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Archaeological Notes on the Use of Psychoactive Drugs in the Marajoara Culture, lower Amazon.


Pages: 49 - 74

Abstract

The use of psychoactive substances, as evidenced by ethnographic data, is quite common throughout South and Central America. Archaeological evidences of material culture of such practices from the Amazonian lowlands, however, have received little attention or have not been significantly recognized. For example, the small ceramic vases with spouts from the Marajoara phase, some with zoomorphic designs, have traditionally been associated with their use as an eating utensil or a “spoon”. We propose their true purpose was to serve as containers for snuff storage or directly as inhalers of psychoactive substances, such as the “paricá-powder”. The “snuff spoon” spout of the container, filled with “paricá”, would be inserted into one nostril, the other being closed with the thumb. The opening of the container would be covered with the fingers or the palm of the other hand. Inhalation creates a vacuum inside the container and the sudden opening and simultaneous inhalation sucks the snuff into the user’s nose. Here, nine specimens, which are part of the archaeology collection at the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi in Belém, are presented and described. Keywords: Archaeology; Marajoara culture; Psychoactive substances; ‘‘Parica’’.