Anthropology of Psychedelics

Anthropologists have studied psychedelic drug use across cultures for over a century, but this literature has never been compiled. A survey of ethnographic research on classic psychedelics in the Global North reveals a robust subfield—the anthropology of psychedelics—that lacks diversity, focusing predominantly on Indigenous use or Indigenous–Global North encounters. There is a gap regarding widespread psychedelic use in urban Global North contexts. As scientific research on therapeutic psychedelics grows, cultural analyses of the extra-pharmacological dimensions of psychedelic experiences and effects are increasingly needed.

Study at a glance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Anthropologists have studied the use of psychedelic drugs across cultures for over a century; however, this literature has yet to be compiled. In providing a brief survey of ethnographic research produced in the Global North on the ‘classic psychedelics’, this article suggests that there not only exists a robust subfield that can be called the anthropology of psychedelics, but that the field also lacks diversity given that it predominately focuses on the Indigenous use of psychedelics or research at the intersection of Indigenous and Global North encounters. Accordingly, there exists a lacuna in the anthropology of psychedelics related to the widespread and variegated use of psychedelics in urban contexts across the Global North. As scientific research on the therapeutic aspects of psychedelics continues to gain momentum, the need for more cultural analyses on the extra‐pharmacological dimensions surrounding psychedelic drug experiences and their effects is in greater demand than ever.