by Bret Blosser, PhD
HerbalGram. 2016; American Botanical Council
Peyote: History,
Tradition, Politics, and Conservation by Beatriz Caiuby Labate and Clancy Cavnar, eds. Santa Barbara, CA:
Praeger; 2016. Hardcover, 280 pages. ISBN: 978-1-4408-3400-4. $60.00.
This
book is a welcome addition to scholarly publications regarding the spineless
psychoactive cactus peyote (Lophophora williamsii, Cactaceae). The
editors, Beatriz Caiuby Labate, PhD, and Clancy Cavnar, PsyD, have assembled a
dozen essays by scholars, legal specialists, and a Native American Church
leader on a range of topics. Readers with an interest in botanical entheogens
(i.e., compounds that alter consciousness), indigenous North American spiritual
practice, and native peoples’ religious rights will find a close reading of
these essays rewarding.
Unlike
previous publications in this field, these authors hail from several
disciplines and illuminate distinct aspects of the human/cactus relationship.
However, it must be mentioned that the book’s subtitle, “History, Tradition,
Politics, and Conservation,” does not spell out the essayists’ primary
concerns. A more accurate subtitle might be “History, Law, and Tourism.” The
reader can easily find a wealth of information on peyote tradition from the
classic studies on peyote use by Native Americans described in People of the
Peyote: Huichol Indian History, Religion, and Survival by Stacy Schaefer,
PhD, and Peter Furst, PhD (University of New Mexico Press, 1997). However, in
the present book only one chapter, “From Solid to Frothy: Use of Peyote in the
Cora and Huichol Easter in Western Mexico,” is concerned with “tradition.”
While
several chapters explore the intricate and prolonged struggle for legal
religious use by native peoples in the United States and Mexico, these
processes are discussed from the perspective of court rulings, and the politics
of supporting and opposing constituencies are discussed only in passing. In
their instructive introduction, James Bauml, PhD, and Schaefer draw attention
to the issue of conservation and raise an alarm regarding declining peyote
populations in the Texas borderlands, apparently resulting from “improper
harvesting techniques,” as well as habitat degradation resulting from “mining,
agriculture, raising cattle, oil developments, and construction of wind farms.”
Kevin
Feeney, JD, in his chapter “Peyote, Conservation, and Indian Rights in the
United States,” addresses legal aspects of potential cultivation to reduce
pressure on remaining peyote populations in this country. Bob Prue, PhD, offers
insight into Native American Church members’ attitudes toward cultivation as a
response to diminishing supply in his chapter, “Protecting the Peyote for
Future Generations.” These authors are understandably preoccupied with the
approach of a drastic shortfall in the supply of a sacramental substance
crucial to spiritual practice, healing, and community for thousands of Native
American Church members in the western United States and Canada. Reading
between the lines, it seems clear that interested parties, many of whom are
familiar with the myriad factors at play, have yet to generate a plan for the
recovery of peyote populations in the United States and the protection of
endangered Mexican populations.
The
three chapters by Mexican specialists indicate that the cactus has been
overharvested in that portion of its extensive range in the central deserts of
northern Mexico known as Wirikuta, a complex landscape sacred to the Huichol
people who reside far from peyote habitat in the Sierra Madre Occidental of
western Mexico. This overharvesting is the result of sustained enthusiasm for
an authentic experience by non-indigenous seekers, both Mexican and
international, and from entrepreneurs’ extraction of “organic mescaline” for the recreational drug trade. A chapter on
conservation from the biological perspective would have been illuminating and
would justify, for plant-oriented readers, the use of the term “conservation” in the subtitle.
Readers
not familiar with the existing literature will find brief but useful
introductions to peyote biology, history, and Native American Church and
Huichol peyote practices. Those versed in the basics will find new tales of the
cactus’s adventures in humanland. For example, a chapter by Erika Dyck, PhD, “Peyote
and Psychedelics on the Canadian Prairies,” not only documents the
little-studied arrival of peyote ceremonialism in Canada but also brings to
light the strategic and serendipitous confluence of Canada’s early psychedelic
research scientists and the nascent Canadian Native American Church, then
facing stiff government repression.
Also
outstanding are three chapters on legal history and legal status of Native
American peyote use in the United States: “Peyote, Christianity, and Constitutional
Law” by Varun Soni,
PhD, JD; “State and Federal Legal Protections
for Peyote Use in the United States” by John P. Forren, PhD; and Feeney’s “Peyote,
Conservation, and Indian Rights in the United States.” The Native American
Church’s legal travails and victories have been detailed in previous
publications, but these chapters, which are mostly accessible to non-specialist
readers, uncover broader implications for Native American rights and the
practice of minority religion in general.
This
focus on legal aspects of peyote continues with Labate and Feeney’s chapter, “Paradoxes of Peyote Regulation in Mexico,” an
exhaustive and groundbreaking account of international treaties, national
legislation, and regulations pertaining to the protection and use of peyote.
The authors highlight the “lack of recognition of mestizo folk uses, as well as
of contemporary hybrid ceremonies.” They find this lack especially deplorable
because of Mexico’s history of exchange and fusion between local and European
cultural traditions. In their introduction, Bauml and Schaefer point to a
corresponding discrepancy north of the border, questioning “whether or not it
makes sense to have our governments continue to police racial boundaries as
they did in the past.” Non-native use, either medical or spiritual, outside of
recognized religious context is the elephant in the courtroom.
Perhaps
the most notable contribution to peyote literature is made by Vincent Basset,
PhD, and Mauricio Genet Guzman Chavez, PhD. Their chapters address issues
arising from burgeoning international guided spiritual and cultural tourism in
Wirikuta (the focus of Huichol pilgrimage) and from the embrace of practices
derived from Huichol pilgrimage, and based in Huichol sacred landscape by
Mexicans seeking connection with ancestral roots. The authors refrain from
disparaging the aspirations and ceremonies of guides, tourists, and culture
seekers, but make it clear that neither cactus nor Huichol pilgrims can sustain
this attention.
—Bret Blosser, PhD
Moab, Utah
