[Aztlan] Enemas, etc.

[Nick Hopkins]

Just to second Justin's note, there is a considerable literature but  
nothing conclusive about Classic Maya hallucinogen usage, as  
reasonable as it might seem to assume it.  Marlene Dobkin de Rios  
published a review article in 1974 (The influence of psychotropic  
flora and fauna in Maya religion, Current Anthropology, vol.  15),  
with scholars' comments (mine included).

There isn't the significant ethnographic support we would expect in  
the context of continuity in many religious activities; Mayas don't  
seem to seek ecstatic experiences, quite the contrary.  There is use  
of balche in some ceremonies in Yucatan, and this might relate to the  
enema tradition.  But the psilocybin mushrooms around Palenque grow  
on cattle dung, and that was scarce in precolumbian times, and  
besides, it's only the foreigners who come to use them.  The datura  
that are all over parts of the Maya world are a marker for the  
Colonial period presence of Central Mexican influence (e.g., Aztec  
mercenary garrisons), so they are not in the Classic inventory.

When I have tried to get local inventories of mushrooms, people's  
concerns are whether they are edible or "poisonous," and the latter  
include the hallucinogens.  This is in sharp contrast to Oaxaca  
(Mazatec) and Central Mexico (Matlatzinca), for example, where there  
is knowledge and use of mushrooms, salvia, datura, etc., and  
Matlatzinca mushroom categorization clearly separates the "sacred"  
hallucinogens from the other fungi.

On the other hand you have considerable support for tobacco usage as  
a medicinal as well as recreational drug, and it figures prominently  
in folklore (a good way to repel demons, by the way--all of our  
public buildings are demon-proofed by the flocks of smokers hanging  
around the entrance, so don't be too critical).

Anyway, it's tempting to speculate, but not established fact.  If you  
want a good read, try Lewis Shiner's Deserted Cities of the Heart  
(Doubleday, 1988), which has the Lacandons going to Yaxchilan for one  
last pilgrimage, taking mushrooms for a bit of time-travel...