Ancient Roots
Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is a small, spineless cactus native to the Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico and southern Texas. Its principal psychoactive alkaloid, mescaline, produces profound alterations in perception, cognition, and emotion lasting eight to twelve hours. Archaeological evidence establishes peyote as one of the oldest psychoactive substances used by humans in the Americas.
In 2005, radiocarbon dating of two peyote buttons recovered from Shumla Cave No. 5 along the Rio Grande in Texas yielded dates between 3780 and 3660 BCE -- indicating that indigenous peoples of North America have used peyote for at least 5,500 years. Additional specimens from a burial cave in west-central Coahuila, Mexico have been dated to 810--1070 CE. The White Shaman Mural, a monumental pictograph in the Lower Pecos region of Texas estimated to be approximately 4,000 years old, contains imagery that scholars have interpreted as depicting peyote ingestion and shamanic transformation.
