Whole Pots Full of Idolatrous Powdered Herbs. Issue 2 (2nd April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Snow, David H.
• Is Part Of: Kiva. Volume 82:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 117
• Page End: 136
• Publication Date: 2016-04-02
• Subjects: Peyote -- Pueblo Revolt -- Chichimeca -- Popé -- Datura -- Demons/devils -- Estevan Clemente -- Shamans; Southwest, New -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; Anthropology -- Southwest, New -- Periodicals; Southwest, New -- History -- Periodicals; Indians of North America -- Southwest, New -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- Periodicals; 913.791
• DOI: 10.1080/00231940.2016.1166543
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2051-6177

Abstract

Abstract : Scarce records documenting the use of peyote ( Lophophora williamsii ) in Spanish Colonial New Mexico prior to the 1680 Pueblo Revolt provide no indication of when or by whom it was introduced, or how frequently it might have been used by colonists and Native peoples. Used ritually throughout most of Mexico's Central Plateau and adjacent Sierra Madre, as well, among Aztec and Tarascan peoples at contact, its use by prehispanic Southwestern pueblo people has not been identified. Among the more conspicuous effects of taking peyote are visual phenomena, including the characteristic colors, red and yellow. "Sorcerer" and likely, a Tewa curing society member, Popé's vision of three "figures" in a kiva at Taos emitting "fire from all the extremities of their bodies, " I suggest, may indicate a heretofore unexpected role for peyote use in New Mexican history.