The Peyote Effect: From the Inquisition to the War on Drugs (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780520285439)

The hallucinogenic and medicinal effects of peyote have a storied history that begins well before Europeans arrived in the Americas. While some have attempted to explain the cultural and religious significance of this cactus and drug, Alexander S. Dawson offers a completely new way of understanding the place of peyote in history. In this provocative new book, Dawson argues that peyote has marked the boundary between the Indian and the West since the Spanish Inquisition outlawed it in 1620. For nearly four centuries ecclesiastical, legal, scientific, and scholarly authorities have tried (unsuccessfully) to police that boundary to ensure that, while indigenous subjects might consume peyote, others could not. Moving back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border, The Peyote Effect explores how battles over who might enjoy a right to consume peyote have unfolded in both countries, and how these conflicts have produced the racially exclusionary systems that characterizes modern drug regimes. Through this approach we see a surprising history of the racial thinking that binds these two countries more closely than we might otherwise imagine.

Author: Alexander S. Dawson
ISBN-10: 0520285433
ISBN-13: 9780520285439
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 09/04/2018
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.70d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 03/01/2019