[1] Rouhier, _Monographie_, 231.
[2] Kobert, _Lehrbuch_, 1008-1009; Rouhier, _op. cit._, 227; Henry (T.
A.), _The Plant Alkaloids_, 199: Dixon (W. E.), _The Physiological
Action_, 71. Rouhier (_op. cit._, 228, 231) places peyotline in the
strychnine group; it has a narcotic and tetanic effect on animals, to be
sure, but in man, according to Jolly, it causes slight hypnosis, but no
anaesthesia. Schmiedeberg puts it in the morphine group, which we have
followed (cf. Kobert, _Lehrbuch_, 1009).
[3] Henry (T. A.), _The Plant Alkaloids_, 199; Rouhier, _op. cit._, 238;
Dixon (W. E.), _The Physiological Action_, 71.
[4] Condensed from Rouhier, _op. cit._, 227-32. Note “pellotine” is the
same as “peyotline.”
[5] Henry, _loc. cit._ Staub and Grassmann (_Über die Wirkungsgrenze_,
336) state, in dogs, increased heart-beat and pressure.
[6] Rouhier, _op. cit._, 231. I have modified and added to Rouhier’s
classifications. Ellis (_Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise_) describes
the effects on the central nervous system as “acute cerebrasthenia.” The
lethal dose of anhalonine hydrochloride for rabbits is 0.16 to 0.2 grams
per kilogram of body weight; lophophorine kills frogs by a dose of only
0.011 grams per kilogram of body weight. (Henry, _op. cit._, 199).
[7] Dixon (W. E.), _The Physiological Action_, 79-81. Rouhier (_op.
cit._, 268-69): “Intoxication by peyote in man comprises two very
distinct phases, one, general superexcitement, contentment; euphoria,
the other of nervous sedation, of more or less accentuated physical
indolence, and of hypocerebrality; this last phase is almost entirely
filled with the production of color-visions.” Henry (_op. cit._, 199)
likens this preliminary stage to alcoholic intoxication.
[8] Fernberger (_Observations_, 270) mentions “a very clear but rapidly
changing focus of attention”; see also his _Further Observations_, 367.
Crichtly (_Some Forms_, 102) notes the “rapidity of change,” though
visions “lasted many hours.” It is in this that the “indescribability” of
the visions lies (Ellis, _Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise_).
[9] Fernberger (_Observations_, 269) notes “distortion of time and
space”; and (_Further Observations_, 367) a “grave upsetting of
space and time ... space was extremely extended and time extremely
slowed.” Maggendorfer (_Intoxikationspsychosen_, 355-56) notes for
mescaline a time and space derangement, similar to those in other
“intoxikationpsychosen.” Crichtly (_op. cit._, 105) describes micropsia
and megalopsia, or gravely deranged perception of size.
[10] In these careful statements by Dixon (on a subject not notable for
the accuracy of all observers) many physiological bases for ethnographic
observations I have made may be found, e.g., the mistaking in a Kiowa
meeting of the medicine-man Tonakat by an informant for a hideous
alligator-like monster; he believed then he had seen this witch “for what
he was.”
[11] The writer testifies to the accuracy of Dixon’s somewhat amazing
statement. So marked have been the physical effects of the first stage
of intoxication, that when these pass off to give rise to the feeling of
physiological normality (introspectively), one almost has a distrust of
the existence of these spectacular mental displays particularly if the
observer is of a markedly non-“psychic” or skeptical cast of mind. The
visions arise in the midst of a psychological state I can only describe
as one of perfectly plausible “epistemological orientation,” sometimes
acutely felt in alcoholic intoxication. The feeling of dissociation
with this unfamiliar and spectacular side of one’s peyote-intoxication
experience has suggested to some observers incipient schizoid psychoses.
Small wonder natives often exhibit curiously ambivalent attitudes toward
their visions, and sometimes explicitly reject and disclaim them as
“bad,” the result of trickery by the peyote power (“he’s testing me”) or
by some human witch present. Hoebel in conversation has insisted on the
Northern Cheyenne attitude of suspicion of peyote’s “trickiness.” But I
wholly disagree with Havelock Ellis and others who have argued for the
“ineffability” of visions, and even less do I see in peyote-intoxication
any approach to the mystical state of the epistemological
_convincingness_ of the _visions_. It is this _concomitant_ state of
seeming objectiveness and reality-orientation which accounts for the
marked feeling of duality. On this point, cf. Drs. Monakow and Morgue:
“[Peyote produces] a particular state of dreaming, without losing,
relatively, the idea of orientation, accompanied by pseudo-hallucinatory
phenomena.”
[12] Ellis (_Mescal: A Study of a Divine Plant_, 60) reports a “vague
olfactory hallucination”; Fernberger (_Observations_, 269) and the
writer have noticed kinaesthetic derangements which have parallels in
native visions. Hearing is very acute (Fernberger, _ibid._; _Further
Observations_, 371), but subject to hallucination and synaesthetic
derangement.
[13] Some fifty native peyote “visions” were collected in the original
dissertation from which this paper is derived.
[14] Rouhier, _op. cit._, 315, fig. 44; Ellis, _Mescal; A Study_, 68;
Crichtly, _Some Forms_, 106.
[15] Dixon (W. E.), _The Physiological Action_, 81.
[16] Based largely on Dixon and Rouhier, with additional data from
Jaensch, Wiley, Crichtly, Prentiss and Morgan, Ellis, Fernberger, Wertham
and Bleuler, Lewin, Maggendorfer, Staub and Grassmann.
[17] Rouhier, _op. cit._, 232. But Dixon writes, “In man the nervous
effects are extremely interesting, but on account of the respiratory
depression which is liable to occur it is not desirable to experiment
too freely; it is necessary to remember that this substance, like Indian
hemp, varies considerably in its effects on different individuals, and
that the element of idiosyncrasy is marked.”
[18] Wertham and Bleuler, _Inconstancy of the Formal Structure of
the Personality_. The general thesis of these experimenters was that
personality types might be studied as they were exteriorized in mescaline
intoxication via the Rorschach test. One of the observers described two
personalities in a normal subject in two periods of intoxication, not
knowing that it was the same person. They conclude, interestingly: “It is
suggested that these observations indicate that the form of a personality
is not a constant, but that it may be influenced by outer circumstances,
and that the usual psychologic ‘type’ of a person does not necessarily
exhaust the description of the formal structure of his personality.”
[19] “What an excellent use for a medical congress,” Sir Francis Galton
dryly wrote Havelock Ellis (_Mescal: A Study_, 71, note), “to put one
half of their members under mescal, and to make the other half observe
them.”
[20] Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, 1: 359; cf. _Explorations in Mexique_,
181-82. It is a curious west-European mode of reasoning that leads one to
expect in all psychic upsetments such as this the emergence of the sexual
anxiety—more particularly in the case of peyote intoxication, which
provokes marked fall of heart-beat, physical and mental depression at one
stage, uncomfortable “stomach fullness” and acute nausea!
[21] Wertham and Bleuler, 60. The presence of prior suggestion is
blatantly obvious. Cf. Karwoski, 212: “To the sexologist an easy way of
obliterating temporarily the genital response is offered since mescal is
a powerful anaphrodisiac.... My own experience confirms the anaphrodisiac
properties of mescal, but the fact that under its influence I found my
imagination turning to erotic situations, although temporarily impotent,
is an illustration of the persistence of conditioning that offers an
interesting suggestion with reference to the extirpation experiments
reported in the controversy over the James-Lange theory of emotions.”
Unfortunately, _culture_ cannot be extirpated.
[22] Fernberger, _Further Observations_, 368. But Fernberger
misunderstood his informant, Petrullo, who (_The Diabolic Root_, 8, note)
of course disclaims this statement from “which” on.
[23] Field workers protest privately, but not often enough explicitly,
against the projection of these culturally- and personally-subjective
values into other cultures. The envisaging of primitive cultures as
unspoiled Arcadias where one’s frustrated dreams for one’s own culture
come true, is at least as old as Tacitus’ “Germania,” and is still going
on, not alone among laymen.
[24] We repeat that results _either positive or negative_ for white
observers have no bearing on the problem as regards natives, as this
problem is cultural.
[25] Fernberger, _Further Observations_, 377.
[26] All but one vomited.
[27] It is scarcely surprising that one does not find in Indian
ceremonies what is not there.
[28] Had Fernberger investigated such of his predecessors as Lumholtz,
the novelty of his results would have impressed him less. And had his
experiments been more critical he would not be superfluously supplied
with an “explanation” to a problem where no data to be explained exist
(compare the a-priorism of the “parapsychologists”). But Fernberger
continues: “For every one of the observers the anti-aphrodisiac effect of
the drug was marked and continued, in most cases, for at least 24 hours
after the period of intoxication. Efforts at erotic stimulation proved
ineffective. In several cases physical automanipulation of the genitals
failed to produce the usual physiological effect. The calling up of
erotic images—visual and verbal—were equally ineffective.”
[29] An able and sincere field worker has told the writer of an
experience at a meeting which ended for him in orgasm. But he would agree
that detailing of similar White “aphrodisiac” experiences is edifying
more as regards individuals than the drug. This paper aims to deal with
the _native_ peyote cult.
[30] Klüver, _Mescal, the Divine Plant_, 101; but peyote is a complex of
physiologically antagonistic drugs of quite variable reaction.
[31] Jolly, _Über die schlafmachende; Über Pellotine_, 375-76. This
effect is all the more remarkable since Heffter in similar experiments
noted that pellotine produced in the frog excitability and reflex tetanus.
[32] Heffter, _Über Pellotin_, 327-28.
[33] Loaeza, in del Campo, _Peyote_, 145. Koang-Hobschette (_Les
Cactacées_, 41) says cactine, the active element of _Cereus grandiflorus_
Mill. is used like digitalis as a cardio-tonic, strengthening the systole
and diminishing the diastole like strychnine.
[34] Henry (T. A.), _The Plant Alkaloids_, 199.
[35] Rouhier, _Monographie_, 340.
[36] Parke Davis and Co. formerly manufactured the drug. See their _Newer
Pharmacology_.
[37] But not to all persons! The typical over-enthusiasm with which
new materia medica are received is itself an interesting ethnographic
commentary. Prentiss and Morgan (_Therapeutic Uses_, 4-5) prescribed it
variously for “cramps, griping and colic ... [and] nervous headache”
as well as “tickling in the throat.” They also report (_The Alkaloids
of Anhalonium_, 123-37) uses by other doctors. Two brothers, doctors,
prescribed peyote for their brother who was suffering from “softening
of the brain.” He died a few months later, uncured. Nevertheless, they
prescribed peyote for their sister, who was “very low and out of her
head;” she later recovered. Richardson (D. A.), (_A Report_, 194-95)
reports still more spectacular sequelae. He administered peyote to a man
with “frontal cephalalgia.” “Especially would I remark,” he says, “on the
clearing of the skin of pimples over the chest and back, and a marked
softening of the hair, which before the exhibition of the anhalonium was
dry, with a tendency to break easily.” It nevertheless also decreased
the abnormal oiliness of the skin. Further, he thought it was a solvent
for uric acid, likely to be of value for stones in the bladder. Lastly,
“In my opinion, anhalonium is a superior cardiac tonic, and, like
nitroglycerine, its effects are prolonged after the administration of the
drug is withdrawn.”
The efficacy of peyote in native doctoring seems as little established
also. Reasons of ethnographic nature have already been cited for doubting
the anti-alcoholic virtue of peyote. Indeed, the leader of one meeting I
attended I visited in jail later in the week; he had been arrested for
drunken street-fighting. I could uncharitably cite half-a-dozen similar
cases, but it seems amply enough demonstrated that there is no relation
of exclusiveness between peyotism and alcoholism.
[38] Klüver, _Mescal, The “Divine” Plant_, 97, 108. Prentiss and Morgan,
_Anhalonium Lewinii_, 581; Wertham and Bleuler, _Inconstancy in the
Formal Structure_, 52, 60.
[39] Hutchings, in Heffter, _Ueber Pellote_, 409; Pilcz, _Ueber
Pellotin_, 1121-22; Warburg, in Bennett and Zingg, _The Tarahumara_,
136; Ellis, _Mescal: A Study_, 71; Martindale and Westcott, _The Extra
Pharmacopoeia_, 1:836; Briau, in Koang-Hobschette, _Les Cactacées_.
Karwoski (_Psychophysics_, 212) suggests that peyote might heighten
rapport in psychoanalysis; cf. Deschamps.
[40] Bensheim, _Typenunterschiede_, 121; Wertham and Bleuler,
_Inconstancy in the Formal Structure_, 70; Zucker, _Versuche_, 107;
Zador, _Meskalinwirkung bei Störung_, 30; _Meskalinwirkung_; Klüver,
_Mescal, The “Divine” Plant_, 36-39, 41; Ladd-Franklin, _Colour and
Colour-Theories_, _passim_.
[41] Briau, in Koang-Hobschette, _Les Cactacées_, 73-74; Rouhier, _Le
Peyotl_, 337; Ellis, _Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise_, 141.
[42] An editorial _Paradise or Inferno?_ (Editorial, 390) sharply
rebuked Ellis for the attractiveness which he had ascribed to mescal
intoxication, basing the criticism on grounds of medical ethics.
[43] Letter to Schultes, Feb. 21, 1936. My own experience leads me fully
to endorse Hrdlička’s careful statement. Elsewhere in the text are cited
numerous cases of natives who, in good faith I believe, gave up the
use of peyote entirely upon the rising of special or acute anxieties.
My informants, on the other hand, quite as frankly admitted that there
were some individuals who showed signs of addiction, in the sense that
they consumed the plant often and abundantly, but these are not clear
uncomplicated instances of drug-addiction; I trust such native candor
implicitly. Besides, peyote is not wholly pleasant (“You must suffer to
peyote”).
[44] The issue of the native religious use of the drug is indeed a
complex one. But whatever else may be said, it is only fair to the
Indians to state that the bitterest and most unmeasured condemnations
of the drug have issued from quarters which are scarcely disinterested.
Whatever the merits of the case, those persons are concerned with the
deculturation of the Indian, and see in the peyote religion a formidable
obstacle to their progress in inducting the native into modern life. The
doubtless good intentions of such persons have on occasion, however,
led them into errors of judgment when, for instance, they would argue
that peyotism is merely out-and-out drug addiction in religious guise
(e.g. Daiker, Hughes, Newberne and Burke, Seymour, Watermulder, and the
writers in the Indian Rights Association and Literary Digest articles;)
Lindquist, for example, feels free to commit numerous errors of fact
yet still pontificate on the “false gods” of “the cult of Death” which
is “nothing but an evil” (_The Red Man_, 72, 73, 75). For, given the
Plains religious and ideological background, the peyote cult is entirely
plausible as a religion, and the issue is properly one of religious
freedom.
The intellectual “authority” in west European culture is, of course,
the empirical and pragmatic (or putatively), while that of the Indian
in this religion, as elsewhere, can correctly be termed mystical, if
we understand by this a super-normal knowledge-technique transcending
ordinary epistemological considerations. For there can be no shadow of
a doubt concerning the deep and humble sincerity of the worship and
belief—and sincerity perhaps, even in the absence of other ingredients,
is the chief component of a living religion. And if the chief function
of a religion is the liquidation of the anxieties and the solution of
the fears and troubles of its adherents, then surely the peyote religion
eminently qualifies as such.
The issue then balances somewhat delicately on the point of “authority,”
which is really at bottom a matter of comparative ethnography. If, as
we believe, the scientific is truly the most mature knowledge-technique
man has yet perfected, then facile and off-hand condemnation of peyotism
on its basis is even less possible. Aside from the probable ultimate
disappearance of the Native American Church, a generous and libertarian
philosophy would condemn present attacks on it as often misguided and
even oftener uninformed. The chief human difficulty in the world today is
the adjustment of one culture to another, of one absolutistic ideology
and Weltanschauung to another. But the scientific spirit itself would
protest against the dictatorship of any one ideology, of whatever sort;
there is too much chance that any self-contained scheme be dangerously
wrong, when unchecked by modifying differing beliefs. Science, indeed,
has been lifted above the level of folklore precisely because the
spectacle of variously conditioned culture-historical outlooks has
necessitated self-criticism and an objective comparative survey of
beliefs. A fetishistic attitude toward science and its tentative
pronouncements, therefore, is itself folkloristic in tone. This however,
is not to suggest any distrust in the ability of the scientific method
to obtain such sound results as have been so far achieved; but it is
intended to point out the real limitations in our information.
Although the best modern scientific knowledge would indicate that the
alkaloids in peyote do not perform the manifold therapeutic miracles
which natives ascribe to it, one might still well wonder whether harsh
sumptuary laws would not work more positive hardship and harm than the
drug itself. If not the injustice then certainly the inexpedience of such
exercise of civil authority has been amply demonstrated in the Eighteenth
Amendment and its sorry consequences. We may not presume therefore to
judge what should be the administrative fate of the peyote cult. The
emotional and ideological side of the religion is not open to judgement;
and on the properly scientific and physiological side of the question the
simple fact is that we actually don’t know enough about it.