Navigating Loss:

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Navigating Loss

• Plant Entheogens, Christianity, Colonialism and
  the Decline of Local Culture

By Chase Morrison
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The Ethnosphere

• the sum total of all thoughts, dreams, ideas,
  beliefs, myths, intuitions, and inspirations
  brought into being by the human imagination since
  the dawn of consciousness. Its a symbol of all
  that weve accomplished and all that we can
  accomplish. The ethnosphere is humanitys great
  legacy.
• -Wade Davis

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Language Loss
Culture loss can be directly observed from
language shifts. Today, less than half the
languages spoken of the 6,000 languages spoken on
earth are moribund that is, they are spoken only
by adults who no longer teach them to the next
generation 90 of existing languages today are
likely to die or become seriously embattled
within the next century Change happens, but why,
what are the implications, and what can we do
about it?
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Christianity
Use of plant entheogens are compatible with
Christianity, but not vice versa Moral
ideology Dominant culture colonial and
postcolonial experience Relationship
with/presence of ancestor spirits is deemed
evil Brought light to the darkness Syncretic
Christianity -The Native American
Church -Methodist Church in Fiji -Santo Daime
Franciscan missionary
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Themes of historical decline are common cross
culturally.
We will explore three very different cultural
examples The loss of local knowledge about plant
sacraments The loss of associated rituals The
feelings attributed to historical decline and
motivation for political action Ritual use of
plant medicines creates an intelligible and
palpable sense of decline and loss of power among
indigenous people
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Peyote in North America
Peyote drummer from North America circa 19th
century

• Lophophora williamsii

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Kava in Fiji and Vanuatu
Kava preparation in the South Pacific
Piper methysticum
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Ayahuasca in the Amazon
Banisteriopsis caapi
Tukano shaman of the Colombian Amazon
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References

• Slide 1 and 2 paintings by artist Ben Zvi
• www.benzviart.com/
• Davis, Wade. 2002. Light at the Edge of the
  World A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing
  Cultures. National Geographic.
• Fishman, J. A. 1991. Reversing language shift
  Theoretical and empirical foundations of
  assistance to threatened languages. Clevedon,
  England Multilingual Matters.
• Tomlinson, Matt. 2004. Perpetual Lament
  Kava-Drinking, Christianity and Sensations of
  Historical Decline in Fiji. Royal
  Anthropological Institute.