I am interested in works written in any european language (from the first arrival of europeans to America up to the 19th century), which can be useful as valuable primary historical sources for an intercultural History of Psychopharmacological Botany and Hallucinogens.
Examples:
-Nicolás Monardes (1508-1588) y su obra: Primera y segunda y tercera partes de la historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales, que sirven en Medicina (1574, Sevilla: Alonso Escribano)
-Hernández, Francisco. 1651. Nova Plantarum, Animalium et Mineralium Mexicanorum Hístoria... Roma: Deuersini y Z. Masotti. Historia de las plantas de la Nueva España. Editorial Ochoterena. México, D. F. 3 vols.
- Ruiz de Alarcón, Hernando. 1629/1892. “Tratado de las supersticiones y costumbres gentílicas que hoy viven entre los indios naturales desta Nueva España.” In: Francisco del Paso y Troncoso, ed. Anales del Museo Nacional de México, ep. 1, VI, pp. 123-223. México, D. F. Imprenta del Museo Nacional;
-Spruce, R. (1873). On some remarkable narcotics of the Amazon Valley and Orinoco. Ocean Highways. Geographical Magazine, 1, 184-193.
etc... ....
Thank you for your answer Dr. Aziz. Let's keep in touch and exchange informations... Best
Juanma
Thank you very much for your information, Mr. Webster. I already knew the great work of Sahagun... The text of that "brief history of Peyote" you quoted is taken for Schultes and Hoffmann´s book "Plants of the Gods", which is a fundamental source for the history of Psychopharmacological Ethnobotany:
http://catnews.org/FREE%20Pot%20Books/Plants%20of%20the%20Gods%20Their%20Sacred%20Healing%20and%20Hallucinogenic%20Powers.pdf
I feel very grateful for your kind help.
Best,
Juanma
The Puritans, particularly Cotton Mather, were very interested in Native American medicine.
Here's one example of a psychoactive plant used by Native Americans that Mather was interested in. The attached pages are pp. 46 & 47 from Cotton Mather: First Significant Figure in American Medicine, by Otho T. Beall, Jr., and Richard H. Shryock, Johns Hopkins Press: Baltimore, 1954.
I'm not sure the attachment has attached, so I will summarize: Mather describes a plant he calls Fagiana, which he tried himself as a tea. "[I]t has a mighty invigorating and exhilarating vertue. It refreshes the spirits with an uncommon Brightnesse, It prevents and removes Lassitude when great Fatigues are to be encountered." Letter of July 13, 1716, British Museum.
The plant he calls "Fagiana" is identified as Epifagus virginiana, or beech drops, in Early American Gardens: For Meate Or Medicine, by Ann Leighton, U Mass Amherst Press, 1970.
file:///var/folders/60/qp7vkw3179xfm3gympz6wqth0000gn/T/Cotton%20Mather%20in%20American%20Medicine%20Beall%20and%20Shryock%20p%2046.jpg
file:///var/folders/60/qp7vkw3179xfm3gympz6wqth0000gn/T/Cotton%20Mather%20in%20American%20Medicine%20Beall%20and%20Shryock%20p%2047.jpg
Good luck on your interesting project.
Merilee D. Karr, MD, MFA
Thank you so much for your precious information, Dr. Karr!
I have found a digital copy of the work you quoted here:
http://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44817435.pdf
Thanks a lot!
Thanks for making me aware of the American Antiquarian Society and its online resources.
If you are interested in North America, Robert Beverly in The History and Present State of Virginia (originally published 1705) describes accidental datura consumption by English militia stationed at Jamestown, Virginia and use of datura root infusion in the Algonquian coming of age ceremony, the wysoccan. A new addition of this book was recently published by University of North Carolina Press.
Not a primary source, but interesting nonetheless, theobromine, caffeine and ursolic acid biomarkers of Illex have been identified in residues from Mississippian Period beakers (ca AD1100-1200) from the site of Cahokia in western Illinois: P Crown, T Emerson, J Gu, WJ Hurst, T Pauketat, and T Ward, 2012. Ritual Black Drink Consumption at Cahokia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(35):13944-13949.
I am interested in the use use of psychoactive plants (other than tobacco) in pre Columbian Eastern North America. Was not aware oft he Cotton Mather reference. Thank you for calling it to my attention.
Fascinating project. Do you mean ILLEX (squid) or ILEX (holly)?
Mather and other leading Puritans published many observations of Native American plant medicines. That was the only psychoactive one I could find quickly.
Dear Dr. Simon and Dr. Karr,
thank you very much for sharing those interesting references and your exchange of information with me! Of course I am interested in uses of psychoactive plants by North American indigenous peoples!
Concerning Precolumbian use of psychoactive plants in North America, I guess you would know this classic references , but just in case you don't:
-Furst, Peter T. 1974a. “Mother Goddess and Monning Glory at Tepantitla, Teotihuacan: Iconography and Analogy in pre-Columbian Art.” In: Mesoamerican Archaeology: New Approaches; Norman Hammond, cd. Austin: The University of Texas Press.
-Furst, Peter T. 1974b. “Archaeological Evidence for Snuffing in Prehispanic Mexico.”Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, vol. 23, núm. 10, pp. 368 and following...
-Furst, Peter T. l974c. “Hallucinogens in Precolumbian Art.” In: Art and Environment in Native America; ed. Mary Elizabeth King y Idnis R. Traylor, Jn., pp. 55-102. Lubbock:Special Publications of the Museum of Texas Technological University.
-Furst, P.T. Hallucinogens And Culture ( Chandler& Sharp, 1976) The book's full text is available at: https://archive.org/stream/FurstHallucinogensAndCultureChandlerSharp1976/Furst%20-%20Hallucinogens%20and%20Culture%20(Chandler&Sharp,%201976)_djvu.txt
Greetings from Northeastern Brazil
Best regards,
Juanma
Dear Dr. Simon
another reference about precolumbian use of Ilex that may interest you (although in this case, not from N.America but from S. America, and not Ilex vomitoria but Ilex guayusa):
Schultes, RE. r972D. ''Ilex guayusa from 500 A.D. to the present" GoteborgsEtnografoka Museum Etnologiska Studier J2: H5-IJ8.
Available here: http://www.samorini.it/doc1/alt_aut/sz/schultes-ilex-guayusa-from-500-ad-to-the-present.pdf
Best regards,
Juanma
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