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Neurologia (Barcelona, Spain) 2015The American continent is very rich in psychoactive plants and fungi, and many pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures used them for magical, therapeutic and religious...
INTRODUCTION
The American continent is very rich in psychoactive plants and fungi, and many pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures used them for magical, therapeutic and religious purposes.
OBJECTIVES
The archaeological, ethno-historical and ethnographic evidence of the use of hallucinogenic substances in Mesoamerica is reviewed.
RESULTS
Hallucinogenic cactus, plants and mushrooms were used to induce altered states of consciousness in healing rituals and religious ceremonies. The Maya drank balché (a mixture of honey and extracts of Lonchocarpus) in group ceremonies to achieve intoxication. Ritual enemas and other psychoactive substances were also used to induce states of trance. Olmec, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec used peyote, hallucinogenic mushrooms (teonanacatl: Psilocybe spp) and the seeds of ololiuhqui (Turbina corymbosa), that contain mescaline, psilocybin and lysergic acid amide, respectively. The skin of the toad Bufo spp contains bufotoxins with hallucinogenic properties, and was used since the Olmec period. Jimson weed (Datura stramonium), wild tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), water lily (Nymphaea ampla) and Salvia divinorum were used for their psychoactive effects. Mushroom stones dating from 3000 BC have been found in ritual contexts in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence of peyote use dates back to over 5000 years. Several chroniclers, mainly Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, described their effects in the sixteenth century.
CONCLUSIONS
The use of psychoactive substances was common in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies. Today, local shamans and healers still use them in ritual ceremonies in Mesoamerica.
Topics: Art; Ceremonial Behavior; Fungi; Hallucinogens; History, Ancient; History, Medieval; Humans; Mexico; Plants, Medicinal; Religion; Religion and Medicine
PubMed: 21893367
DOI: 10.1016/j.nrl.2011.07.003 -
Emergencias : Revista de La Sociedad... Apr 2022
Topics: Ceremonial Behavior; Humans
PubMed: 35275468
DOI: No ID Found -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Aug 2020This paper argues that rituals are mechanisms of resource management. The argument is based on four observations: (i) over the course of hominin evolution, fitness... (Review)
Review
This paper argues that rituals are mechanisms of resource management. The argument is based on four observations: (i) over the course of hominin evolution, fitness became contingent on psychological states; (ii) these psychological states can be understood as 'resources', not unlike material resources such as energy, food or fuel; (iii) ritual 'manages' these psychological resources-meaning that it cultivates, builds and directs them; and (iv) ritual management can be analytically decomposed, providing a new descriptive tool for understanding rituals and predictions about ritual survival. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ritual renaissance: new insights into the most human of behaviours'.
Topics: Ceremonial Behavior; Humans
PubMed: 32594870
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0429 -
Frontiers in Sociology 2023By relating conversation analysis (CA), in particular CA research on institutional interaction to such research traditions as sociological institutionalism, new... (Review)
Review
By relating conversation analysis (CA), in particular CA research on institutional interaction to such research traditions as sociological institutionalism, new materialism, and ritual theory, the article illustrates how CA scholarship can contribute to macrosociological theorizing. This argument is illustrated by how national parliaments are organized as institutions. The main point made in the article is that occasions of what CA calls institutional interaction should be considered as rituals. Although those occasions are scripted ceremonial performances wherein social pressure, material conditions, or avoidance of punishment make actors conform, they still play a role in constituting social order by making participants honor the rules and principles codified in an organization's frontstage events. The article also underlines that organizational arrangements do not determine what actors can say or do, but they impose limits and conditions on people's conduct. Finally, the paper suggests that it is through such arrangements of institutional interaction that social structure is created, maintained, and naturalized.
PubMed: 37881646
DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2023.1146448 -
Plants (Basel, Switzerland) Aug 2022This presentation examines the history of duckweeds in Chinese, Christian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindu, Japanese, Maya, Muslim, and Roman cultures and details the usage of... (Review)
Review
This presentation examines the history of duckweeds in Chinese, Christian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindu, Japanese, Maya, Muslim, and Roman cultures and details the usage of these diminutive freshwater plants from ancient times through the Middle Ages. We find that duckweeds were widely distributed geographically already in antiquity and were integrated in classical cultures in the Americas, Europe, the Near East, and the Far East 2000 years ago. In ancient medicinal sources, duckweeds are encountered in procedures, concoctions, and incantations involving the reduction of high fever. In this regard, we discuss a potential case of ethnobotanical convergence between the Chinese Han and Classical Maya cultures. Duckweeds played a part in several ancient rituals. In one, the unsuitability of its roots to serve as a wick for Sabbath oil lamps. In another reference to its early use as human food during penitence. In a third, a prominent ingredient in a medicinal incantation, and in a fourth, as a crucial element in ritual body purifications. Unexpectedly, it emerged that in several ancient cultures, the floating duckweed plant featured prominently in the vernacular and religious poetry of the day.
PubMed: 36015427
DOI: 10.3390/plants11162124 -
Psychopharmacology Jul 2021Ayahuasca is a plant concoction containing N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and certain β-carboline alkaloids from South America. Previous research in naturalistic settings... (Observational Study)
Observational Study
Ayahuasca is a plant concoction containing N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and certain β-carboline alkaloids from South America. Previous research in naturalistic settings has suggested that ingestion of ayahuasca can improve mental health and well-being; however, these studies were not placebo controlled and did not control for the possibility of expectation bias. This naturalistic observational study was designed to assess whether mental health changes were produced by ayahuasca or by set and setting. Assessments were made pre- and post-ayahuasca sessions in 30 experienced participants of ayahuasca retreats hosted in the Netherlands, Spain, and Germany. Participants consumed ayahuasca (N = 14) or placebo (N = 16). Analysis revealed a main effect of time on symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Compared to baseline, symptoms reduced in both groups after the ceremony, independent of treatment. There was a main treatment × time interaction on implicit emotional empathy, indicating that ayahuasca increased emotional empathy to negative stimuli. The current findings suggest that improvements in mental health of participants of ayahuasca ceremonies can be driven by non-pharmacological factors that constitute a placebo response but also by pharmacological factors that are related to the use of ayahuasca. These findings stress the importance of placebo-controlled designs in psychedelic research and the need to further explore the contribution of non-pharmacological factors to the psychedelic experience.
Topics: Adult; Alkaloids; Banisteriopsis; Ceremonial Behavior; Double-Blind Method; Female; Germany; Hallucinogens; Humans; Male; Mental Disorders; Mental Health; Middle Aged; Netherlands; Plant Extracts; Spain
PubMed: 33694031
DOI: 10.1007/s00213-021-05817-8 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Aug 2020Human rituals exhibit bewildering diversity, from the Mauritian Kavadi to Catholic communion. Is this diversity infinitely plastic or are there some general dimensions...
Human rituals exhibit bewildering diversity, from the Mauritian Kavadi to Catholic communion. Is this diversity infinitely plastic or are there some general dimensions along which ritual features vary? We analyse two cross-cultural datasets: one drawn from the anthropological record and another novel contemporary dataset, to examine whether a consistent underlying set of latent dimensions in ritual structure and experiences can be detected. First, we conduct a factor analysis on 651 rituals from 74 cultural groups, in which 102 binary variables are coded. We find a reliable set of dimensions emerged, which provide potential candidates for foundational elements of ritual form. Notably, we find that the expression of features associated with dysphoric and euphoric experiences in rituals appears to be largely orthogonal. Second, we follow-up with a pre-registered factor analysis examining contemporary ritual experiences of 779 individuals from Japan, India and the US. We find supporting evidence that ritual experiences are clustered in relatively orthogonal euphoric, dysphoric, frequency and cognitive dimensions. Our findings suggest that there are important regularities in the diversity of ritual expression and experience observed across both time and culture. We discuss the implications of these findings for cognitive theories of ritual and cultural evolution. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ritual renaissance: new insights into the most human of behaviours'.
Topics: Adult; Anthropology, Cultural; Ceremonial Behavior; Female; Humans; India; Japan; Male; United States
PubMed: 32594875
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0436 -
Acta Stomatologica Croatica Mar 2015Ethnic mutilations have a social and anthropological significance both in contemporary and past human behavior, influenced by geographic, religious and cultural factors... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Ethnic mutilations have a social and anthropological significance both in contemporary and past human behavior, influenced by geographic, religious and cultural factors which can greatly help forensic odontologist's practice in dental profiling process. Dental ritual mutilations and dental decorations were - and still are - practiced among many ethnic groups and cultures. Throughout the history of humanity, having healthy teeth has a symbolic meaning of youth, beauty and strength, but it can also have other meanings. Dental ritual mutilations were documented in many cultures in the past and were practiced mainly for religious rituals purposes, for esthetic reasons and because they represented a symbol of status or of belonging to a particular social group. Similar rituals are still performed.
MATERIAL AND METHOD
The present paper is a systematic review of the literature reporting on dental ritual mutilations from the early 1960s and is included in Pubmed, Scopus and Googlescholar. The research was deliberately limited only to the ritual mutilations, which can be defined as "any irreversible impairment of the integrity of the human organism, made with a ritual purpose and without any curative aim". Therefore all the articles dealing with single or multiple dental self extractions of psychotic origins were excluded, as well as the infant oral mutilations, since the practice is deemed to have therapeutical effects among ethnic groups dedited to this practice.
CONCLUSIONS
The knowledge of dental alteration due to oral mutilations can be a powerful tool for the identification procedures of living or dead persons or even in human remains especially providing relevant information about the ethnic origins and the cultural background of a subject. Some medical legal issues for the odontologist about dental mutilation are also addressed in the paper.
PubMed: 27688380
DOI: 10.15644/asc49/1/1 -
Annali Dell'Istituto Superiore Di Sanita 2020In Italy, four minors have died in the last year as a result of male circumcision (MC) procedures performed for cultural and religious reasons by unqualified persons in...
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES
In Italy, four minors have died in the last year as a result of male circumcision (MC) procedures performed for cultural and religious reasons by unqualified persons in unhygienic conditions.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
After illustrating the historical and ethical outlines of the moral admissibility of MC within a comparative perspective, we examine the features of the Italian healthcare system with particular regard both to the heterogeneity of services available in the various Regions and to the risks engendered by excluding MC from the public health setting.
CONCLUSION
In order to adequately safeguard public health, particularly that of minors, there is a pressing need for thorough discussion of whether the National Health Service should perform MC on minors free of charge or, at least, for a reduced fee. The implementation of targeted campaigns may raise awareness of the importance of proper safety measures in MC.
Topics: Ceremonial Behavior; Child, Preschool; Circumcision, Male; Diseases in Twins; Evidence-Based Medicine; Health Education; History, 19th Century; History, 21st Century; History, Ancient; History, Medieval; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Italy; Male; Motivation; Parental Consent; Penile Diseases; Public Health; Religion and Medicine; Social Responsibility; Wound Infection
PubMed: 32959801
DOI: 10.4415/ANN_20_03_13