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The Use of Psychoactive Plants Among the Hupda-Maku |
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Written by Pedro; translated to English by Joshua Callaghan and Cynthia Simss
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Tuesday, 12 August 1997 |
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Page 4 of 4
When the effects of Carpi start to be felt, the Hupda encourage each other by saying: Its started, we must be strong, we must be men, and eventually they discuss the visions they are having.
In these situations, the Carpi is used not as an end in itself, but as a tool, a necessary aid to the harmony of the song and the dance. Huamp Carpi on the other hand, used by the shaman to heal, is drunk for its capacity to show sickness and its causes. Under the effects of Huamp Carpi the shaman sees illness in the form of a venomous substance foreign to the patient, and also who has sent the illness. The shaman then sucks the back of the left hand of the patient, taking away his/her evil, meaning the cause of the illness, an invisible poison which the shaman then spits away. The illness, however, cant be left there alone where it could contaminate someone else passing by. The Shaman then takes the illness in his hand, as if it were solid, and puts it in a magical invisible bag which is possessed by the shaman.
To drink Carpi is also thought of as a preventative medicine, turning the blood of the drinker bitter, thus making him immune to any external aggression.
During the healing ceremonies, a specific song is sung which lists different flowers from which water comes to extinguish the fire which represents illness.
Those who want to be good hunters also drink this kind of Carpi which will show where to find game and how not to be perceived by them.
Therefore, the Carpi plays an important role in Hupda society being the principal medicine and also the primary conduit for all tribal knowledge which is acquired directly through its use or through the oral transmission of the elders under its effects in specific ceremonies with this goal.
To the Carpi are added various plants such as tobacco, whose leaves are mixed into the drink and its smoke blown above the liquid to avoid any evil influence, as well as other plants depending on the use intended. Among the traditional additive plants, we also find Diplopterys cabrerana and Psychotria viridis.
The Hupda also use the Vismia guienensis, in Hupda Há Routen. It is dried, pulverized, and added to the Carpi for dance during boiling. Nampiá, a species of the genus Spathiphyllum of the Araceae family, serves both for the Carpi for dance and the shaman's Carpi. It is believed that this plant offers particularly bright visions, being even stronger than Carpi. The men rub their bodies with its leaves to be scented as a spell to conquer women. The Hupda regard both plants, Há Routen and Nampiá, as psychoactives, but I am not familiar with any conclusive phytochemical studies on these species.
So we have seen how the use of psychoactive plants is important to the Hupda, reinforcing their social links and their distinctive beliefs; representing a factor of social cohesion, of transmission and reproduction of the tribal wisdom, but being restricted to the male sphere of the society.
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