When the masses ignore indigenous wisdom:

a look at the cross-cultural understanding of

peyote use surrounding pregnancy.

Anthropology of Reproduction

Carrie Lore Redfern

4-5-01

“Peyote is the crossing of the souls, it is everything that is.

Without peyote nothing would exist.”

(Huichol man, quoted in Schaefer 1996c: 165)

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Introduction

Indigenous wisdom, traditionally, holds no place for recreational drug use. The Huichol, an indigenous tribe in Mexico who number between ten and twenty thousand people, have an intricate, long-standing, deeply sacred peyote tradition that has survived for centuries, relatively intact (Anderson 1996; Eger 1978; Furst 1972; Myerhoff 1974; Schaefer 1996c). The ingestion of peyote has been likened to that of a Christian sacrament (if such a comparison is even possible) in terms of the level of sanctity with which peyote is consumed by the Huichol. Peyote is introduced to certain Huichol children very early, first within the womb, sometimes during childbirth, and during breastfeeding (Schaefer 1996b). Huichol cosmology, history of use, and social acceptance of peyote suggest that this practice is safe, and at times desirable, for the maturing infant (Eger 1978). Huichol women and their children are part of a culture that embraces this (psychoactive) plant as a medicine, not as a “drug,” and have a support system that legitimizes their use of peyote throughout their lives, including during pregnancy and breastfeeding (Eger 1978; Furst 1969; Moreno et al. 1993; Schaefer 1996a).

Modern American society has yet to form this type of “religious” relationship with plants, isolated plant compounds, or synthesized compounds, all of which are simply lumped into the misleading category, “drugs.” In America and Europe the effects of recreational “drug” use on the mother and child have increasingly become a subject of concern (McElhatton et al. 1999). In one case, an expectant mother in South Carolina who tested positive for “drug” use was imprisoned during her pregnancy and is currently serving an eight-year sentence (Marwick 1998).

In the U.S., animal studies were performed (during the 1960s and 70s) to research the possible effects of exposure to psychoactive agents upon the fetus (Geber 1967; Nair 1974; Shah et al. 1973; Taska and Schoolar 1972). These scientific studies have ignored key issues, hence negating their applicability in real life situations. First, studies involving other animals are not transferable to humans because our neurological systems differ in significant areas (Weil 1987). Second, these problems would not occur as often if we, in the United States, lived in a society that openly addressed issues of “drugs” (instead of punishing first and attempting to rehabilitate later). A child receives its’ first impression of the world during pregnancy. How we co-create this first impression differs greatly throughout various cultures. My interest lies where the American model of pregnancy and “drug” use (be it recreational or pharmaceutical) ends and the sacramental use of peyote (surrounding pregnancy) begins; there is a tension created from which we might learn.

This paper will specifically examine various cultural perspectives concerning the sacramental use of peyote, and how these influence a pregnant mother and her child. This discussion will focus primarily upon peyote, with references to other “drugs” as they pertain to the comparison of cultural constructs surrounding the use of psychoactive substances during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Pertinent information about peyote, the Huichol, and the Peyote Way Church of God, a non-native peyotist group in Southern Arizona, will provide cross-cultural perspectives concerning the topic. Ethical issues regarding pregnancy and associated research will be addressed. Stories, metaphoric and symbolic ideas of birth and peyote use in the aforementioned cultures will enrich the discussion.

Peyote—A brief background

Belonging to the family of Cactaceae, one of its most renowned members is Lophophora williamsii, known commonly to many as peyote. The word peyote is derived from the Aztec, peyotl, although there are many indigenous names by which this small, spineless, tufted cactus is known (Marriot and Rachlin 1971). Híkuli is one of the names used by the Rarámuri to describe peyote, meaning to “hold something spinning” (Salmón 1999: 387). Anyone who has seen the plant would probably agree with this translation. Certain Western descriptions suggesting peyote is “usually shaped like a turnip or a carrot” (Home Missions Council of North America N.D: 3) refer to peyote’s long taproot. Peyote plants are often found growing in clusters. The flowers are pink to whitish, and appear seasonally. Peyote is extremely slow growing, and often requires at least 15 years to mature (Ott 1996).

Peyote’s habitat extends along the Río Grande from the border lands in Texas south into Mexico “in the basin regions between the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre Oriental to Saltillo, Coahuila; this vast expanse of Chihuahuan Desert in northern Mexico covers about 150,000 square kilometers…It expands southward nearly to the city of San Luis Potosí” (Anderson 1996: 168). In Texas peyote is threatened by the root plow, a piece of farm machinery subsidized by the U.S. government “to facilitate the growing of grass for grazing” (Anderson 1996: 181); in Mexico, the Huichol are concerned about irresponsible and over-harvesting of peyote fields by non-indigenous persons (Schaefer and Furst 1996).

Peyote Woman

Alice Marriot and Carol Rachlin, who wrote the book, Peyote (1971), suggest that the story of how peyote came to the people is similar amongst several indigenous groups, including the Rarámuri, the Yaqui, and the Otomí of Northern Mexico. This story is believed to have migrated from the Aztecs of the great central valley (now Mexico City) who tell a comparable version (Marriot and Rachlin 1971). Today, various analogs of the original story have been adopted by Native American Church groups throughout the Unites States (Moreno et al. 1993). The story of peyote woman has been told many times, in countless languages, and is here translated from the stories of indigenous groups of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts by Marriot and Rachlin:

The revelation came through a woman’s dream. She was lost from her band, they say. She had fallen back from the wandering group of hunting men and root-gathering women, and had given birth to a child. In some versions of the legend the child was a boy; in others, a girl.

Had the band been in its home village there would have been other women to tend the mother and child—to sprinkle ashes on the cut navel cord, to bring the mother lukewarm unsalted corn gruel. Here she was alone. She cut the navel cord with a stone knife from the pouch at her waist and then lay helpless under a low, leafy bush, watching the buzzards gather overhead, watching them swooping and soaring lower with each downward beat of their great black wings.

Out of this desolation and terror, the woman heard a voice speak to her. “Eat the plant growing beside you,” it said. “That is life and blessing for you and all your people.”

Weakly, the woman turned her head against the earth. The only plant in sight, besides the bush that sheltered her, was a small cactus. It was without thorns, and its head was divided into lobes. She reached for the plant, and it seemed to grow outward to meet her fingers. The woman pulled up the cactus, root and all, and ate the head.

Strength returned to the woman immediately. She sat and looked around her. It was dawn; the sun was just about to rise. She raised her child to her filling breasts and fed it. Then, gathering as many cactus plants as she could find and carry, she rose and walked forward. Something wonderful must have been leading her, for by evening she had reached the main group of her people again.

The woman took the plants to her uncle, her mother’s brother. He was a man of great wisdom and was much respected by his people. “This is truly a blessing,” the uncle said when he heard the woman’s story. “We must give it to all the people.” (1971: 2-3)

The story of peyote woman raises a few key points with regard to this discussion. The peyote was given to her during a time of dire need. It was not introduced as a food or an intoxicant, but as a means of sustaining life (“it is life and blessing for you and all your people”). In this sense, we may come to regard peyote as a medicine, taken under special circumstances, not casually. Peyote woman engages in breastfeeding after she has eaten the medicine; it seems that the peyote aided in bringing in her milk and did not harm her newborn child. In the story, peyote woman eats one cactus head, probably not enough to produce a strong psychoactive response, but which would likely give her the energy to rejoin her companions (Anderson 1996). It must be noted that this story functions as a point of origin for the use of peyote and is not necessarily a literal translation. However, it is important to remember and respect that different cultures hold sacred their origin stories, whether they can be proven literal or not, as in the case of the Bible. The story of peyote woman represents a key to understanding the ways that indigenous cultures regard peyote use. It would seem that the cultures that tell this story would be far less likely to agree with Western science that peyote is a contraindication for a breastfeeding mother.

A Medicine Misconstrued

In the U.S. in 1965, peyote and mescaline (and related salts and isomers) were added to the register of federally controlled substances under Schedule I classification: “a high potential for abuse” and “no currently accepted medical use” (my emphasis, Anderson 1996:199). Until this time, anti-peyote groups had failed to accomplish this task within the federal system, although persecution of the so-called peyote cult began with the arrival of the conquistadors and missionaries during the conquest and Inquisition in Mexico and then spread throughout the lands where the use of peyote migrated (Anderson 1996; Ott 1996). Restriction of peyote use found legal justification when amendments to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act ratified the definition of “Depressant and Stimulant Drugs” to include substance(s) which contribute to abuse because of an “effect on the central nervous system or its hallucinogenic effect” (Anderson 1996: 198). At this time, researchers’ access to pure mescaline (in addition to several other hallucinogenic compounds lumped into this new category of legal control) became much more carefully regulated.

In order to obtain samples of mescaline, researchers in the United States were required to have a license with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and to file a research protocol with the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) that demonstrated their “legitimate” use of the substance (Ott 1996). Laboratories that decided to research mescaline and other scheduled substances were under the scrutiny of the DEA and were subject to inspection by federal agents.

In conjunction with, and in order to legitimate, federal control measures (in somewhat of a moralistic crusade) U.S. scientists began to compile data to demonstrate the “devastating effects” of these psychoactive substances. During the 1960s and 70s studies were published that claimed to have found chromosomal damage, congenital abnormalities and other patterns of disease associated with laboratory testing conducted with LSD and mescaline (among other substances) in humans and pregnant animals (Bender and Shankar 1968; Dishotsky et al. 1971; Geber 1967; Nair 1974; Shah et al. 1973; Taska and Schoolar 1972; Tjio et al. 1969). These early publications have had a profound impact on the way the general American public views psychoactive compounds and plants. The legacy of this questionable research will be addressed further, especially in regard to matters of reproduction.

Controversial Research

Scientists simply do not conduct direct experimentation on pregnant human mothers (and hope to publish), although follow-up studies about mothers who use “drugs” during pregnancy are becoming more prevalent (McElhatton et al. 1999; Ott 1996). These early researchers used other animals to accomplish this research. “Placental Transfer and Fetal Distribution of Mescaline-¹C in Monkeys” presents a disturbing methodology; Taska and Schoolar (1972) acquired seven Saimiri sciureus monkeys in the last trimester of pregnancy, held them without food for 12 hours, injected them via the saphenous vein with a mixture of mescaline-HCl and saline, and decapitated them at varying intervals of time (after injection). Taska and Schoolar agreed with previously conducted research which stated, “high ionization and low lipid solubility limit the passage of drugs across the placenta to the fetus” (1972: 431); and according to their research, mescaline exhibited the same tendency. Another study involving placental transfer of mescaline in pregnant mice found dissimilar results. Shah et al. claim that “several studies have indicated transfer of a wide range of chemical compounds across the mammalian placenta….Mescaline crosses the placenta and enters the fetus in readily measurable amounts” (1973: 492).

Ethical and Practical Issues

Animal studies have routinely been used, in areas where human experimentation would be considered too ethically compromising, and yet those who are opposed to animal cruelty would argue that there is nothing ethical about the way these studies were carried out. Science really has little to base claims upon, concerning pregnancy and peyote use, if we consider that in this instance, animal studies are not even applicable to humans. During testimony given in 1987 in the case of the STATE OF ARIZONA vs. IMMANUEL PARDEAHTAN TRUJILLO (Co-Founder, Peyote Way Church of God), Dr. Andrew Weil gave these comments when asked to speak about ethical issues and peyote research:

Q. Are there any ethical problems with doing a controlled study on humans using peyote? [Candyce B. Pardee, Esq. Deputy County Attorney]

A. I don't think so. I mean, I have a number of problems with the way that research in this area is conducted. For instance, it's commonly assumed that we learn about these drugs by giving them to animals, and I don't think that animal research has any relevance to research in this area because the parts of the human that respond to those drugs, animals don't have, so that's the basic problem with animal experimentation. If you want to make an animal react to a drug like mescaline or peyote, you have to give doses so high that the lower portion of the brains are being affected, and you're observing toxic dose effects, and these have nothing to do with the human situation, and one strong feeling I have about research in this area -- and this is consistently violated today -- an ethical concern is that people should not administer these drugs to other people without taking them first themselves to see what their effects are. [Andrew Weil, M.D.] (Gila County Cause No. CR-8953)

Animal studies cannot replicate experiences and effects in humans. Also, the animals in the aforementioned studies were injected with mescaline, while humans ingest peyote (Schaefer 1996a).

Even if the results of animal studies were transferable to humans, another area of inapplicability derives from researchers’ use of pure mescaline. This “primary ingredient” of the peyote cactus is one of more than fifty-five identified alkaloids and related compounds (Anderson 1996). Access to pure mescaline has been quite limited throughout its’ century of existence. Most of what has been distributed through the illicit market has been falsely represented as mescaline, and was more likely LSD, PCP, or DOM (Ott 1996). When scientists ignore the effects of the entire peyote plant (all the alkaloids working together within the human nervous system) the shortsightedness of the research becomes apparent. Peyote, which is more easily attainable than mescaline and has been consumed for centuries by indigenous groups in Mexico, has been formally researched much less frequently than pure mescaline. These scientific misunderstandings compounded by cultural misunderstandings have led to long-standing misconceptions about the effects of peyote and other psychoactive compounds in humans.

Along this line, it seems that research on the effects of peyote use amongst women during pregnancy and lactation might yield information more vital to our species than the previously cited animal research. Those who participated in the research would have to be women who already consume peyote as a sacrament. This would be a challenging study, as it would necessitate the assistance of women who might not want to participate in the research for fear of persecution (or various other reasons).

Huichol Chromosomes

In what could be considered more applicable research, physicians in California published their results on the effects of peyote on human cells (Dorrance et al. 1975). The research compared the lymphocyte chromosomes of 57 Huichol persons with a life-long and familial history of peyote consumption to 50 peyote-naïve Huichols (“control subjects”) and ten laboratory control animals. The results did not indicate significant differences in frequency of abnormalities between the groups and the physicians concluded that, “multigeneration ingestion of peyote is not associated with abnormalities in lymphocyte chromosomes” (Dorrance et al. 1975: 299). More important to this discussion, the physician responsible for the treatment of the Huichols was of the clinical opinion that, in spite of the regular use of peyote by pregnant women, there was no evidence of an increased occurrence of congenital malformations amongst their children (Dorrance et al. 1975).

Peyote: A Medicine (Re)Visited

Several indigenous and non-indigenous groups have used peyote medicinally. Among the Huichol, peyote is eaten fresh or dried, not boiled in a tea as is more common in North America (Blosser 1997). Members of the Peyote Way Church of God do ingest a peyote tea, and are encouraged to take individual “Spirit Walks” (Zapf 1994). Christian Rätsch, a German ethnobotanist, contends that in small doses peyote “has strong aphrodisiac effects” (1997: 64). Dr. Edward Palmer, during the late 19^th century, carried out much botanical research exploration and found that peyote was used in Mexico “as a fever remedy, to increase lactation in nursing mothers, and as an external application for back pains” (cited in Anderson 1996: 109). According to entheopharmacologist, Jonathan Ott:

Following oral ingestion, the effects of mescaline [a psychoactive dose] will begin in about 1-2 hours and last 8-12 hours. Nausea and mild abdominal cramps are often reported as side-effects, usually during the initial stages….Peak effects are similar to those of psilocybin and LSD…Since it contains many other pharmacologically-active alkaloids, some of which, like the sedative peyotline or pellotine occur in significant quantities, the effects of péyotl are different…Péyotl extracts have been demonstrated to have antibiotic activity, justifying the external use of péyotl infusions or fresh péyotl juice to treat wounds or for analgesia, and péyotl tea has been used in parturition to ease labor. (1996: 89)

Several authors refer briefly to peyote’s use to ease the pains of childbirth (Anderson 1996; Eger 1978; Home Missions Council of North America N.D.; Ott 1996; Schaefer 1996c). Guy Mount, author of The Peyote Book (Date), suggests that peyote has a “positive reputation as a specific for childbirth among unlicensed, spiritual midwives” and claims that he gave peyote tea to his wife “with the first contractions” and their child was born healthy and happy (cited in Anderson 1996: 111-2).

A Non-Traditional Peyote Group

The Peyote Way Church of God, in Klondyke Arizona, has served as a “non-denominational All Race Peyotist Religion” since 1978. The Church incorporated (as a Non-Profit Organization) in 1979, the year that a New York Federal District Court found that “the use of peyote for sacramental purposes…is not to be restricted solely to the Native American Church” (quoted in Ott 1996: 76), and received tax-exempt status in 1981. According to the Church’s chronological records, a number of children have been born on the premises with lay assistance, and no complications. The Peyote Way Church of God is a 160-acre (desert) oasis located approximately 33 miles (dirt road) from Hwy 70 in SE Arizona, and another 150 miles (about 4 hours travel time, total) from Thatcher, the nearest city of any size. Rev. Anne Zapf and her partner Rabbi Matthew Kent, co-founders of the Church, birthed their three children there. Anne Zapf speaks of her experience with peyote:

On a more personal level, I have three intelligent, healthy children, and Peyote has been an essential and inseparable part of my life since 1977. Meditating with a piece of Peyote in my mouth was part of my daily ritual. Before I became pregnant with Joy, Matthew and I took frequent Spirit Walks. Peyote helped me rediscover the essential role of the feminine in a society that worships the masculine. Peyote has been responsible for many miracles in my life, three of them being Joy, Joseph and Tristan. (quoted from the Sacred Record, 1994)

Anne Zapf did not ingest peyote while she was pregnant or breastfeeding because she felt, having been raised in the U.S., that she did not have enough information about the possible effects to her fetus; however, peyote has long been a part of her life, regardless of whether she was consuming it regularly (Zapf 1994). Anne and Matthew had what they consider a miraculous experience, becoming pregnant with their daughter Joy. Matthew had a vasectomy in 1977, right before the couple first came to the Church. Two years later, Anne says she “received a personal revelation that [she] would have children” (Zapf 1994). The two of them doubted their virility/fertility, and according to Anne:

My menstrual cycle had stopped from the day Matthew was cut until about nine months before Joy’s conception. A positive sperm count proved him to be virile….During this time I was actively praying for a baby. We credit Matthew’s healing and Joy’s miraculous conception to Peyote, a Word of Wisdom lifestyle, and a healthy monogamous sex life (Zapf 1994).

This relationship, connecting peyote and conception, will be explored further in a forthcoming passage involving a Huichol couple, whose experience seems to echo some of Zapf’s sentiments.

A Brief Look at Huichol Life

The Wixárika people, the Huichol (as we know them), currently live in part of the mountainous territory of the states of Jalisco and Nayarit, Mexico (Schaefer and Furst 1996). Although they are a relatively small group (a 1990 census reported almost 20,000 Huichol people over the age of five), the Huichol have been subject to Western fascination since Colombian times because of their brilliant artists and their seldom-compromising pre-Christian religion (Schaefer and Furst 1996). Bret Blosser, an ethnobotanist who has lived with the Huichol, recognized their rich cosmology and extensive “religious geography” to be quite intricate and extraordinary, and by his observation, Huichol peyotists engage in sacred celebrations, rather than strict dogma (1997).

Huichol people tend to live in independent, self-governing comunidades indígenas, and within those communities, extended families live together on family farmsteads, ranchos (Schaefer and Furst 1996). Traditionally, a child’s well being is inextricably linked with the growth of a certain cacti or fruit tree, beneath which her or his umbilical cord is buried (Schaefer and Furst 1996). Part of the responsibility of the cargos (civil-religious obligations) that individual ranchos assume, involves the pilgrimage to Wirikúta, 300 miles from the Huichol Sierra, in the San Luis Potosí desert, the land where peyote is hunted and gathered for the community (Schaefer 1996b). On the journey to Wirikúta, “it is also considered very desirable to have young children along, even infants in arms, ‘because they are pure and make things more beautiful’” (Myerhoff 1974:118).

Peyote, Prayers and Conception

Some Huichol children’s lives are intertwined with hikuli (one of the many names given to peyote by Huichol peyotists) from very early on. The following story, as told by Dr. Stacy B. Schaefer, a professor at USC-Chico who has conducted fieldwork with the Huichol since 1977, involves a woman whom she (at the time of publishing) had known over eight years. This young woman and her husband had “joined a temple group” (cargo) on a peyote pilgrimage; this was their first experience eating peyote, and the woman spoke of this after returning from her journey:

Both she and her husband were elated, praising the sacredness of the peyote and the beauty it brought to them in their visions and experiences….She told me that for years she and her husband had been trying to have a second child. After consulting a mara’akáme [shaman], and with his guidance leaving special prayers and offerings in Wirikúta, she has just become pregnant. With a warm, broad smile on her face she told me that what the shamans say is true—that what the peyote tells you is true, that you must follow these teachings with your heart and the gods will look after you. (my emphasis, Schaefer 1996c: 164-5)

The imaginary line which separates the sacred and the secular seems non-existent when we see the extent to which some Huichol people feel interconnected with the peyote plant and its’ teachings.

The Origin of Hikuli

The origin of Hikuli, as translated from a Huichol woman’s artwork and accompanying story (Schaefer 1996a), portrays two goddesses who travel to Wirikúta, where hikuli grows, and become pregnant. One of the women journeyed back to the Huichol people and shared the peyote with them. The other goddess stayed in Wirikúta and gave birth to a child, a god of peyote. So it is, beginning with the origin story of the Huichol, that peyote and pregnancy are depicted without distinction from each other. And, accordingly, it has been observed by Schaefer and others that there is no cultural “taboo” excluding women from the consumption of peyote during pregnancy.

Peyote and Pregnancy—Ethnobotanists’ Stories of the Huichol

Huichol parents who live with traditional ways engage their children, from the beginning, in every aspect of culture, and teach them how to live a Huichol life. “Probably every Huichol child whose parents follow the traditional way of life receives its initial dose of peyote through breastfeeding; thus Huichol nonformal education begins in infancy” (Eger 1978: 41). Schaefer found that, even before infancy, peyote is introduced to children during different stages of childbirth, then through breast milk, and finally when a child ingests it in a “religious context” (1996b).

Some Huichol women claim to have had no discomfort at all when they ingested peyote during pregnancy, while “others, especially younger women who had not had many pregnancies, reported that after having eaten peyote they felt discomfort, some complaining of abdominal pain” (Schaefer 1996b: 75). One Huichol woman, who specialized in midwifery, recommended that pregnant mothers not eat peyote during the first trimester because of an increased risk of miscarriage (Schaefer 1996b). After the fourth month, the midwife considered it safe for women to eat peyote. Schaefer noticed that women who are shamans or are training to become shamans consume larger quantities of peyote more often than other Huichol women, during pregnancy and otherwise (1996b). “A few such women have intimated to me that children who receive peyote in utero, especially in large amounts, are predisposed to becoming shamans at an early age—although this is hardly a prerequisite” (original emphasis, Schaefer 1996b).

The first time Schaefer became acquainted with Huichol women’s use of peyote during pregnancy was on a pilgrimage to Wirikúta with a temple group from San Andrés Cohamiata, in February 1987. The wife of the leading shaman, who was eight months pregnant, ate large quantities of peyote (as she was learning to be a shaman), and two other woman, who were two months and six months pregnant respectively, were also said to eat substantial quantities of peyote (Schaefer 1996b). Each of these three women gave birth, without complications, to healthy children. Schaefer reports that Huichol mothers she consulted definitely believe that the fetus feels the effects of the peyote, and some say that after eating peyote the baby “dances inside” (1996b). Some women told Schaefer that they eat peyote during labor for the ecbolic effect (helps in stimulating term labor or causes abortion), and find that peyote will help “facilitate a quick, relatively painless delivery with little bleeding” (1996b: 75).

When asked if the fetus would see the same visions as the mother, under the influence of peyote, one Huichol woman explained that the baby would not see, but would feel, the same things and receive messages from the deer and the peyote as the mother did (Schaefer 1996a). Furthermore, it is believed that the fetus cannot talk yet, but communicates with its iyari (heart-memory or “inherited memory”) and does not have its complete soul until shortly before birth. At that time the shaman calls to bring the soul of the baby into the body, from where it has been connected to “the goddess of the divine midwife in the sky” (Schaefer 1996a).

After the baby is born, the child continues to have exposure to peyote while nursing. Schaefer remarks on her observations of fretful children after breastfeeding:

I have noticed a marked change in the behavior of children after they received small doses of peyote via their mother’s milk. They become calm, smiling often, and occasionally grabbing into the air at what I believe must be imaginary objects and colors. Several women confirmed my observations, stating that the disposition of their children does indeed change if they nurse at a time when they have been consuming peyote. (1996c: 161)

Huichol women believe that eating peyote increases lactation; and mestizo women have used an extraction of peyote (in alcohol) externally to relieve breast pains during this time (Shultes cited by Schaefer 1996a). Peyote, like breast milk, contains antibiotics which a woman would likely pass on to her child as extra immunological protection, in place of the shots that newborns in the U.S. are required to have after birth (Schaefer 1996a).

After Huichol children are weaned they continue to receive small quantities of peyote. Bret Blosser, in his conversations with Huichol children (boys), found that they were first given peyote around the age of 12, with an exception: children who were part of a peyote pilgrimage were given peyote, no matter what their age (1997). On a pilgrimage Blosser attended, a young girl who was with her parents (he estimated her age was approximately 7 years) ingested peyote, along with all the other members who participated in the hunt (Blosser 1997). “Not uncommonly, newborn babies are taken on the pilgrimage, to the ceremonies, and to the sacred Huichol landmarks, especially if the parents wish to start their children onto the ‘Huichol way’ early in life” (Eger 1978: 41). With this understanding, it is significant that peyote pilgrims, as they are ritually and physically united on their journey, all participate on the same conditions, “the bare minimum of food, sleep, bathing, water, and rest” (Myerhoff 1974: 105).

Exposure to culture, tradition, “religion,” however we might call it, is one thing, but participating in a psychoactive dose of peyote at a young age is another. Susan Eger, who served as a field director for The Foundation for the Indians of the Sierra, made these inferences (from her observations) in Huichol Women’s Art (1978):

Most children, although given peyote to taste and to play with when they become curious about it, do not actually consume it in doses large enough to produce visions until at least eight years of age. But because of the frequency with which the children attend the ceremonies and watch the performance of ceremonial duties, by the time they actually do partake of peyote, they are sufficiently clued in to be able not only to experience prototypical, expected visions but to interpret them with some degree of accuracy and to remember the significance. (original emphasis, 43)

So it seems, there are “cultural safeguards” in place to mediate the consumption of peyote by Huichol people of all ages. Additionally, the Huichol pay close attention to what we may call signals, like the reaction on a child’s face when he or she tastes peyote for the first time, which may suggest whether the child will become a mara’akáme, or shaman (Schaefer and Furst 1996).

Discussion

Dr. Andrew Weil and Winifred Rosen, in a discussion on “drugs” and pregnancy make the blanket statement that “women expose their unborn babies to harm by consuming drugs—any drugs—during pregnancy…psychoactive drugs are no exception” (Weil and Rosen 1993: 165). This type of overarching, culturally irrelative statement seems to characterize the feelings of many American physicians, and policy makers (who call upon the expertise of those physicians). With this in mind, it is no wonder that the U.S. government made an issue of Anne Zapf’s use of small quantities of peyote before her daughter Joy was conceived, as though this were child abuse [this occurred during a nine year Federal trial (Case #3-82-0778-T) that finally decided that the three co-founding members of the Peyote Way Church of God were practicing a sincere form of peyotism (Zapf 1994)]. Insensitive Federal laws in the U.S. and Mexico continue to compromise the so-called religious freedom of women and men who practice what I will call religious shamanism, involving the use of psychoactive plants.

The issue is not whether science believes that the use of peyote during pregnancy is safe, rather that cultural perspectives should determine the way that we approach this subject. Among the Huichol, peyote is regarded as a medicine, a teacher, and is integrated into everyday life through songs and artwork, and the symbols woven into clothing (Schaefer and Furst 1996). Enculturation, in this instance, plays an enormous role in the opinions formed around the factor of safety. Members of traditional Huichol homes live within a cultural construct that has already found ways to account for the safety of women and children during pregnancy. Schaefer has stated that Huichol husbands and wives agree with the mara’akáme [shaman] who says that if a woman eats peyote that has been prayed over, and that she, too, is blessed by the shaman, no harm will come to the fetus (1996a). The shaman prays to the peyote and asks it not to scare the baby.

If we recall the story of peyote woman, how she ate the peyote, her breasts filled, she fed her baby, and was able to rejoin her group, we may begin to ask certain questions. Did the story evolve based on practices involving peyote, and does the story reflect the physiological connection between the stimulation of lactation and indigenous use of peyote for this purpose, or is it a symbolic marker for the origin of peyote use that has influenced indigenous practices? However we view this phenomenon, it seems clear that indigenous groups whose peyote origin stories involve pregnant women have learned experientially how to use the medicine safely throughout pregnancy.

The “myth of science” that we have created and explored in Western society, however, does not include stories of psychoactive plant use during pregnancy (or any other time). The dominant U.S. culture does not really have a similar relationship with any “drug” as the Huichol have with peyote. Most Americans, unlike the Huichol, have been taught through the medicalization of birth to question nearly everything in terms of the safety of the unborn child. Perhaps the way that pregnant women are treated within both cultures is also a matter of perspective and cultural education.

Differences between the “drugs” used recreationally by some women in America and the sacrament of peyote are notable. A woman who is mainlining heroin with a baby in her womb cannot justly be compared to a peyotera nursing her newborn child on a peyote pilgrimage; however we can begin to discern discrepancies in the extent to which each woman may be informed about the substance she is consuming. Most of the people who use heroin do not make it themselves, and heroin generally does not come with any tangible guarantee as to its quality. Additionally, because of federal “drug” laws, a woman who uses heroin while she is pregnant has no legitimate support group with which to share (or consult) about her experience. To the contrary, a Huichol woman on a pilgrimage most likely gathered, with her own hands, the peyote that she will eat and knows that what she eats is good, in large part, because her ancestors have done so for centuries (which is why she is in the world).

In America, due to the illegal status of certain “drugs,” regulation takes place on the street, education is mainly limited to disinformation (or whatever a person can find outside the system), and people who use these substances are shunned from society. What a different picture this presents, from that of the Huichol. Pregnant American women are not supported, or informed, about the decisions they make in regard to the use of “illegal” psychoactive substances, and yet, have liberal access (again without adequate information) to legal pharmaceutical agents throughout labor.

Another consideration, which has not been addressed in depth, is the “dosage level” of peyote ingested at different stages of a woman’s pregnancy. To date, Schaefer has not published specific information about the actual dosages of peyote that Huichol women consume during pregnancy, and this may be quite difficult to do. There was mention of one Euro-American woman who drank peyote tea while she gave birth (Mount in Anderson 1996), but there is no talk of her experience directly. Did she have a “threshold” dose, or a psychoactive (“shaman’s”) dose? To me, dosage seems to be an important question, and although I have not undergone childbirth, I would assume mothers would want to understand the level of “engagement in the experience” they might anticipate. Also, how has an indigenous woman been prepared for her experience of giving birth with a visionary plant to help assist her, as compared to a woman who receives an intervention measure in a U.S. hospital, such as epidural anesthesia?

It would seem that peyote, as a whole medicine (containing an extensive, impressive amount of alkaloids—perhaps two-hundred or more) would act as an oxytocic herb, or an ecbolic, to initiate and stimulate labor. Schaefer has suggested that peyote is ingested for this purpose among the Huichol. Again, dosage could represent a key consideration, in this action. Susan S. Weed suggests marijuana leaf, another federally controlled plant substance, as an oxytocic herb for stalled labor (1985: 64). Weed offers caution to dosage, and method of preparation (smoking, tincture, tea) as necessary factors to pay attention to, and says that all “forms of the herb” are effective and are “particularly useful if tension or emotional stress stalls the labor” (1985: 64). In the section of Wise Woman Herbal (1985) that addresses teratogens, neither peyote nor Cannabis (marijuana) is mentioned, although chemical stimulants and depressants (LSD, psychotropics, etc.) are included in this list of possible teratogens (Weed 1985: 13).

Conclusion

In the case of peyote, is experimental physical research vital? It seems that, at least, Western science could refrain from conducting animal experimentation that does not replicate human dose response to peyote. Is more extensive ethnographic record of Huichol or Native American Church (peyote) communicants necessary to convince them of the relative safety of peyote use during labor or while their child is at the breast? Are these the only tools left for those with the intention of changing antiquated, discriminatory “drug” laws such as those in Mexico, which still dictate that it is illegal for the Huichol to consume peyote, and thus, “practice their religion?” When we consider centuries of sacramental (medicinal) use by members of the Huichol, Cora, Rarámuri, and Tepecano people, do we not recognize sage “researchers” who have gained, through the wisdom of experience, an understanding of this plant? Or instead, is it more common that “peyote is blamed, usually falsely, for much of the poverty, illness and death on the reservations, in spite of the scientific opinion that, as used by the Indians, it is neither habit-forming nor permanently injurious to body or mind” (Stewart 1948:5)?

These questions can be applied to various indigenous and non-indigenous cultures in the Americas (and beyond) who ingest psychoactive plants in a “religious” context, and yet live with concern because their nation-state does not recognize this right. This has been an immensely fascinating, and challenging topic to research. It seems that the only way this type of research may reciprocate what is required from the Huichol, and other indigenous groups (in exchange for the “anthropologist headache”), is if policy makers are influenced, in part through this work, to amend violent, discriminatory, anti-life laws involving these “freedom of religion” issues. This research project would benefit greatly from conversations with the women who ingest peyote in a “religious context” while pregnant, or breastfeeding, or in other stages of the reproductive cycle. More talk of women’s personal experiences would provide the missing link in this discussion.

Parting Idea

I would like to leave the audience with one parting thought/image, from a yarn painting pictured in Art of the Huichol Indians (1978), which was created by Guadalupe, who was married to Ramón Medina Silva (a mara’akáme). The two of them participated in the filming of a peyote hunt (pilgrimage) in 1968, which became a documentary, To Find our Life (Furst 1969), and were the subjects of several ethnographic works on the Huichol (Berrin 1978; Eger 1978; Furst 1972; 1976; Myerhoff 1974; Schaefer 1996 a, b, c; Schaefer and Furst 1996). Here is the title of the painting and description (from the book):

How The Husband Assists in the Birth of a Child:

According to the Huichol tradition, when a woman had her first child the husband squatted in the rafters of the house, or in the branches of a tree, directly above her, with ropes attached to his scrotum. As she went into labor pain, the wife pulled vigorously on the ropes, so that her husband shared in the painful, but ultimately joyous, experience of childbirth. (Berrin 1978: 162)

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