The Datura Cult Among the Chumash
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UC Merced The Journal of California Anthropology Title The Datura Cult Among the Chumash Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/37r1g44r Journal The Journal of California Anthropology, 2(1) Author Applegate, Richard B Publication Date 1975-07-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Datura Cult Among the Chumash RICHARD B. APPLEGATE N their quest for visions and for super ever possible). I am also indebted to Santa I natural power, the Chumash of the Santa Barbara historian Russell Ruiz for lore about Barbara region were one of many tribes Datura which he heard from old people no throughout North and South America that longer living. resorted to the use of hallucinogenic plants. Datura was one of the most widely known of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BACKGROUND these hallucinogens (cf. Schultes 1972; La The Datura cult among the Chumash Barre 1972; Bean and Saubel 1972); Indians of incorporated a number of features which had an area from Chile to the American Southwest a broad distribution in southern California. made ritual use of several species of Datura. Even the word for Datura appeared in much In her dissertation on Datura in aboriginal the same form in a number of unrelated but America, Anna Gayton (1928) suggests that geographically contiguous languages (Gamble its use may have diffused from a single point n.d.). According to Gayton (1928:27-28), of origin, since local adaptations of the. Datura common features of southern California Da cult all show the common themes of divination tura use were "that it was not taken before and contact with the spirits of the dead. At puberty, that it was usually administered to a one extreme Umit of this area, the peoples of group, and that a supernatural helper was southern California used Datura meteloides A. sought." This supernatural helper was the DC—more commonly known as Jimsonweed individual's life-long guardian spirit or dream or toloache (the Spanish rendering of Aztec helper. Beyond these common features, Gay toloatzin). They elaborated the Datura cult ton noted three major differentiations in and integrated it thoroughly into their vision ceremonial usage. quest and their ceremonial hfe. First, on the South Coast among the Until recently, references io Datura in the Gabrielino, Luiseno, and others, youths took literature on the Chumash have been brief and Datura as part of a puberty ritual integrated largely conjectural. Now contemporary work into a much broader ceremonial complex, the ers are synthesizing the unpublished manu Chingichnich cult. The initiates underwent scripts of John P. Harrington's ethnographic ordeals and received esoteric instruction. work among the Chumash between 1912 and Women never took it; men took it only once, 1922. In particular, Thomas Blackburn in groups, primarily to make contact with a (1974) has done a cultural analysis of Chu dream helper. There were no seasonal re mash narrative texts in which Datura figures strictions on its use (Gayton 1928:28). Al prominently (I refer to myths and stories most exactly this same pattern prevailed in Blackburn's dissertation by number when among the Salinans, on the coast north of THE JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA ANTHROPOLOGY the Chumash (Harrington 1942:39; Mason mash-not only about the Datura cult but 1912:162). about any facet of Chumash Hfe--comes from Second, further north among the south the Ventureiio, Barbareiio, and Ineseiio Chu ern Yokuts and Western Mono, a Datura mash; we know much less about other Chu drinking ritual was held every spring. It was mash groups. Fernando Librado of Ventura optional, with no initiatory aspect, and it furnished Harrington with the most detailed did not change a participant's social status. account of Datura use, while Maria Solares of Both men and women could take Datura, Santa Ynez knew the mythological aspects of repeating the experience if they chose (Gay Datura best. The available details of the ton 1928:31). Barbareno and Ineseno usage agree in nearly Third, in the east among the Mohave, all respects with the Venturefio data reported Yuma, and Desert Cahuilla, there was no well- by Fernando Librado. developed Datura ceremony. Datura was taken REASONS FOR TAKING DATURA by individuals, at any season, as often as they chose. These eastern groups relied on dreams The most important reason for taking for supernatural power; they usually took Da Datura was to establish contact with a super tura for other reasons, such as luck in gambling natural guardian: the "^atiswin or dream (Gayton 1928:37; Drucker 1937:34-36). helper. The Chumash believed that the dream The Chumash version of the Datura cult helper came only to a person who had drunk agrees most closely with the Yokuts pattern Datura; this was always the purpose of an discussed second by Gayton. As with the individual's first Datura experience. One Yokuts, both men and women took Datura, might take Datura later to strengthen one's any time after puberty, and it was not bond with the dream helper, or to meet yet incorporated into any initiation rite. Many another helper, or for supernatural power in took Datura only once, but those with a general. A person might also take it for some stronger affinity for the supernatural took it more specific purpose. SimpUcio Pico of several times. Unlike their immediate neigh Ventura said: bors, the Chumash drank Datura individually When a person took toloache and he had rather than in groups, and right in the village visions, he prayed in his visions to the rather than at a special camp. Like the toloache and it would say to him, "What do Yokuts, the Chumash may once have had you want?" The person would answer, "I seasonal restrictions on Datura use, since the want to have power in games," or "1 want to Ventureno Chumash called January "the be a good horseman," or some such request. month of Datura.'' But the Chumash took And he would get good luck from the toloache. Datura as medicine any time of the year, and there is no mention of seasonal restrictions A person might take Datura to communi when it was taken for visions. So the year- cate with the spirits of the dead; those who round use of Datura by the Chumash agrees still missed some loved one, particularly a with the Gabrielino and Salinan patterns. dead child, sometimes took Datura for this It is not at all clear how uniform the reason. The drinker might want to see his or Datura cult was from one Chumash group her future hfe; one young woman saw herself to another. Certainly among the various Yo rich in her vision and later she married a chief. kuts groups minor and even major differ When a person was unhappy, or not doing ences appeared (cf. Gayton 1948; Driver well in life, he might take Datura. Datura 1937:98-99). Most information on the Chu- could show a man his true name, ignorant THE DATURA CULT 9 of which he could never hope to prosper in cause they had not taken Datura (Gayton this world. 1928:36-37). So evidently £>an<ra (in modera The Chumash also took Datura on some tion) was thought to have a stabilizing and thing of an emergency basis at times, to cure socializing effect. serious wounds and illnesses or to counter the effects of ill omens and breaches of tabu. RESTRICTIONS ON THE These reasons for taking Datura were not DATURA DRINKER necessarily mutually exclusive; a Ventureno Along with other southern Cahfomia named Winai is said to have prayed for success tribes, the Chumash beheved that an individ at billiards when he took Datura for a broken ual had to observe a number of tabus if he leg. But the Chumash believed that Datura was to acquire supernatural power through taken on this basis was primarily a cure: it Datura. The spirit of Datura was hostile to was not likely to grant the drinker lasting any impurity or lack of self-control, and it access to supernatural power. was not only fruitless but actually harmful to The Chumash reasons for taking Datura take it without observing these restrictions. were all individual rather than collective. This One had to abstain from sex for some time contrasts strongly with the southern pattern before and after drinking Datura. One also that Gayton recognized. Among the Mountain had to fast or else eat very moderately, taking Cahuilla, for example, the group initiation only thin, unsalted acorn gruel. Salt and sweet with Datura was held either when enough things were occasionally specified as foods boys had reached an age suitable for initia forbidden to the Datura drinker. '"Toloache is tion, or when the rite was necessary as a hostile to blood," the Chumash said; absti collective prayer against epidemics and short nence from meat and grease in any form was ages of food or water (Gayton 1928:29). one of the strictest tabus on the Datura The Chumash did not view Datura drink drinker. The intensity of these restrictions ing as obligatory. But they did feel that it depended on how much power an individual gave the individual access to supernatural wanted from Datura. An adult seeking sha- power and hence engendered strength, cour manistic powers observed them longer than an age, and success in later hfe. In one myth adolescent taking Datura for the first time; (Blackburn 1974:myth 19), a boy being given prehminary observances were minimal when Datura is told, "Now I'm going to give you a Datura was taken as medicine. medicine so that you may be braver and man A menstruating woman could not have lier and more courageous." As for women, the anything to do with Datura; menstruants were Chumash felt that Datura gave them courage— excluded from ritual activity throughout particularly in childbirth—and immunity from aboriginal California.