Schwartz Marin E Et Al - Psychedelic Research and Its Biocolonial Legacies - LS - Pulse - 50 - Dec 2021
Schwartz Marin E Et Al - Psychedelic Research and Its Biocolonial Legacies - LS - Pulse - 50 - Dec 2021
Schwartz Marin E Et Al - Psychedelic Research and Its Biocolonial Legacies - LS - Pulse - 50 - Dec 2021
PSYCHEDELIC
RESEARCH
AND ITS
BIOCOLONIAL
LEGACIES
Reinforcing biocoloniality?
Wasson’s work constituted another instance of salvage
ethnography, a practice that seeks to save vanishing indigenous
peoples and disappearing knowledge due to globalisation, which
has been criticised as part of neocolonial strategies of extraction,
and biopiracy. Wasson was aware that his publications constituted
a betrayal of the secrecy and mysticism shrouding ‘los niños
santos’ (‘magic’ mushrooms) in Mazatec culture. Yet, he also felt
it was his duty to share this knowledge with the world before it
disappeared in the wake of the relentless advance of modern
civilisation (ibid: 17−19). Modern civilisation took notice of ‘magic’
mushrooms indeed, and:
within two years of the story's publishing, psilocin and TOP RIGHT:
psilocybin, the main active compounds in the mushrooms, The Linnean Society library holds copies of recordings of María Sabina’s sacred rituals.
were isolated, characterized, synthesized, and named by © The Linnean Society of London
Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz pharmaceutical
company. Sandoz quickly patented the extraction procedure ABOVE:
and a method for ‘therapeutic tranquilization’ marketing pills Wasson’s article ‘Seeking the Magic Mushroom’ in Time, 1957.
under the trade name Indocybin (Gerber 2021: 573−577). © Wikipedia
References
Estrada, A. 2005. Vida de María Sabina. La Sabia de los Hongos Sahagún, fray Bernardino de. 2005. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva
(México: Editorial Siglo XXI) 42. España, Biblioteca Porrúa, tomos 8-11, México.
Gerber, K, et al. 2021. Ethical Concerns about Psilocybin Intellectual Property. Sahagún, fray Bernardino de. 2000. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva
ACS Pharmacol Transl. Sci. 4: 573−577. España, tomos I-II, version íntegra del texto castellano del manuscrito
Glockner, J. 2015. La Mirada Interior: Plantas Sagradas del Mundo Amerindio conocido como Códice Florentino, studio introductorio, paleografia, glosario
(Mexico: Debate) y notas de Alfredo López Austin y Josefina Garcia Quintana, Conaculta, Cien
de México.
Schwartz-Marin, E. & Restrepo, E. 2013. Biocoloniality, Governance, and the
Protection of ‘Genetic Identities’ in Mexico and Colombia. Sociology 47(5): Sheldrake, M. 2020. The enigma of Richard Schultes, Amazonian
993−1,010. hallucinogenic plants and the limits of ethnobotany. Social Studies of Science
50(3): 345−376.
Schultes, R. E. 1939. Plantae Mexicanae II. The Identification of Teonanácatl,
a Narcotic Basidiomycete of the Aztecs. Botanical Museum Leaflets, Wasson, R. G. 1980. The Wondrous Mushroom: Micolatry in Mesoamerica.
Harvard University 7: 37−56. New York: McGraw Hill Books
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