Let's Take A Walk Analyzing An Ethical Dilemma

Lets Take A Walk Analyzing An Ethical Dil

For this report entitled Let’s Take a Walk: Analyzing an Ethical Dilemma between Cultures, I chose to pick a controversial topic that is set closer to home than most - actually right here in the United States. I will be analyzing the use of the psychoactive plant called peyote, and how it is viewed as a medicinal, ritualistic, and recreational tool, as seen from the perspectives of two radically different culturally rooted societies, namely from the Native American Church and the United States Government.

Peyote, a naturally growing plant found throughout certain parts of Mexico and Texas, was adopted early on in ancient Native American cultures for its medicinal, therapeutic, and “spiritually uplifting” properties. It is usually dried and eaten, or mixed in with tea and drunk (and even sometimes applied topically), soon afterwards visual hallucinations and vomiting may occur which are looked at as a sign of supernatural sickness or “evil” leaving the body (Schultes, 1938). Some might logically call this Mexican cactus the prototype of the New World hallucinogens, for it was one of the first to be discovered by Europeans and was without a doubt the most spectacular vision-inducing plant encountered by the Spanish conquerors.

Although, it has been documented as being used by native tribes during the pre-Columbian era for over 400 years, new findings of ancient ritualistic drawings depicting its use have said to date the sacramental use of peyote back now to almost 3000 years (Schultes & Hoffman, 1992). A Native American sitting next to a large pile of peyote buttons. In the late 1880’s, a “movement” of Native Americans was formed called the Native American Church, which is now a large and extremely well known Native American religious organization that deals with issues such as religious rights, freedoms, exchanges, and negotiations between their indigenous people and the United States Federal Government.

The beliefs of this group stem from a much older form of Peyotism, an actual religious belief system based around the “spiritual” plant and how they believe it to be an actual physical manifestation of one of their principle deities. Peyotist beliefs vary from tribe to tribe, which aids into the notion that the culture surrounding the dilemma is high-context, relatively complicated, or hard to follow. But there is still at least one tribe that shows an unrelenting devotion towards their traditional customs and beliefs from which we can draw many examples from. They are called the Huichol (or Wixàritari) people and were geographically isolated up until 1722, almost 200 years after the conquest of Mexico.

This reason alone has lent them a culture rich in ancient tribal traditions and their people seem to hold onto their beliefs tightly, as Franciscan missionaries attempted to convert the tribe to Christianity for over 100 years before giving up ("Peyote people -," ). The Huichol is a relatively small (around 20,000 members) and culturally rich society that shares a strong sense of collectivism in their day-to-day behavior and express their cultural identity through colorful and shamanistic artistic representations (from which they are now more well known for). Of course, dictated by their beliefs, they use peyote for many different things including medicine (mental, physical, and spiritual) and religious rituals.

From an ethical standpoint, the Huichol people see no problem with using peyote as their principles pertaining to this decision most likely rely on what they see as their “constitutional duty” as a servant of their Sun God, from which the plant descended from. While it may be safe to assume that the native Huichol people lack a certain amount of ethical relativism and contextualism from being cut off from the rest of the modern world, they are no more close minded or “primitive” as modern religious people living in the United States who practice a combination of different ethical principles, but mostly rely on the more intellectually based categorical imperative. And while most other Native American tribes simply just use peyote, the Huichol have developed a whole yearly rite of passage (or “vision-quest”) of sorts where several of the tribe’s younger men and women (led by a shaman) are sent on a spiritual journey through the Sierra Madre mountain range to find, worship, and experience the spiritual powers of the sacred plant.

This “Peyote Hunt” as they call it, is a fascinating ritual dealing in cultural and ethnic solidarity, social drama, and carefully designed symbology and behaviors. During the pilgrimage, participants symbolically return to their origins and play the role of their own ancestors. The hunt, or quest, for peyote is equated to a deer hunt and the cactus is hunted with a bow and arrow. The ritual sequence includes the blindfolding of the novice peyote pilgrims and their subsequent passage through two different symbolic gateways which contain different mental and spiritual states that they must get through (usually by either laughing or weeping). Afterwards, a great celebration is held where participants eat and drink peyote, sing, and dance for days until finally bringing basketfuls of the sacred cactus back to their home village ("To find our," ).

So as we can see, even though the use of peyote is wide amongst many of the Native American tribes, some (such as the Huichol) revere the hallucinogenic plant as a gift from (and even part and parcel of) the Creator, from this belief system they have been enjoying the physical and spiritual benefits of the plant for at least hundreds, if not thousands of years. Now we will attempt to switch gears to how the United States Government, or even so, how an average American might view the use of peyote for medicinal or ritualistic purposes.

When the continent of North America was first invaded by Europeans, the societies that were built were unquestionably constructed to be Puritanical, ethically universalistic, and low- context. Through this, multiculturalism was thought to be encouraged, yet because of these values, and the Western conception of race, the ugly truth is that the very universalism that was meant to unite cultures wound up segregating them, and advocates of the “melting pot” theory must now deal with attempting to explain the dilemma of how universalism can bond people together if it is repeatedly overcome by a racism that denies moral agency to oppressed groups (Hooker, pgs. ). This seems to be the case for the unfortunate Native Americans who were beyond oppressed, almost to the point of extinction, most notably because the prevailing European conquerors lacked any kind of cultural or ethical relativism which in turn caused them to view the indigenous people as subordinate “savages”.

Due to these reasons, amongst many others, when peyote was first discovered as a native drug used in rituals, many seventeenth-century Jesuits argued that it was to be forbidden and its users were to be punished since it was connected with “heathen rituals and superstitions”, and was used to contact evil spirits through “diabolical fantasies”. In Mexico, Christian missionaries banned the use of peyote in religious practices, the persecution resulting in Spanish conquerors condemning the plant for its “satanic” trickery (Priya, 2010). At that time and for decades to follow, there was evidently a clash of cultural values as some perceived the drug to be an extremely harmful substance in the vein of demonic sorcery whereas others literally worshipped the roots it sprang from.

A depiction of a Jesuit Missionary preaching to Native Americans. Unfortunately, when conceptions like these (although waning throughout the years) are mixed in with a modern American culture that is rule-based, low- context, universalizes rationality, and relatively religious (yet individualistic), the view of these people is sometimes unfavorable. As is the United States legal system pertaining to peyote, which was illegalized for decades before the Native American Church brought a case to the Supreme Court in an attempt to legalize the possession and consumption of peyote for religious rituals in the name of religious freedom. Still trying to convey the melting-pot (or salad-bowl as many experts now call it) image of multiculturalism, and now even cultural relativism (as the American society is becoming more modernized), the court ruled in the favor of the Native Americans stating that certified shamans and leaders may possess, consume, and distribute peyote to members of the Church for the sole purpose of religious rituals and nothing more.

Just recently, in 2010, the case was brought back and modified to include all members of the church instead of just its leaders (Priya, 2010). So now that the government has given the right to Native Americans to use peyote legally, how is the plant, or drug, actually viewed in modern American culture? Because most of our cultural heritage is still engrained with the European ideologies of centuries ago, it is still generally shunned upon, as are most illegal drugs in the U.S. As mentioned, America is an extremely low-context, monochronic, rule-based and ethically universalistic culture, and to this day the society as a whole is relatively more religious than any other nation (Hooker, pg. 344).

Most citizens get their information or “modern mythology” from media and entertainment sources such as television and the internet, which has arguably been instilling a concept for decades that all illegal drugs are bad and subjugate the youth of our nation to moral degradation, or that users of psychoactive drugs, natural or manmade, will lead to other such heinous and criminal acts such as murder, rape, or suicide. On an ethical level, it seems most Americans are still coming to terms with their universalistic, categorically imperative, and utilitarian principles, for most still think that the drug is bad either because their local priest or a news anchor tells them it is, or that it will somehow contribute to lowering the advancement of society (or mankind) as a whole if it were to be accepted (the same way pharmaceuticals drugs are accepted, but that is a topic for another report!).

When I first started researching for this paper I assumed I would lean in the favor of the Native Americans, and after doing the research that I did I found both sides to have an equally favorable (or at least “admirable”) ethical standpoint on the matter, but I still lean towards the more culturally and ethically relative argument for the consumption of peyote by religious Native Americans. What we have here are two radically different cultures simply trying to preserve a tradition that has been revered as “right” for many years within their respective cultures, of which both can be said to practice some form of universalism in order to flourish or pass down customs.

Using my own natural method of ethical decision making, I always rely on the principle of consequentialism first, where I found there to be little good or bad consequences to taking the drug in moderation (reports are too inconsistent). Then I shifted to a more utilitarian view where I tried to acknowledge how being for or against the dilemma may influence the greater good of the people involved as a whole; I thought to myself, there is a much larger chance of the Native American people deriving “happiness” from peyote then there would be people who abuse it outside of religious practices. Personally, I have tried peyote when I was younger and I didn’t like how it clashed with my monochronic personality where I feel the need to always be “in control” (which is undoubtedly a product of the American culture I was raised in).

From that thought stemming from the principle of utilitarianism, I started to be able to view peyote in an even more positive light. Then after learning more about where both cultures came from and their values and beliefs, I was then quickly able to move my principles into ethical relativism and contextualism where I could then view ritualistic peyote usage with an open mind, finding it not only acceptable, but detrimental to the survival of the rich and ancient culture of Native Americans. Personally, I find the effects of hallucinogens unsavory.

References

• Hooker, J. (2003). Working across cultures. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Peyote people - the huichol indians. (n.d.). Retrieved June 24, 2012 from Priya. (2010, September 21). [Web log message]. Retrieved June 24, 2012 from
• Schultes, R. E. (1938, October). The appeal of peyote (lophophora williamsii) as a medicine. American Anthropologist, 40(4). Retrieved June 24, 2012 from
• Schultes, R. E., & Hoffman, A. (1992). The tracks of the little deer. Retrieved June 24, from
• To find our life: The peyote hunt of the huichols of mexico. (n.d.). Retrieved June 24, 2012 from peyote-hunt-of-the-huichols-of-mexico/
• Waters, A. (2003, August 5). Native americans use peyote in ancient prayer ceremonies. Retrieved June 24, 2012 from
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