Revista de Arqueología Americana
July 10, 2026
Giorgio Samorini
For decades, scholars believed the Old World had far fewer psychoactive plants in traditional use than the New World, attributing this to cultural differences. However, recent research in Africa reveals a wealth of traditional uses of hallucinogenic plants that had been overlooked due to a lack of ethnobotanical investigation. These plants are primarily employed in possession states, serving adorcist or exorcist functions, and often for healing. Examples include the Bori cult of the Hausa in Niger, female initiation rites of the Tsonga in Mozambique, the Fang cult of Byeri, iboga cults in western equatorial Africa, divinatory practices like the misoko of the Mitsogho in Gabon and sangoma in South Africa, and as a truth serum in judicial investigations such as the leba shay of Abyssinia.
Revista de Arqueología Americana
July 10, 2026
Constantino Manuel Torres
This second volume of the Revista de Arqueología Americana focuses on visionary substances and archaeology. The use of visionary plants in the Americas is not limited to the pre-Hispanic period but continues through the colonial era, the republican era, and the 21st century. The volume includes issues of domestic use and the transmission of knowledge and use of these plants within a family and its lineage. These considerations aim to contribute to understanding the use of psychoactive plants in an archaeological context.
Revista de Arqueología Americana
July 10, 2026
Stacy B. Schaefer
Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is a psychoactive cactus central to religious beliefs, healing practices, and transformative experiences among Indigenous peoples of Mexico and North America. The Wixárika (Huichol) have the longest known continuous use, while the Native American Church's practices in the US and parts of Canada developed more recently. This article reviews peyote's botany, chemistry, medicinal qualities, ecology, archaeology, history, and religious practices, presenting Indigenous knowledge, rituals, and adaptation to change. It concludes by discussing the alarming scarcity of peyote and conservation efforts to protect the plant's future.
Revista de Arqueología Americana
October 6, 2025
Jacob Keer, Justin Jennings
Psychedelic substances may have helped govern the Wari Empire of Middle Horizon Peru (600-1000 CE) by promoting social bonding after imperial disruptions. Archaeologists have focused on the immediate effects of psychedelics in past societies but overlooked their longer-term psychological impacts, such as neuroplasticity that can foster enduring pro-social feelings. A beer containing the psychedelic plant Anadenanthera colubrina (vilca) was regularly consumed at Wari feasts. The substance's 'afterglow' could have helped rebuild communities following the upheavals of imperial expansion, suggesting psychedelics played an integral role in Wari governance and may have shaped other regions' histories.
Revista de Arqueología Americana
July 10, 2026
Jonathan Ott
Coca (Erythroxylum coca and related species) served as a key shamanic inebriant, or entheogen, in South America, distinct from religious practice. The article surveys the mythology and ethnobotany surrounding coca and several wild Erythroxylum species used as substitutes, supported by 98 references.