Introducing Xka Pastora , One of the World’s Newest “Drugs”
April 8, 2026 Paja Faudree
The chapter examines the psychedelic plant Salvia divinorum (xka pastora), used for centuries in healing rituals by Indigenous people of Mexico's Sierra Mazateca, where it is endemic. It argues that perspectives of Indigenous people are largely absent from the "psychedelic renaissance." Through archival research, oral histories, and ethnographic interviews with researchers and Indigenous ritual specialists, the research shows that stories of "scientific discovery" told by outsiders constitute "discursive violence"—talk that produces harm by enabling lucrative extraction and commercialization that disenfranchises the Sierra's highly marginalized people. This case exemplifies how uncritical acceptance of scientific advancement discourses legitimizes extractive, colonial, profit-driven practices in the pharmaceutical industry and biomedical approaches.