Peyote as an indigenous patrimony, 1970-2000

• In Event: Colonial Latin America: The State, its Subjects and National Patriomonies in historical perspective

Abstract

Peyote has long circulated in Mexico, and more recently in the United States, used by a variety of actors for a variety of purposes. At the same time, colonial and modern states have spent centuries in a taxonomic effort to make peyote an Indian thing, linked to criminality, diabolism, and degeneracy. Their efforts have rarely sought to limit indigenous uses of peyote, instead targeting non-indigenous users. Since the 1970s however, a different ethos has linked peyote to the Indian, an ethos that insists that peyote is a cultural patrimony of a specific set of indigenous groups, and therefore legitimately used only by them. This paper explores the reasons for this shift, and links it to a series of long-standing debates over the meanings and dangers of this mildly hallucinogenic cactus.

Author

• Alexander S Dawson, Simon Fraser University