Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians

by Barbara G. Myerhoff

"Ram�n Medina Silva, a Huichol Indian shaman priest or mara'akame, instructed me in many of his culture's myths, rituals, and symbols, particularly those pertaining to the sacred untiy of deer, maize, and peyote. The significance of this constellation of symbols was revealed to me most vividly when I accompanied Ram�n on the Huichol's annual ritual return to hunt the peyote in the sacred land of Wirikuta, in myth and probably in history the place from which the Ancient Ones (ancestors and deities of the present-day Indians) came before settling in their present home in the mountains of the Sierra Madre Occidental in north-central Mexico. My work with Ram�n preceded and followed our journey, but it was this peyote hunt that held the key to, and constituted the climax of, his teachings."--from the Preface

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Religion, School, Ethnography, Drugs, Indigenous

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1974

Reviews

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

She goes on a mystical, spiritual quest with these Huichols, but her description of it makes it sound like an ordinary road trip with some peyote at the camp fire. What really ticked me off though were the final two chapters -- the theoretical, analytical part -- where she goes full-on, old school anthropologist and starts feeding us a line about the "primitive mind." I was actually cursing at the book as I read it. For example, there is a bit where she describes how the Huichols say that you should not prepare a maize field if you are having bad thoughts, because you might injure yourself and the field might not produce as much maize. I thought that sounded like the same kind of stuff you'd get in popular positive psychology books today. If you have the attitude that it isn't going to work then you are going to be disconnected, you'll make mistakes and you might make a self-fulfilling prophecy. Barbara Myerhoff, on the other hand, uses this example as a way to show how the "primitive" believes that thoughts in his or her own head can affect the outside world. Okay, the book is from 1974 and her field notes are older than that, but still. Pretty disappointing. I am not going to lie: I was hoping for Fear and Loathing in the Sierra Madre and instead I got an academic making all the peyote hunting safe with her intellectualizing while accusing these tripping indios of making cosmic contradictions safe with their rituals.

On the other hand, there were a couple of cool scenes, like when the Huichols (acting the part of old gods returning to their homeland) enter a restaurant and start throwing all the food around. Basically, the Huichols themselves are awesome, and no matter how academic the author has to be they still shine through. I also enjoyed the author's arguments that the Huichols used to live mainly from hunting deer and that they are not yet all that comfortable with growing maize. I like thinking about cultural change like that, although it is sad that there is not enough deer anymore and it wasn't clear if that is down to the Spanish or climate change or what.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The peyote hunt is a fascinating ritual, a social drama full of deeply felt symbols, carefully designed movements, speech inversions, and unusual behaviours that build a description of a people’s connection to the land and the ancestors. The deer, says Myerhoff, symbolizes the “lost hunting life” and connects with a past concept of male dominance. The maize represents the present, the antithesis of the hunt. It symbolizes the interdependent nature of gender roles in modern agriculture. The peyote presents a private/public duality. Even though everyone in Huichol society partakes of peyote from time to time, and it is sometimes used for medicinal purposes, larger dosages that will invoke visions and hallucinations are reserved for special occasions. For most people, according to Myerhoff, this serves no useful purpose other than entertainment and pleasure. It is “precious and beautiful.” For the mara’akame, however, peyote opens a communication pathway to the gods and the ancestors and serves as a source of religious illumination.

I very much enjoyed Myerhoff’s account of the peyote hunt. I found myself especially interested in her descriptions of the inversions that the peyote pilgrims participated in. For a space of time during the hunt, everything must be reversed. For example, after the successful completion of their tasks, happy and content, bedding down for the night in a landscape that they consider to be beautiful and most sacred, Ramon says, “Ah, how bad it is here. How ugly, there is only the cold sun. We are wide awake and we found no peyote, only flowers. Tomorrow we must set out very early to find more flowers since there is no peyote.” Everything must be presented as the opposite of what it is. Clearly the Huichols, while recognizing the solemn necessity of the process, are also quietly amused by this, and seem to try to outdo each other in clever inversions of reality. As Myerhoff says, “The reversals became increasingly demanding, complex, and binding, necessitating so much verbal and behavioural change that everyone had difficulty following their strictures” [p. 159].

Myerhoff’s analysis, however, had little of the richness and sophistication of Janice Boddy’s Wombs and Alien Spirits. I read both of these in preparation for an essay that will compare the two rituals – the “cure” of the zayran and the peyote hunt – in reference to religious meaning and symbology. I’m looking forward to the work of drawing these two divergent celebrations together from opposite sides of the world, and showing how they both fulfill deep-seated human needs to find meaning in what often otherwise appears to be a meaningless and random world.

I’m beginning to admire (and envy) these amazing women who have done such interesting anthropological fieldwork, and wondering if there might be an experience like this awaiting me in the future. :)

[Monika · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh goodness I could not get into this book! I had to pretend to read it for a class and skimmed over the majority of it. Peyote Hunt I would think is important in demonstrating how religion is cultural. How religion and culture are entertwined for the Huichol Native Americans, creating symbolism and rituals to bring meaning to the present but remembering past ancestors.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book has probably become very dated (especially since a lot of the peyote in the area of Wirikuta has been extirpated), I found this a fascinating and straightforward introduction to the Huichol ideology and their ritual use of peyote. This book was written as forward-thinkingly as possible for the 60's and 70's as well, so it's absent of a lot of the colonialism and paternalism of other contemporary works of anthropology. The final chapter of analysis of the deer/maize/peyote complex gave me lots of food for thought, especially when it comes to the tendency in psychedelic culture to not want to leave Paradise/Wirikuta.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

TECHNICALLY skipped a chapter, but we can look past that right? Read it for school. Ya.

[Oona · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this in my myth & culture class and enjoyed the "other side" of american history.