Lecture 2 Flashcards
Entheogens
Pyscoactive substances used in a religious or shamanistic context. Most are obtained from plant material.
- Played central role in many societies, structuring belief systems, hopes, values, and lives
Effects of mind-altering substances
- changes in spacial and temporal perception
- heightened emotions
- increased powers of concentration, attention, and memory
- feelings of detachment from reality
- typicaly interpreted as personal contact with a devine entity or with the future or past
What were entheogens used for?
to manipulate and control supernatural entities, to communicate with supernatural beings and realms, or to look inside oneself
– used by various cultures around the world
Aztec of Mexico use of entheogens. What were the 4 groups of hallucinogens used?
- Peyotl (cactus)
- teonanacatl (mushroom)
- tolache (realted to solanacaeous - tomato family)
- ololiugui (seeds of morning glories
Why did the Aztecs of Mexico use entheogens?
- ritualistically and ceremoniously to communicate with the supernatural
- to prophesize the future
- to determine the perpetrators or criminal or antisocial acts
where were the entheogens primarily used by the aztecs of mexico?
- in war-related rituals
- in human sacrificial ceremonies
- religious activities
therefore the clergy tightly controlled the ceremonial use of these powerful drugs
Inca of Peru. Most important entheogen
coca
How did the inca view coca?
A living manifestation of divinity
What did the inca use coca for?
- to alleviate hunger and symptoms of altitude sickness
- as a general stimulant
- Orators in the inca court used it to improve their memory and to divine the future
Two other plants used by the inca
Datura
Yopo - hallucinogenic snuff from the leguminous tree anadenanthera peregina
Plant Mestizos of amazon basin used
ayahuasca - baniteriopsis caapi an dB. inebrians
- taken most often as a mixture of Banisteriopsis spp. and chacurna
What do the mestizos use ayahuasca for?
- folk psychiatry to treat the mentally ill
- prohesize the future
- Healing sessions to determine illnesses and remedies
- tribal rituals
- allowed for clearity of thought
entheogens used by natives of North America
- peyote cactus
- thornapple (member of tomato family) - contains hallucinogenic alkaloid scopolamine
- mescal bean - evergreen leguninous shrub with poisonous and hallucinogenic seeds
- tobacco
why is the use of entheogens by aborigninals of australia not well understood?
reflects a reluctance by native shapmans to share their knowledge with non-belivers
what entheogens did the aboriginal of australia use
native tobaccos- had some hallucinogenic effects
- Pituri - most important and powerful entheogen - remains a critical part of austrailian aboriginal social life - member of tomato family
Corkwood
Solanaceous species, a close relative to pituri, contains the powerful hallucinogenic alkaloid scopolamine
what do the kuma and Kaimbi ppl of New Guinea use to resolve group tension and conflect?
hallucinogenic mushrooms