The Shaman Meets The Poet: María Sabina And The Curative Powers Of Language

Maria Sabina embodies a Mesoamerican tradition of preserving pre-Hispanic sacred practices while observing the dominant Christian pantheon. Historians and cultural anthropologists believe pre-Hispanic healers and sorcerers may have also acted as official priests. Hallucinogen use may have occurred in private, elitist religious feasts where the Cantares mexicanos were produced. Spanish colonization deeply intervened in Mesoamerican sacred constructs with Catholic Christianity.

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Abstract

This chapter discusses how Maria Sabina embodies the deep-seated legacy of a Mesoamerican competence to encompass and endure that since the colonial period has been laboring to conserve pockets of the pre-Hispanic realm of the sacred, amidst careful observance of the dominant, transcontinental Christian pantheon. Although the historical record is lean and much of it comes from post-Conquest Hispanic colonial sources, some historians and cultural anthropologists believe that healers and sorcerers during pre-Hispanic Mexico may have also acted as official, specialized priests. Another related pre-Hispanic social context for the ingestion of hallucinogens may have been more private, elitist religious feasts and/or gatherings in which the celebrated Mexican songs or Cantares mexicanos were produced. With the arrival of Spaniards in the sixteenth century, the construct of the Mesoamerican sacred was deeply intervened by Catholic Christianity.Keywords: Catholic Christianity; colonial period; Maria Sabina; Mesoamerican; pre-Hispanic Mexico