeply concerns the Tukano, and, as in so many other societies, has been elaborated among them in the form of exogamous rules that of course go far beyond the narrow biological frame. Much of the mythology and ritual revolves around these themes and conflicts, for which a solution is sought. Return to the uterus is thus a way of relieving tension.

Finally, one should add observations on the frequency with which images of jaguars and serpents appear in hallucinations. Both animals, or rather groups of animals - felines and reptiles in general - appear not only in threatening form but often also as harmless or even beneficial beings. The ambivalence of these animals' symbolic value makes interpretation difficult. In any case, one must know that among the Tukano and other Colombian tribes, the jaguar and snake sometimes represent principles of fertility and protection and by no means appear only in a negative and dangerous aspect. It is interesting to remember, then, that felines and reptiles have always played a central role in the Aboriginal religions of America, both in the high civilizations and among less developed groups. The symbolic importance of these animals goes back to very ancient prehistoric times, the second millennium B.C., and continues today in the shamanistic religions of many Indigenous groups. Whether images of these animals may perhaps be related to the core of conflicts concerning incest and exogamy is a question for psychologists.

In concluding these observations on the cultural context within which B. caapi is used by the Tukano Indians of the Vaupes, it remains to emphasize that this field of research deserves high priority. Acculturation processes advance inexorably and modify not only Indigenous cultures but also the plant world. The millennial knowledge Indigenous people possess of the properties of many plants is extraordinarily valuable to us, but it is being lost under the avalanche of accelerated acculturation. A broad field of research still awaits anthropologists, biochemists, pharmacologists, and psychologists, and it should be taken advantage of before it is too late. Given the current worldwide popularization of hallucinogen use, it is of great importance to investigate interdisciplinarily and in a transcultural context not only the motivations but also the psychobiological effects of these substances. If this comparative material from primitive and disappearing cultures cannot be obtained, humanity will have lost an important part of the frame of reference needed to speak accurately about the use of hallucinogens in advanced cultures.

Appendix I: Rocha's Account

Rocha's text says: "Yage is a vine or small shrub that the Indians do not let white people see and that, consequently, I do not know. They prepare it as a drink by cooking it all night, and when it has the appearance of thick honey it is ready to be tasted. They lessen its effects when administering it only as a purgative by mixing it with other plants, principally the herb they call chiripanga, which I also do not know. The use of yage is not without dangers" (Rocha, 1905, p. 45).

Regarding the effects, he says that they occasionally use a particular beverage for the effects it produces, either as a purgative or to provoke delirium, at first extremely pleasant and eventually horrible. In the midst of it, they believe they have clear vision of the future and a divinatory faculty that lets them know who their enemies are, what plots they are forging, how to combat them, what other risks and dangers they may face, where they will find game, which parts of the river are most abundant in fish, what color the richest gold-bearing strips of beach will be, and where the veins of the precious metal are located.

The delirium at first is all splendor, most agreeable sensations, and empyrean delights. Several white men who have taken yage related to Rocha their visions, supremely beautiful but differing according to their tastes, ambitions, and appetites. According to them, the imagination of the most ardent poet could not devise, nor the most eloquent language express, the magnificence of these dreams during the first two or three quarters of an hour after libation of the magnificent liquor. Sight delights in green plains under a blue sky with pearly clouds. One then enters flowering orchards where, within reach of the hands, fruits of golden or red colors and exquisitely delicate taste hang from the branches; the ear meanwhile delights in ineffable music. Leaving the orchards, and to the sound of that music, in other green gardens celestial dancers sing and dance deliciously, wearing the classical buskin, elegant as desert palms: women with white and rosy flesh, dressed in satins, velvets, and gauzes, arms, throat, and soft breast bare, adorned with bracelets, necklaces, and belts in which diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and rubies shine dazzlingly. They are women with fascinating gazes, enchanting smiles, sweet mouths, beautiful as the bride in the Song of Songs. When the dance ends, they offer cups of topaz to the dreamer, prostrate before him, loving and smiling, with an Olympian nectar that gently enthralls thought.

Some see this. Others dream themselves powerful lords and kings. Others deliriously possess all the riches of the universe. Some are mystics and see choirs of angels and virgins and Jehovah himself seated on burning clouds or hidden in the ardent bush. Some are epicures and gluttons and delight in tasty dishes and savory meats of the forest, richly seasoned roast kids with provocative aroma. Finally, the Indians see themselves in forests full of game, tapirs and deer fleeing swiftly but not escaping them, because the Indians themselves have turned into tigers and run after the prey with feline speed. Or they feel themselves enjoying soft repose in the shade of leafy trees.

But the pleasant visions of yage are followed, after only the parenthesis of a brief drowsiness, by the delirium of horror. Possessed by it, the yajofago feels violent pains; with mind drunk, limbs trembling, and body unsteady, he tries not to fall and wants to grasp the same branches from which he picked the exquisite fruits. The branches then change into serpents that wrap around his body and rabidly bite him again and again. The celestial dancers turn into hydras and infernal furies that lash him. The kings and emperors who humbled themselves before him become executioners who slap him, beat him, and kick him. The angels and virgins the mystics saw yield their place to demons who plunge them into cauldrons of molten, boiling lead, and the benevolent God becomes a justiciary God who angrily hands them over to Satan (Rocha, 1905, pp. 43-45).

Appendix II: Personal Protocol

The following protocol contains the account, recorded on magnetic tape, of my experiences after taking six doses of yaje among the Tukano of the Pira-parana. The beverage was consumed on the occasion of an alliance ceremony between two exogamous phratries. The stems were cut between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. in the nearby forest and, according to the Indigenous people, constituted a mixture of three classes of yaje: "guamo yaje" (light brown stems, with a somewhat grooved surface, taken about three meters above the ground); "mammal yaje" (brown stems with light spots and smooth surface, taken two meters above the ground); and "head yaje" (dark brown stems with knots and protrusions, taken near the ground). These three groups of stems were obtained from three plants growing within a diameter of about twenty meters, but, as far as I could observe, they were a single botanical species. About twenty-five pieces, each about sixty centimeters long and approximately one centimeter in diameter, were then macerated for more than an hour, and finally about eight liters of water were added. The liquid was passed through a strainer and kept in a polychrome ceremonial pot.

The event lasted from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. Twenty men and about twelve women took part. The men were painted and adorned with large feather headdresses and wore rattles, painted staffs, and sounding rods, the whole ceremony taking place in an atmosphere of intense solemnity. It began with recitation of the creation myth, followed by dances accompanied by songs referring to the fertility of animals and women. The first serving of yaje was distributed at 8:15 p.m., when the participants were already sweating profusely. The second was distributed at 9 p.m., the third at 9:30 p.m., the fourth at 10:15 p.m., the fifth at 11:05 p.m., and the sixth and last at midnight. In the intervals the men danced and sang, in a rhythm sometimes accelerated, sometimes slower. The precision of the dancers' steps and the rhythm of the music improved with consumption of yaje, and at no point was there a dissonance or false step. No food was consumed, but after each dose of yaje a small quantity of very lightly fermented maize chicha was distributed. The music, both vocal and instrumental, did not cease for an instant, varying in intensity but maintaining a hypnotic rhythm. The whole scene took place in the semi-darkness of a large maloca by the light of a single torch.

After the second dose, some men began to vomit and shortly afterward said they were having visions, which they now described in low voices while gesturing with their hands. My own experience is reduced to the following observations: first dose, pulse 100, slight euphoria followed by temporary drowsiness; second dose, pulse 84; fourth dose, pulse 82, strong vomiting; sixth dose, pulse 82, severe diarrhea. Almost immediately, visions appeared in spectacular colors: a multitude of intricate motifs of marked bilateral symmetry, which passed slowly in oblique bands across my field of vision when I half-closed my eyes. The visions continued, changing, for more than twenty minutes, disappearing only briefly on two occasions. There were no acoustic phenomena or figurative images. The dances and songs continued until dawn without producing unpleasant effects in me or in the other participants.

The text of the recording indicates, in parentheses, the activities of the others.

(Music of panpipes moving away and approaching with the swaying of the dancers.) "I am seeing something like... well... it is dark, but I see something like a peacock's tail... but at the same time it is like... everything in motion... like fireworks, no? Very similar to... the background, let's say... of certain Persian miniatures. There is something Oriental in all this. Or tapestries, Tibetan tapestries. Sometimes it makes one think of... that decorative Arabic writing, some sura of the Koran. Rather in dark colors; sometimes white stands out, but rather it is a very dark red. That passes... it goes... it is oblique in my field of vision. It goes from upper left toward lower right. There is a very slow flow. Now that changes... all the colors of the spectrum, like... yes, wavy... but somehow the arcs of each undulation detach themselves and form different motifs. Below is yellow; that changes continually and then goes through the colors of the spectrum. They are motifs rather... yes, everything is curvilinear: semicircles, forms like intertwined hearts that become flowers; suddenly forms like a jellyfish. Sometimes there are... yes... again these fireworks effects. But... it is not three-dimensional... it is flat and rather dark. Now it passes."

(High flute sounds; the dancers are now resting.) "Something comes from above, from the right: they are like... it is like water from a fountain, but the light passes through the jets of water, like a rainbow. These lines cross, but they are not lines; in any case, they are interrupted in places. Points with a... dark center, yellow around it... then like a flower, like... like ostrich feathers, curled like that. And again feathers, peacock feathers. Sometimes like moss; like these mosses. Yes, very, very similar to fungi, to those fungi under a photographic lens, iridescent in color. A flower but with three petals... three... yes."

(The vision disappears for about two minutes; the dance music begins again.) "I am very awake again. Yes, when I open my eyes wide, then I see the maloca, the darkness, the people; but when I half-close them, I again see these motifs. Sometimes they are like microphotographs of butterfly wings or sea corals. Sometimes the colors are not... not pleasant. Now there are more defined motifs: arabesques, horizontal bands. Yes, almost everything comes in parallel bands, each one of another color. But always in motion. Often in these bands there is something like a net, a mesh. Centers form."

(The music intensifies.) "This mesh is quite fixed; only the centers are in motion, spinning and changing color. Again... now this whole plane tilts and goes again more or less... almost 45 degrees... more, almost vertical now."

(Loud rattling.) "Now it tilts again toward the horizontal. The background is almost black. Sometimes there are concentric waves moving, like very black water where a stone falls. Yes, yes, but everything very symmetrical. There is almost never a motif that is not symmetrical. Sometimes... like old locks, those old plates. Everything is very baroque."

(Dance with strong percussion.) "A quantity of semicircles, like a kind of trees, of a dark color against a lighter background, almost bluish. It has already changed again! Like... like microphotographs of plants; like these stained microscopic sections, sometimes like a pathology text. Some are vomiting. Everyone says they see visions; they say they see the whole maloca painted in colors, the interior. But they keep dancing. Now, to the right it changes... yes... there is a Tibetan aspect, blue Buddhas, and around them a kind of yellow-red-blue halo, or flames ending in little points."

(The dancers rest; there is conversation.) "It is like that sometimes. It is not pleasant. Yes, it is very spectacular as color! And always this growing and diminishing of forms, of lights. They double... a circle appears, it doubles, triples, multiplies. Yes... they spin, everything very fast. Like... like... yes, it is like bubbles, transparent bubbles, those soap bubbles. And now dark. No, I see no more. But I feel well. It is almost one o'clock. I have taken six cups of yaje; pulse 84, slight headache. After the fourth cup I vomited violently, and after the fifth cup diarrhea began. But otherwise I am well. A bitter taste in the mouth, nothing more."

(Approximately two minutes pass.) "I keep seeing things. Hexagons, everything like a kind of hexagonal ceiling, tilted about 35 degrees, and at each junction between four, a blue point. It has changed now; now they are little stars... what a quantity! They come and go, come and go; in short, they approach and recede... Now they almost disappear."

(Monotonous ritual conversation beside me; there is almost no music.) "Hmm... like a basketry motif. Yes, yes... paintings by Rouault, like stained glass... colors... stains framed by a thick black line."

(High flutes.) "Yes... or large eyes in different colors. There is no longer that symmetry now! They are like bodies approaching... now like large caterpillars, with many spines, hairs... with a little ball at the tip of each hair. But... again, like microphotographs. It has changed now... like little red hairs, no? But it is already changing; these little bubbles have lengthened and are going away. Again... well, it is so difficult! Now it is a dark red color, crossed by a series of yellow rays; the center remains to the right, but I do not see it. These rays fall as if into a forest of small red hairs. Everything tilted... again: upper left and lower right. It has changed now... now they are like stylized palms, thousands and thousands, in perspective. They are like rugs, no? They change, change... like very stylized little trees. Yes, all that is, in good part, like certain neckties in bad taste. Yes, now it is fading. I see no more."

Plate Captions

Plate I. 1. Banisteriopsis caapi. 2. The stems of yaje are cut in the forest. 3. The stems are macerated. 4. The liquid is strained into a ceramic container.

Plate II. 1. The beverage is distributed. 2. A man intoxicated with yaje dances. 3. A musician under the influence of yaje. 4. Men's dance during the ceremony.

Plate III. 1, 2. Men drawing their hallucinations. 3. A man draws in the sand.

Bibliography

The original bibliography is retained in the Spanish transcript and source PDF. It includes works by Agurell, Holmstedt, and Lindgren; Albarracin; Barriga Villalba; Biocca; Bristol; Bruzzi; Chen and Chen; Crevaux; Cuatrecasas; Der Marderosian, Pinkley, and Dobbins; Deulofeu; Elger; Farnsworth; Fischer Cardenas; Garcia Barriga; Goldman; Gunn; Harner; Hochstein and Paradies; Koch-Grunberg; Mallol de Recasens; Naranjo; O'Connell and Lynn; Osmond; Oster; Pennes and Hoch; Perez Arbelaez; Perrot and Hamet; Reichel-Dolmatoff; Reinburg; Rios; Rocha; Schultes; Schultes and Raffauf; Spruce; Stradelli; Turner; Uscategui; and Villavicencio.