Peyote

PEYOTE

(Lophophora williamsii)

Peyote cactus

The peyote cactus is a small and spineless cactus native to the most southern half of North America. They are typically found in Texas and Mexico. They also flower intermittently, producing fruits within the crown (pictured). The name originates from the Aztec language: Nahuatl, which translates peyote to the words "glisten" or "divine".

Peyote has been used among Natives of Mexico for thousands of years. The practice of Peyote or Peyotism has spread north among Native American tribes within the United States for the past few hundred years. The practice of this religion involves ingesting the fruit of peyote, which is cut from the crown (also called Peyote button or bean) and then chewed, ground, or made into a tea. The ingesting of peyote is similar to a sacrament, in which the native practitioners used in rituals to worship God or create a mind frame in which they could communicate with God directly. The peyote fruit was also used among these natives as medicine - to cure disease or (fever, toothache, pain in childbirth) or usher in a dying person to the afterlife.

Chemical understanding of the plant allows us to understand that peyote consists of psychoactive alkaloids. Alkaloids are naturally occurring compounds of nitrogen and carbon, making them a basic compound able to absorb acid or hydrogen ions. Alkaloids are most commonly found in plant life, which have been long time used in modern medicine (morphine) but are even as common as caffeine. The most noteworthy psychoactive compound in peyote is mescaline which is known for its hallucinogenic effects (LSD). Psychoactive compounds operate by affecting neurochemistry (mood, cognition, perception or behavior). There are an array of ways in which psychoactive compounds affect a person due to the affect it may have on different neurotransmitters in the brain.

Mescaline compound

Given the scientific understanding, it is likely that the natives and practitioners of Peyote were experiencing the psychoactive effects of the mescaline alkaloid which commonly produces hallucinations. These hallucinations were then attributed to something divine as they didn't have the chemical understanding needed to understand the plant's effects.

Works Cited:


Peyote: The Divine Messenger (n.d.). Retrieved March 01, 2018, from https://www.viceland.com/en_us/video/hamiltons-pharmacopeia-peyote-the-divine-messenger-full/59cd5c5d59d9ab5c3d5074a2

MAROUKIS, T. C. (2013). The Peyote Controversy and the Demise of the Society of American Indians. American Indian Quarterly, 37(3), 158-180.

Mescaline. (n.d.). Retrieved March 01, 2018, from https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/mescaline#section=Top


Wiedman, D. (2012). Upholding Indigenous Freedoms of Religion and Medicine: Peyotists at the 1906-1908 Oklahoma Constitutional Convention and First Legislature. American Indian Quarterly, 36(2), 215-246.