Introducing Xka Pastora , One of the World’s Newest “Drugs”

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.

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Abstract

Abstract This chapter concerns the psychedelic plant xka pastora, aka Salvia divinorum, which has long been used in healing rituals by Indigenous people from Mexico’s Sierra Mazateca, the one place on Earth where the plant is endemic. Recognizing that perspectives of Indigenous people are largely absent from the “psychedelic renaissance,” this research compares how Indigenous people understand the history and meaning of the plants they care for to the views of scientific researchers, psychedelic entrepreneurs, and recreational users who tout the plants’ promise. The chapter is based on a variety of evidence about xka pastora: archival research, textual analysis, oral histories, ethnographic interviews with scientific researchers and Indigenous ritual specialists, and analysis of material developments—from patent claims to economic assessments. This research shows that stories told about the plant by people from outside the Sierra—especially histories of “scientific discovery,” which are widely disseminated and routinely accepted at face value—represent forms of discursive violence. These are ways of talking that produce harm, enabling ongoing and extremely lucrative forms of extraction and commercialization that disenfranchise and erase the contributions and interests of people from the Sierra. This injustice directly impacts the Sierra’s people, who are highly marginalized even within Mexico. The case discussed in this chapter is but one of many where uncritical acceptance of discourses about scientific advancement produces similar violent erasures that legitimize extractive, colonial, profit-driven practices central to the workings of the pharmaceutical industry and, indeed, to biomedical approaches in general.