Adolescent Drug Use in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Journal of Drug Issues – January 01, 1992
Source: CrossRef
Summary
Challenging common assumptions, some cultures use adolescent hallucinogen ingestion not for abuse, but for positive socialization. Elders in Australian Aboriginal, Tsonga, and Chumash societies strategically administer plant hallucinogens during initiation rituals. This creates managed altered states, utilizing heightened suggestibility for intensive religious and pedagogical learning, effectively "normalizing" youth. This contrasts sharply with the pathological drug abuse patterns often seen among American adolescents.
Abstract
An analysis is made of adolescent hallucinogenic plant ingestion during initiation rituals among Australian Aboriginal males, Tshogana Tsonga females and among Chumash youth of Southern California. This use pattern contrasts with abusive patterns of drug abuse found among American adolescents. Findings indicate the existence of managed altered states of consciousness in the tribal societies studied, where plant hallucinogens are given by elders to youth as part of an intensive, short-term socialization for religious and pedagogical purposes. The use of hypersuggestibility as a cultural technique to “normalize” youth in the tribal societies under study is analyzed in contrast to the role of pathology of drug ingestion patterns among American adolescents.