SOC130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Michael Harner, Nepenthe, Hyoscyamus Niger
15 May 2020
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Document Summary
There are other holes in drug history in this period that are going to have to wait for work like rosenthal"s to fill in. Others are impossible to ever step in. In general, in ancient times and in the middle ages, knowledge about drugs and their social consequences were too scanty and inaccurate to serve as the basis for anything other than pleasurable speculation. Including alcohol, there seems to have been no drug in common enough use in. Europe to disrupt the peace of mind of the authorities. Drugs primarily develop in connection with witchcraft. It is also evident that, like shamans, they claimed that they could actually travel through the air when they were under the influence of those substances. However, the prevalent belief in diabolic possession meant that the medications a witch used were not known to be responsible for her behaviour; and there is no evidence that medications were used otherwise than as medicines.
