Trance, posture, and tobacco in the Casas Grandes shamanic tradition: Altered states of consciousness and the interaction effects of behavioral variables
Christine S. Vanpool, Laura Lee, Paul Robear, Todd L. Vanpool
Anthropology of Consciousness November 8, 2023 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1111/anoc.12222 via OpenAlex
Summary
Casas Grandes Medio period shamanic practices utilized tobacco shamanism and a specific posture known as the Tennessee Diviner to facilitate trance experiences related to soul flight and divination. Evidence suggests that initiating trance through tobacco intoxication or the TD posture, especially when combined with rhythmic drumming, leads to perceptions of transformation and information acquisition. This practice likely reinforced desired trance experiences culturally and may be applicable to understanding similar practices in other cultures.
Study at a glance
| Population | shamanic practices during the Casas Grandes Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Tobacco intoxication or the TD posture, especially when paired with rhythmic stimulation, facilitates trance experiences related to soul flight and divination. |
Abstract
Abstract Here, we describe how Casas Grandes Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) shamanic practices of the North American Southwest used tobacco shamanism, a ritual stance called the Tennessee Diviner (TD) posture, and cultural expectations to generate trance experiences of soul flight and divination. We introduce a conceptual model that holds that specific trance experiences are the emergent result of human minds interacting with additional factors including entheogens, cultural expectations, physiological states, postures/movement, and sound/stimulation. Experimental and ethnographic evidence indicates initiating trance with either tobacco intoxication or the TD posture accompanied with a rapidly beating drum or rattle corresponds with perceptions of soul flight, transformation, and divination/information acquisition. Both have similar results but pairing them together as they were during the Medio period likely helped ensure the culturally desired trance experiences. This practice of mutually reinforcing factors was likely part of tobacco‐based shamanism found in other New World cultures as well. We suggest our general model can be applied to other contexts to examine how various aspects of trance induction interact to produce the cultural patterns (and resulting cosmological and spiritual frameworks) anthropologists have documented in other cultures.