Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T23:35:34.847Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Medicinal and hallucinogenic plants identified in the sediments and pictographs of the Lower Pecos, Texas Archaic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Carolyn E. Boyd  and
J. Philip Dering
Carolyn E. Boyd
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station TX 77843–4352, USA E-mail: Carolyn@acs.tamu.edu
J. Philip Dering
Affiliation:
Center for Environmental Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station TX 77843–4352, USA E-mail: pdering@tamu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The rock-art of the Pecos River region, on the Texas-Mexico border, is deservedly celebrated for its very large and inspiring human depictions, convincingly interpreted as images of shamanism. Study of plant remains in associated middens gives a new aspect to understanding of the images.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 70 , Issue 268 , June 1996 , pp. 256 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aberle, D. F. 1966. The Peyote religion among the Navajo. Chicago (IL): Aldine Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Adovasio, J. M. & Fry, G. F.. 1976. Prehistoric psychotropic drug use in northeastern Mexico and Trans-Pecos Texas, Economic Botany 30: 94–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andekson, E. F. 1980. Peyote: the divine cactus. Tuscon (AZ): University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Applecate, R. B. 1975. The Datura cult among the Chumash, Journal of California Anthropology 2: 7–17.Google Scholar
Avery, A. G., Satina, S. & Rietsema, J.. 1959. Blakeslee: the genus Datura. New York (NY): Ronald Press.Google Scholar
Barrows, D. P. 1900. The ethno-botany of the Coahuilla Indians of southern California. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bean, L. J. & Saubel, K. S.. 1972. Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants. Morongo Indian Reservation: Malki Museum Press.Google Scholar
Benitez, F. 1975. In the magic land of peyote. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bennet, W. C. & Zingg, R. M.. 1935. The Tarahumara: an Indian tribe of northern Mexico. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Boyd, C. E. 1992. Archaic codices along the Lower Pecos. Paper presented at the 63rd annual meeting of the Texas Archaeological Society, Corpus Christi (TX).Google Scholar
Boyd, C. E. 1995. Pictographic evidence of the peyotism in the Lower Pucos Archaic. Paper presented at the 60th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Minneapolis (MN).Google Scholar
Boyd, C. E. In press. Shamanic journeys into the otherworld of the Archaic Chichimec, Latin American Antiquity. Google Scholar
Bye, R. 1979. Hallucinogenic plants of the Tarahumara, Journal of Ethnopharniacology 1: 23–48.Google Scholar
Bye, R. 1985. Medicinal plants of the Tarahumara Indians of Chihuahua, Mexico, in Tyson, R. & Elerick, D. (ed.). Two mummies from Chihuahua, Mexico: 77–104. San Diego (CA): San Diego Museum. Paper 19.Google Scholar
Bye, R. 1991. Botany, ethnobotany and chemistry of Datura lanosa (Solanaceae) in Mexico, Anales Inst. Biol. Univ. Nac. Anton. Mexico, Ser. Bot. 61(1): 21–42.Google Scholar
Campbell, T. N. 1947. The Fields shelter: an archaeological site in Edwards County, Texas, Texas Journal of Science 9: 7–25.Google Scholar
Campbell, T. N. 1958. Origins of the mescal bean cult, American Anthropologist 60: 156–60.Google Scholar
Campbell, T. N. 1988. The Indians of southeastern Texas and northeastern Mexico: selected writings of Thomas Nolan Campbell. Austin (TX): University of Texas, Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory, Balcones Research Center.Google Scholar
Chaffee, S. D., Hyman, M. & Rowe, M. W.. 1993. AMS 14C dating of rock paintings, in Steinbring, J., Watchman, A., Faulstich, P. & Taçon, P. S. C. (ed.), Time and space: 67–73. Melbourne: Australian Rock Art Research Association. Occasional AURA Publication 8.Google Scholar
Cutler, H. C. 1956. The plant remains, in Martin, P. S., Rinaldo, J. B., Bluhm, E. A. & Cutler, H.C. (ed.), Higgins Flat Pueblo: 174–83. Chicago (IL): Chicago Natural History Museum. Fieldiana: Anthropology 45.Google Scholar
Cutler, H. C. & Kaplan, L.. 1956. Some plant remains from Montezuma Castle and nearby caves (NA 4007B and C and on Dry Beaver Creek), Plateau 28: 98–100.Google Scholar
Davenport, J. W. 1938. Archaeological exploration of Eagle Cave, Langtry, Texas. San Antonio (TX): Witte Memorial Museum. Big Bend Basket Maker Papers 4.Google Scholar
Dering, J. P. 1979. Pollen and plant macrofossil vegetation record recovered from Hinds Cave, Val Verde County, Texas. Unpublished MA thesis, Texas A&M University, College Station (TX).Google Scholar
Dibble, C. E. & Anderson, A.. 1970. Florentine codex, general history of the things of New Spain, Book 11. Salt Lake City (UT): University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Dobkin De Rios, M. 1984. Hallucinogens: cross-cultural perspectives. Albuquerque (NM): University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Eastwood, R. 1893. General notes of a trip through southwestern Utah, Zoe 3: 354–61.Google Scholar
Eliade, M. 1959. The sacred and the profane: the nature of religion. New York (NY): Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Eliade, M. 1964. Shamanism: archaic techniques of ecstasy. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Elmore, F. H. 1943. Ethnobotany of the Navajo. Albuquerque (NM): University of New Mexico Press. University of New Mexico Bulletin. Monograph series 1(7).Google Scholar
Fackelmann, K. A. 1993. Food, drug, or poison?: cultivating a taste for toxic plants, Science News 143: 312–15.Google Scholar
Furst, P. T. 1972. Flesh of the gods. New York (NY): Pracger.Google Scholar
Furst, P. T. 1976. Hallucinogens and culture. Novato (CA): Chandler & Sharp.Google Scholar
Furst, P. T. 1978. The art of being Huichol, in Berrin, K. (ed.), Art of the Huichol Indians. New York (NY): Harry Abrains.Google Scholar
Furst, P. T. 1989. Book review of ‘Peyote religion: a history’, American Ethnologist 16(2): 386–7.Google Scholar
Furst, P. T. & Myerhoff, B. G.. 1966. Myth as history: the Jimson Weed cycle of the Huichols of Mexico, Anthropologica 17: 3–39.Google Scholar
Haddad, L. & Winchester, J. (ed.). 1983. Clinical management of poisoning and drug overdose. Philadelphia (PA): W. B. Saunders.Google Scholar
Harner, M. J. 1973. Hallucinogens and shamanism. New York (NY): Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hatfield, G. M., Valdes, J. J., Merrill, W. L. & Jones, V. H.. 1977. An investigation of the Sophora secundiflora seeds (mescal beans), LLoydia 40(4): 374–83.Google Scholar
Heiser, C. B. JR. 1969. Nightshades: the paradoxical plants. San Francisco (CA): W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Hester, T. R. 1989. Historic Native American populations, in From the Gulf to the Bio Grande: human adaptation in central, south, and Lower Pecos Texas. Fayetteville (AR): Arkansas Archaeological Survey. Research Series 33.Google Scholar
Holden, W. C. 1937. Excavation of Murrah Cave, Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society 9: 48–73.Google Scholar
Howard, J. H. 1957. The mescal bean cult of the central and southern plains: an ancestor of the peyote cult?, American Anthropologist 59: 75–87.Google Scholar
Howard, J. H. 1960. Mescalism and peyotism once again, Plains Anthropologist 5: 84–5.Google Scholar
Hyman, M. & Rowe, M.. In press. Plasma-chemical extraction and AMS radiocarbon dating of pictographs, American Indian Rock Art 22.Google Scholar
Hyman, M., Turpin, S. A. & Zolensky, M. E.. In press. Pigment analysis from Panther Cave, Texas, Rock Art Research 13.Google Scholar
Ilger, W. A., Hyman, M., Southon, J. & Rowe, M. W.. In press (a). Dating pictographs with radiocarbon, Radiocarbon 37(3).Google Scholar
Ilger, W. A. In press (b). Radiocarbon dating of ancient rock paintings, Orna, M. V. (ed.), Archaeological chemistry 5. Washington (DC): American Chemical Society.Google Scholar
Kirkland, F. & Newcomb, W. W. JR. 1967. The rock art of Texas Indians. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Klein-Schwartz, W. & Oderda, G.. 1984. Jimsonweed intoxication in adolescents and young adults, American journal of Disease in Children 138: 737–9.Google Scholar
Kulig, K. & Rumack, B. 1983. Anticholinergic poisoning, in Haddad, & Winchester, (ed.): 482–7.Google Scholar
La Barre, W. 1957. Mescalism and peyotism, American Anthropologist 59: 708–11.Google Scholar
La Barre, W. 1975. The peyote cult. 4th edition. New York (NY): Schocken Books.Google Scholar
Lewis, W. H. & Elvin-Lewis, M. P. F.. 1977. Medical botany: plants affecting man's health. New York (NY): John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Litovitz, T. 1983. Hallucinogens, in Haddad, & Winchester, (ed.): 455–61.Google Scholar
Lord, K. J. 1984. The zooarchaeology of Hinds Cave (41VV546). Ph.D dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station (TX). Lumholtz, C. 1900. Symbolism of the Huichol Indians. New York (NY): American Museum of Natural History. Memoir 3.Google Scholar
Lord, K. J. 1902. Unknown Mexico 2. New York (NY): Scribner.Google Scholar
Mahler, D. A. 1975. The Jimsonweed high, fournal of the American Medical Association 231(2): 138.Google Scholar
Martin, G. C. 1933. Archaeological explorations of the Shumla caves. San Antonio (TX): Witte Memorial Museum. Witte Memorial Museum Bulletin 3.Google Scholar
Merrill, W. L. 1977. An investigation of the ethnographic and archaeological specimens of mescalbeans (Sophora secundiflora) in American museums. Ann Arbor (MI): University of Michigan. Technical report 6, research reports in ethnobotany.Google Scholar
Morgan, G. R. 1983. The biogeography of peyote in south Texas, Botanical Museum Leaflets 29(2): 73–86. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University.Google Scholar
Myerhoff, B. G. 1974. Peyote hunt: the sacred journey of the Huichol Indians. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Ortiz De Montellano, B. 1975. Empirical Aztec medicine, Science 188(4185): 215–20.Google Scholar
Parsons, E. C. 1974. Pueblo Indian religion. [Originally published 1939. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.] Chicago (IL): Midway Reprint.Google Scholar
Pennington, C. M. 1963. The Tarahumara of Mexico: their environment and material culture. Salt Lake City (UT): University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Reese, R. L., Derr, J. N., Hyman, M., Rowe, M. & Davis, S. C.. In press. Ancient DNA from Texas pictographs, journal of Archaeological Science 23(2).Google Scholar
Ruecking, F. 1954. Ceremonies of the Coahuiltecan Indians, Texas Journal of Science 6(3): 330–39.Google Scholar
Russ, J., Hyman, M., Shafer, H. J. & Rowe, M. W.. 1990. Radiocarbon dating of prehistoric rock paintings by selective oxidation of organic carbon, Nature 348: 710–11.Google Scholar
Safford, W. E. 1916. Narcotic plants and stimulants of the ancient Americans, Annual report of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution: 387–424. Washington (DC): Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Safford, W. E. 1920. Daturas of the Old World and New: an account of their narcotic properties and their use in oracular and initiatory ceremonies, Annual report of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution: 537–67. Washington (DC): Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Sayles, E. B. 1935. An archaeological survey of Texas, Gila Pueblo, Medallion Papers 17. Globe (AZ): Gila Pueblo.Google Scholar
Schleiffer, H. 1973. Sacred narcotic plants of the New World Indians. New York (NY): Hafner Press.Google Scholar
Schultes, R. E. 1937. Peyote and plants used in the peyote ceremony, Harvard University Museum Leaflets 4: 129–52.Google Scholar
Schultes, R. E. 1969. Hallucinogens of plant origin, Science 163(3862): 245–54.Google Scholar
Schultes, R. E. 1972. An overview of hallucinogens in the western hemisphere, in Furst, (ed.): 3–54.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J. 1986. Ancient Texans. Austin (TX): Texas Monthly Press.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J. 1988. The prehistoric legacy of the Lower Pecos Region of Texas, Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological Society 59: 23–52.Google Scholar
Shafer, H. J. & Bryant, V. M. JR. 1977. Archeological and botanical studies at Hinds Cave, Val Verde County, Texas. College Station (TX): Texas A&M University. Anthropology Laboratory Special Series 1.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1995. Consuming habits: drugs in history and anthropology. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. Shonle, R. 1925. Peyote, the giver of visions, American Anthropologist 27: 53–75.Google Scholar
Siegel, R. K. 1984. The natural history of hallucinogens, in Jacobs, B. L. (ed.), Hallucinogens: neurochemical, behavioral, and clinical perspectives: 1–18. New York (NY): Raven Press.Google Scholar
Slotkin, J. S. 1955. Peyotism, 1521–1891, American Anthropologist 57: 202–30.Google Scholar
Sobolik, K. D. 1991. Prehistoric diet and subsistence in the Lower Pecos as reflected in coprolites from Baker Cave, Val Verde County, Texas. Austin (TX): Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin. Studies in Archeology 7.Google Scholar
Stevenson, M. C. 1915. Ethnobotany of the Zuni Indians. Washington (DC): Bureau of American Ethnology. Thirtieth Annual Report.Google Scholar
Stewart, O. C. 1987. Peyore religion. Norman (OK): University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Story, D. A. & Bryant, V. M. JR. 1966. A preliminary study of the paleoecology of the Amistad Reservoir Area. Austin (TX): The University of Texas at Austin. Report to the National Science Foundation.Google Scholar
Strong, W. D. 1929. Aboriginal society in southern California, California University Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 26: 1–358.Google Scholar
Troike, R. C. 1962. The origins of plains mescalism, American Anthropologist 64: 946–63.Google Scholar
Turpin, S. A. 1982. Seminole Canyon: the art and archaeology. Austin (TX): University of Texas. University of Texas. Texas Archaeological Survey Research Report 83.Google Scholar
Turpin, S. A. 1994a. On a wing and a prayer: flight metaphors in Pecos River pictographs, in Turpin, S. A. (ed.), Shamanism and Rock Art in North Amerio: 73–102. San Antonio (TX): Rock Art Foundation. Special Publication 1.Google Scholar
Turpin, S. A. 1994b. The were-cougar theme in Pecos River Style art and its implications for traditional archaeology, in Whitley, D. S. & Loendorf, L. L. (ed.), New light on old art: recent advances in hunter-gatherer rock art research: 75–80. Los Angeles (CA): Institute of Archaeology, University of California. Monograph 36.Google Scholar
Turpin, S. A. 1995. The Lower Pecos region of Texas and Northern Mexico, Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological Society 66: 541–66.Google Scholar
UNESCO. 1960. Medicinal plants of the arid zones. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Waterman, T. T. 1910. The religious practices of the Diegueno Indians, California University Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 8(6): 271–358.Google Scholar
Williams-Dean, G. 1978. Ethnobotany and cultural ecology of prehistoric man in southwest Texas. Ph.D dissertation, Texas A&M University.Google Scholar
Winkleman, M. J. 1992. Shamans, priests, and witches: a cross-cultural study of magico-religious practitioners. Tempe (AZ): Arizona State University. Anthropological research papers 44.Google Scholar
Yarnell, R. A. 1959. Prehistoric Pueblo use of Datura, El Palacio 66(5): 176–8.Google Scholar
Zingg, R. M. 1977[1938]. The Huichol: primitive artists. Millwood (NY): Kraus Reprint Company.Google Scholar
Zolensky, M. 1982. Analysis of pigments from prehistoric pictographs, Seminole Canyon State Historical Park, in Turpin, (ed.): 279–84.Google Scholar