Topic
Ethnographers and anthropologists who studied psychoactive plants in ritual, healing, and social life.
A memo from anthropologist [Margaret Mead](/biographies/margaret-mead)'s papers at the Library of Congress, recording her interest in LSD and other psychedelics in the summer of 1954 and her work with [Harold Abramson](/biographies/harold-abramson)'s research team, including [Conan Kornetsky](/biographies/conan-kornetsky) and [Murray Jarvik](/biographies/murray-jarvik).
Krasheninnikov's 1764 English translation describes fly-agaric (Amanita muscaria) intoxication in Kamchatka: its effects, use by the Koryak, and the practice of drinking an intoxicated person's urine to prolong inebriation. He covers dose-dependent effects and behavioral consequences including murderous impulses.
A Kamchatka note on mushroom trade and intoxication
Langsdorff's 1812 German voyage account records fly agaric in Koryak trade with Russians and Kamchadals, noting in a footnote that Koryaks preferred it to brandy as a stupefying or intoxicating substance.
Orinoco snuff, Acacia niopo, and curupa in an 1821 travel narrative
Humboldt and Bonpland's Personal Narrative describes niopo snuff among the Otomac on the Orinoco, including preparation from Acacia niopo, nasal apparatus, missionary testimony, and comparison with curupa.
A German travel account of Amazonian snuff, ceremony, and intoxication
Spix and Martius's 1831 German travel narrative describes paricá among the Mura, including preparation from dried seeds, ceremonial use, insufflation through tubes, and comparison with fly agaric intoxication.
An 1858 Ecuadorian account of ayahuasca visions and divination
Manuel Villavicencio's 1858 geography gives an early Spanish account of ayahuasca among Indigenous groups of eastern Ecuador, including divination, warfare, illness diagnosis, visionary effects, and a first-person report of his own experience.
Richard Spruce on ayahuasca, yopo/paricá, and Amazonian medicine-men
Richard Spruce's nineteenth-century account of caapi, aya-huasca, niopo, and paricá, based on field observations in the Uaupés, Orinoco, Rio Negro, Napo, and Pastasa regions. The excerpt records plant identifications, preparation methods, visual effects, ceremonial uses, and the role of payes in curing and divination.
A Study of the Drug, with Especial Reference to its Physiological Action upon Man, with Report of Experiments
Prentiss and Morgan conducted the first American clinical study of peyote at Columbian University on buttons supplied by ethnologist James Mooney. They recorded physiological effects alongside subjects' first-person accounts of visions, including kaleidoscopic colors and dissociative experiences.
An account of the Kiowa and Comanche peyote ceremony by ethnologist James Mooney, published in the Therapeutic Gazette in 1896. Drawing on field observation and participation since 1891, Mooney describes the all-night rite, dosages, and cases including his interpreter Paul Setkopti and leader Quanah Parker.
Religion — Intoxicants
An ethnographer's account of fly-agaric use among the Chukchee and Koryak, including dosage, preparation, three stages of intoxication, the 'spirits of fly-agaric,' and urine-drinking to extend the effect. The text also records the mushroom's place in Chukchee myth.
Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Indian Affairs, House of Representatives, on H.R. 2614
A subcommittee of the House Committee on Indian Affairs held February-March 1918 hearings on H.R. 2614, a bill to prohibit peyote use in Indian Country. Witnesses included ethnologist James Mooney, Osage chief Fred Lookout, Omaha ethnographer Francis La Flesche, Arapaho delegate Cleaver Warden, and Cheyenne-Arapaho Paul Boynton.
Anthropologist Rafael Karsten's account of a Jívaro victory feast describes the natéma ceremony, in which the vision-inducing drink made from Banisteria caapi and tobacco is prepared ritually and drunk communally. The passage covers preparation, the emetic effect, and beliefs that the visions foretell prosperity.
Rouhier's two-part dossier for Bulletin des Sciences Pharmacologiques: a translation of Barriga Villalba's 1923 paper on alkaloid yagéine, followed by Rouhier's ethnographic and pharmacological notes. Rouhier catalogues dose-dependent effects and includes chemical analysis of a Jívaro preparation.
A Berkeley anthropologist's field survey of Mazatec witchcraft from a 1938 expedition to Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca. Hosted here is a fair-use excerpt: Johnson's eyewitness account of a curing ceremony he and his party attended on July 16, 1938 -- the first outsider-witnessed session involving the sacred mushrooms -- along with his description of the mushroom species and their ritual use among Mazatec brujos.
External source
Banisteriopsis caapi
A Colombian Amazon ethnographic study placing Tukano use of Banisteriopsis caapi, or yajé, within a wider cultural system of mythology, ritual, symbolism, perception, and social knowledge.
The entry "Koræiki" from the anonymous 1736 London translation of Das Nord- und Ostliche Theil von Europa und Asia (Stockholm, 1730) by Philip Johan von Strahlenberg (1676–1747), a Swedish officer captured at Poltava who spent over a decade as a prisoner in Siberia. Strahlenberg reports that Russian traders exchanged the mushroom Muchumor for Koryak furs, that wealthy Koryaks boiled it and drank the liquor at feasts, and that the poor drank the urine of intoxicated guests to share the effect. The full entry is hosted from pp. 396–97 of the 1736 printing.