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Did hallucinogenic booze fuel politics in ancient Peru? – National Geographic

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3 years ago

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The peaceful, easy feeling derived from a mix of hallucinogenic drugs and alcoholic drink may have been a key to political power in coastal Peru a millennium ago, according to a study published today in the journal Antiquity.

Archaeologists have long recognized the role that chicha, a beer-like beverage still consumed today, played in the culture of the Wari who ruled much of the Peruvian coast and southern Andes between around A.D. 600 and 1000. Wari elites would host elaborate parties for their neighbors, and copious amounts of chicha would help foster political and economic ties.

Now, the discovery of psychotropic plant remains in a Wari “brewery” is leading researchers to suggest that the Wari may have also combined the two intoxicants for a brew with an even bigger political punch.

Read more on how alcohol has fueled the development of arts, language, and religion.

The discovery was made at the site of Quilcapampa, a Wari village in southern Peru, where the extremely arid environment preserved the remains of what the residents ate and drank just before abandoning the site in the late ninth century A.D. Here, archaeologists found 1,100-year-old traces of potatoes, quinoa, and peanuts, as well as a staggering number of berry-like fruits from the molle (Schinus mole) tree, which the Wari often used to make chicha with an alcohol content of roughly 5 percent.

Among the soaked or boiled fruits left over from making chicha were psychotropic vilca seeds from the Anadenanthera colubrina tree. Archaeological evidence shows vilca was used as a hallucinogen in ancient South America, but usually only by political and religious elites, says National Geographic Explorer Justin Jennings, an archaeologist at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the lead author of the study, which was funded in part by National Geographic.

Quilcapampa was settled late in the ninth century by a handful of migrant families from the Wari heartlands farther north along the coast and mountains, and they may have introduced the practice of combining vilca and chicha to strengthen their new alliances with non-Wari groups in the region. And if mixing vilca and chicha helped the villagers of Quilcapampa make friends in a strange land, it might also be the secret to the political ascent of the Wari.

See the reconstructed face of an ancient Wari queen.

“What the Wari did was say, ‘We’re going to combine these… and when we put them together, we’re going to have this shared experience,’” Jennings adds.

“Going somewhere”

Like the Amazonian drug ayahuasca, vilca results in an intense out-of-body experience. Its psychoactive effects are drastically weakened when it’s ingested, and so its seeds were usually smoked or ground into snuff. But there is a chemical reason for thinking that adding ground vilca seeds to chicha made from molle retains more of their hallucinogenic effect, Jennings explains.

“You were able to have a trip, an out-of-body experience to a degree, but it was a longer, smoother, and less violent experience,” he said. “You were able to have that sense of going somewhere, of tripping out, but with friends.”

While the molle tree used for chicha grew nearby Quilcapampa, the vilca seeds would have had to be imported from the eastern flanks of the Andes and carried over the mountains by Wari-controlled llama caravans. That meant the Wari village at Quilcapampa might have been popular gathering center in the region, boasting a chicha with a punch like no other.

The idea might explain a political secret of the Wari, whose painted drinking vessels sometimes portray the vilca tree with its distinctive seed pods.

Véronique Bélisle is an anthropological archaeologist at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, who was not involved in the Quilcapampa study but has researched the use of hallucinogens in ancient Peru. She said it was long suspected that the Wari consumed vilca by adding it to chicha, but there had been no archaeological evidence until now.

“This research makes an important contribution to Andean archaeology by showing that Wari colonists organized feasts during which they served chicha mixed with vilca to their guests,” Bélisle writes in an email.

But not all archaeologists are convinced. Curator Ryan Williams of the Field Museum in Chicago, who has excavated the ruins of a Wari ceremonial center at Cerro Baúl, about 100 miles to the southeast, finds the hypothesis “intriguing” but says the evidence for consumption of vilca and chica together is currently lacking. Williams gives an example of finding cotton seeds in an ancient molle brewery at Cerro Baúl. “But we didn’t assert the Wari were drinking cotton [chica],” he notes in an email.

Jennings admits there is no direct evidence that vilca was mixed with molle chicha at Quilcapampa, only that both were found in the same archaeological deposits. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the smoking gun,” he said. Further studies will look for evidence of vilca in chicha residues in the remains of Wari cups and serving vessels. “That’s something that we’d love to do, in order to make a stronger case that vilca and molle were added into the same vessel,” Jennings says.

The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, funded Explorer Justin Jennings’s work. Learn more about the Society’s support of Explorers working to inspire, educate, and better understand human history and cultures.

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‘Disgraceful:’ N.S. Tory leader slams school’s request that military remove uniform

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November 8, 2024

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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.

Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.

A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”

Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.

“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.

In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”

“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”

Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.

Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.

Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.

“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.

“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.

“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.

“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”

“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Saskatchewan NDP’s Beck holds first caucus meeting after election, outlines plans

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November 8, 2024

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REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.

Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.

She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.

Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.

Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.

The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Nova Scotia election: Liberals say province’s immigration levels are too high

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November 7, 2024

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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.

Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.

“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.

“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”

The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.

In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.

“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”

In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.

“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”

Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.

Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”

In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.

In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.

“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”

Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.

“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”

The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.

“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.

“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax

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