ANTH106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cary Grant, Woodstock, Allen Ginsberg
31 May 2018
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ANTH106 Drugs Across Cultures !
Week 2: Hallucinogens !
Lecture Notes !
-psychedelics / hallucinogens - each name carries different political connotations !
-medical uses or harmful health consequences of heavy and uncontrolled use !
-Research into the pleasurable and positive feelings people have while using these drugs -
unusual in the history of drug research - almost sounds weird how the is research into positive
use of hallucinogenics !
-Unquestioned tacit assumption of what science is when we don’t think science would look into
the positive effects of illicit drugs !
3!
Why no scientific research on spiritual/mystical/pleasurable effects of drugs?!
-carotid dualism = division between mind and body in Western thought - mind over body, mind
should conqueror body’s desires !
-Dominate cultural aversion to !
4!
-use of hallucinogens natural and normal in some societies - positive religions, community, used
for healing - min. harm and max. Social benefit though controlled use !
-Link between hallucinogens and shamanism in the New World !
-Operation ‘Midnight Climax’ !
-Intro on Himmelstien (lecture on cannabis) moral entrepreneurs !
5!
-Europe has a few natural hallucinogens but not many !
-Actually aren’t many native hallucinogens in Europe !
6!
-McKenna - New World - cults and religious have incorporated these hallucinogens in their
rituals !
7!
-Ayahuasca and Peyote most well know !
8!
-Shamanism - not a gendered term, encompass these religious leaders, often go into trances to
connect to the spiritual world - some also use tobacco to make contact to the sprit world !
-This tradition exists without drugs - in societies that had no local drugs !
-Origin started in Siberia, crossed baron straits and moved down the continent through Canada,
North America, South America !
-Northern parts of Alaska no drugs - Shamans used fasting to induce trances !
-Moved to areas where their were drugs - drugs were incorporated into religious traditions -
unified religious tradition about making contact to the spirit world that adopted to use different
local drugs!
9!
-purpose of healing, and shaman in trance state would do battle with evil that would be causing
the illness - psychotherapist - anthropologists used this to label the shamans !
10!
-Weil - takes Zinberg’s theory on social rituals and social controls - use it to apply it to these
New World societies and how they minimise the harm !
-5 main Native Amazonia Americans aren’t harmed when using drugs !
-1. Claims that the more potent forms of drugs are responsible to negative outcomes of drugs !
-They consider there is a human desire to experience altered states - some societies recognise
this while others demonise this !
-Other ways to enter altered states of perception - such as fasting, spinning and getting dizzy - it
distorts your perception and is a form of altering your state of consciences!
-If your society considers this to be natural, this society will have a much better experience with
drugs, they won’t be immediately labeled as deviants - if they aren’t labeled as deviants then
they are not deviants!
-4. People can lead others through the drug experience - if one establishes a frame of order
around their use which is socially defined and society accepts what your doing and stops you
from doing it all the time !
-5. !
11!
-Romanticising the use of drugs in these tribes - sometimes they use their drug powers
malevolently !
-They use drugs for lots of reasons - not just to make themselves happy !
-Framework of use that society organises around drug use - addiction becoming acceptable !
-We could think it abnormal and deviant if someone had to shoot cocaine every morning, but not
coffee !
-They way we classify drugs creates what/who is deviant or not in society !
12!
-immigrants and colonials - main hallucinogen used in the counter-culture was LSD!
-Davenport-Hines !
13!
-accidentally tested LSD - vivid hallucinogens when synthesising drugs - use gloves if you do!
-Then started testing LSD !
-1943 -!
-Quiz: pharmaceuticals mess with chemicals, find something interesting and good - they
wonder how they can market it - used by psychiatrists to do research on Schizophrenia - start
supplying psychiatrists with LSD !
-Alfred M Hubbard - knew Huxley -Hubbard gives Huxley LSD - Huxley loves it, becomes a
missionary and promoter of LSD!
-Students in Texas who read Huxley’s book found uni Texas students found you could legally
buy this peyote - Huxley started promoting - Hubbard order 43 cases of LSD from the lab !
-Starts preaching its therapeutic, psychologic and mystical properties !
-Introduced some of the famous people - Cary Grant, etc. to drugs !
14!
-Donovan “speech-inducing drug” for intelligence operations - looking for a truth serum - !
-OSS agents volunteered to test potent cannabis to find TD!
-Results too inconsistent ‘Donovan’s Dreamers’!
- Operation ARTICHOKE - sent agents over globe to find rare plants with psycho-active parts !
-They choose LSD as the most promising drug !
15!
-useful as an interrogating drug b.c it was anxiety inducing - make people extremely nervous !
-Use it to make people anxious rather than talk !
-From mid-50s US army also thought about using LSD in aerosol as a madness inducing drug!
-LSD recording of British Forces 1960s!
16!
-psychiatrist research funded by CIA - madness mimicking drug !
-CIA - Lexington Prison - given LSD for 75 successive days - drug - in prison or army !
-Slip the drug into leaders drink to make them act inappropriately while doing speeches in front
of the public!
-CIA agents started slipping drugs into each other’s drugs !
Document Summary
Psychedelics / hallucinogens - each name carries di erent political connotations. Medical uses or harmful health consequences of heavy and uncontrolled use. Research into the pleasurable and positive feelings people have while using these drugs - unusual in the history of drug research - almost sounds weird how the is research into positive use of hallucinogenics. Unquestioned tacit assumption of what science is when we don"t think science would look into the positive e ects of illicit drugs. Carotid dualism = division between mind and body in western thought - mind over body, mind should conqueror body"s desires. Use of hallucinogens natural and normal in some societies - positive religions, community, used for healing - min. harm and max. Link between hallucinogens and shamanism in the new world. Intro on himmelstien (lecture on cannabis) moral entrepreneurs. Europe has a few natural hallucinogens but not many. Actually aren"t many native hallucinogens in europe.
