The main theme of this book is the use of certain narcotic drugs among Colombian Indians, and the jaguar transfonnation complex, which is closely related to it. The principal objective is to describe the traditions, rituals, and native interpretations with the use and the hallucinatory sphere, and thus to call attention to a field of study which, it seems, has hitherto received too little notice. The presentation is primarily descriptive; the contribution I hope to make consists in providing a body of references and textual documents on this aspect of aboriginal culture. It is urgent that this field of research be investigated by teams of specialists because, for this kind of study, it seems that time is running out very fast. If this book should stimulate others in formulating their research designs, it wilI have served its main purpose. The breakdown of native symbolic systems, the death of the older generation of Indians who still cherish the traditional way of life, and the rapid acculturation in all aspects of aboriginal culture are leading at present to the irretrievable loss of a vast accumulation of knowledge concerning the properties and uses of plants, acquired by the Amerindans over thousands of years. It is probable that much of this lore may be of great value to modern civilization, which already owes a considerable debt in this respect to the American Indians. Medicinal herbs, poisons, contraceptives, hallucinogens, and many other drugs fonn part of the Indians' culture, but this wealth of infonnation will be lost if efforts to save it are not made quickly. A few observations are in order, to explain the organization of this book and to describe the materials on which it is based. The first chapters are an attempt to bring together some of the many isolated references to hallucinogenic drugs found in the literature. In Chapter 1 I have tried to present a historical survey of the use of narcotic snuff among Colombian Indians, basing my work mainly on the early Spanish sources and, in a later period, on travel reports, ethnological investigations, and other information. In this chapter I have made liberal use of quotations because many of these sources are not readily available to English readers, and in most cases I give the original text in the Notes. I have found it necessary to restrict my survey to Colombian territory, but I am fully aware that narcotic snuffs were, or still are, in use in many other areas. It was not my intention to cover the entire field, however, since the Colombian scene provides an abundance of data for the purpose of an introductory srudy such as this. In Chapter 2 I refer to Banisteriopsis potions, narcotic drinks prepared from a jungle vine the existence of which was discovered only in the last century by the English botanist Richard Spruce, and whose use by the natives seems to be restricted to certain lowland regions, mainly to the east of the Andes. My main sources, in this case, have been the reports by botanists, travelers, and ethnographers who, in the last century and a half, have written on this subject. Unfortunately, there is a lack of earlier references. In both these chapters ( 1 and 2) I have added information on recent botanical and pharmacological research, and I have quoted some of the personal experiments made by individual investigators. In Chapter 3, again on the basis of the early Spanish chronicles and modem ethnographic reporfs, I have tried to relate the use of narcotic substances to shamanistic practices, through them, to aboriginal jaguar imagery and symbolism. These three chapters,then, form a unit which attempts to present a compilation of published data on native drug use and shamanism in certain Colombian cultures. Beginning with Chapter 4 I limit my field of inquiry to the rain forest Indians of the Vaupes territory in the Colombian Northwest Amazon. This chapter is meant to serve as a general introduction to the local environment and its inhabitants. The material presented in chapters 5-10 consist mainly of texts recorded in the field and commented upon by the Indians themselves. These chapters, then, are the result of field work and personal experiences. After a brief visit to the Vaupes in 1951, my interest in this region was renewed in 1966 when I made the acquaintance of an acculturated Desana Indian, Antonio Guzman. He provided me with a voluminous body of information on his view of his local culture, which led eventually to the publication of a book on some aspects of religious symbolism (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971). This reconstruction of an elaborate belief system, seen through the eyes of one single informant, was, of course, likely to contain some misrepresentations, but the overall quality of Guzman's information seemed to be such as to warrant the publication of this material. Although my informant had little firsthand experience-with narcotic drugs as used within the context of his native culture, he implied that the psychotropic effects produced by these substances were at the core of many beliefs, and during our subsequent work I decided to concentrate on this aspect and to gather as much information as possible on it. This book, therefore, is in all essence a sequel to the volume mentioned above. I hasten to explain that the data I was eventually able to obtain are incomplete and, in many ways, superficial. Although the Indians are generally not secretive about their use of narcotic drugs and about the manner in which they interpret their effects, any investigation into this aspect of their culture is difficult, not only because of its complex interrelationships with myth, ritual, and social organization, but also because altered states of consciousness are not easily defined, described, or explained in any cultural context. This is a borderline area of research in which, admittedly, one easily loses one's footing, and any attempt at interpretation is fraught with many dangers and pitfalls. From 1966 to early in 1969 I worked with Antonio Guzman-the native informant-and on several occasions I traveled with him to the Vaupes territory in order to record texts and elicit comments as detailed as possible on them with the assistance of this very competent interpreter. Although only a little more than five months were spent in actual field work, three of them in the general region of Mitu and two traveling on the Pira-parana, the translations and comments on these texts occupied us for the better part of two years during which I acquired a sufficient knowledge of the Desana language to translate passages and discuss details of content and meaning. Most of this work concentrated on drug use and shamanism, but a number of interrelated topics were discussed and, on our occasional field trips, additional information was gathered from the results of this inquiry, even if we accept their incompleteness, have convinced me that the use of narcotic drugs by these Indians is an essential part of their culture and that, without a detailed knowledge of the role of these narcotics, any appreciation of social and religious customs would he very superficial indeed. But I am also aware of the fact that, in the chapters that follow, I have done hardly more than scratch the surface of much deeper problems in the exploration of which anthropology must combine its resources with those of many other disciplines, notably botany, pharmacology, and psychology. In fact, without the collaboration of these sciences any attempt at a valid cultual analysis would be doomed to failure. It is with the hope that the cultual importance of narcotic drugs among Colombian natives will be the subject of further studies by others more competent than I that I have provided rather copious notes for the chapters; they will not only guide the reader to the original sources I have used, but also offer occasional comments or suggestions for further readings. The following annotations are of importance and I must ask the reader to keep them in mind. All words in aboriginal languages ar~ followed by bracket_capitals indicating the particular language: (T) for Tukano proper, (D) for Desana, and (LG) for Lengua Geral, a Tupi dialect. The term Tukano refers to the Eastern Tukano in general, while the term Tukano proper refers to the specific exogamic group known by that name. All words, sentences, or paragraphs set in quotation marks are literal expressions of native informants. I should add that whenever I write, "The Tukano say," or "According to the Tukano," the statement following the expression is based on a body of data that, in my view, seems to justify this generalization.