Theories for the Disappearance/Transformation of Hallucinogen Use

The anthropologist, Dobkin de Rios, has suggested that as soon as hierarchical

functionaries interceded between human beings, proposing doctrines concerning the supernatural

and access to it, hallucinogenic plant use was strictly controlled and forbidden to local shamans.

She claimed that in a state-level society, power to bewitch attained through drug use would be a

threat to “legitimate power,” and individuals who used hallucinogenic drugs would be viewed as

dangerous. The use of hallucinogens either fell from popular use or was taken away from folk

segments. She cited the Inca as an example, pointing to their consolidation of a sedentary

agricultural village-level society, and how coca appeared to have been widely used, but that the

Inca forbade the use of the substance to any but themselves as they maintained that the gods gave

coca to the Inca as the source of his power (1974).

Her proposal seems to make sense; however, Furst points out that there is no evidence for

a “usurpation” of any of the hallucinogens used in Mesoamerica by the priestly elite. But there is

evidence suggesting that botanical hallucinogens were employed by practitioners of the sacred

on every level of society (1974). He also criticizes her analogy to the Inca and their use of coca.

Coca and mushrooms aren’t comparable, since coca isn’t a hallucinogen, and many Andean

anthropologists doubt that the Inca exercised as much control over coca use as it has been

claimed. So the answer lies elsewhere.

As we have seen, in traditional, egalitarian societies, revealed knowledge is highly

valued; especially those where hunting and gathering are the main economic activities.

Hierarchies of intermediaries who intercede between man and the supernatural may be viewed as

diluting and lessening the impact of the experience of supernatural forces. By using

hallucinogens, humans can strengthen the bond that exists between themselves and their gods.

Yet as societies grow in complexity and enter into hierarchical orderings and segmentation, the

value placed on direct, mythical knowledge of the supernatural undergoes change, and thus the

reasons to use hallucinogenic plants decreases as there is a reduction to seek connection with the

divine (Dobkin de Rios 1984).

Certainly, the evidence of the Aztec, Maya, and Inca are of interest here. Probably the

most prominent reason why the widespread use of hallucinogens largely decreased is when the

Native Americans in Central and South America came into contact with the Spanish. It is well

documented that the Spanish suppressed the use of psychotropic drugs in Mesoamerica because

they identified it with the aboriginal religions they were trying to replace with Christianity. They

only succeeded in driving much of such drug use underground. The use of some other drugs

may have been driven underground before the Spanish conquest, suggested by the attempts of

Moctezuma II to discourage pulque (an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of the

maguey) consumption among the Aztecs (Alger 1974). When the Spanish arrived in Mexico,

they persecuted those practitioners who used the sacred plants in religious rituals. They

concluded that the devil was involved with whatever visionary effects the various hallucinogens

imbued the user with. Many priests who were confident in the truth of their religious beliefs

were strongly opposed to the hallucinogenic plants because of the religious importance that were

given to them (Dobkin de Rios 1984). The belief that power (residing in the plants) could be

controlled by the user was totally alien to Western thought. Thus the basic magical assumptions

inherent in drug use, which portrayed man as capable of controlling the unknown and of using

his sacred plants to obtain “power,” were totally contrary to Christian concepts. The Spanish

were so thorough in their destruction of drug cults that many practices went underground for four

centuries (Schultes 1960).