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The messy coloniality of gender

The Messy Coloniality of Gender and Development in Indigenous Wixárika Communities

Paulina Ultreras Villagrana, Jennie Gamlin & María Teresa Fernández Aceves
| January 2023
Understanding the coloniality of gendered lives, family dynamics, social arrangements, and political structures in Indigenous Wixárika communities in Jalisco State, Mexico begins with confronting and interrogating a history written largely by and for men in positions of power. The archives are limited in terms of what can be gleaned about gender equality and what existed before the proliferation of European patriarchy. Joan Scott (1988) argued that the incorporation of gender as a category of analysis should elucidate the integral role that women have played in the historical process, rather  than forming the basis of a specific chapter about women.
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The messy coloniality of gender

The Messy Coloniality of Gender and Development in Indigenous Wixárika Communities

Paulina Ultreras Villagrana, Jennie Gamlin & María Teresa Fernández Aceves
| January 2023
Understanding the coloniality of gendered lives, family dynamics, social arrangements, and political structures in Indigenous Wixárika communities in Jalisco State, Mexico begins with confronting and interrogating a history written largely by and for men in positions of power. The archives are limited in terms of what can be gleaned about gender equality and what existed before the proliferation of European patriarchy. Joan Scott (1988) argued that the incorporation of gender as a category of analysis should elucidate the integral role that women have played in the historical process, rather  than forming the basis of a specific chapter about women.
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Sociocultural drivers of mycological knowledge

Sociocultural Drivers of Mycological Knowledge: Insights from Wixarika and Mestizo Groups in Western Mexico

Mara Ximena Haro-Luna, José Blancas Vázquez, Felipe Ruan-Soto, Laura Guzmán-Dávalos
| January 2022

Traditional mycological knowledge (TMK) is complex, not distributed equally among the entire population, and constantly adapting to current social situations. There are sociocultural factors that could influence the fact that some people retain a greater wealth of knowledge, for instance, cultural affiliation, migration, occupation, level of schooling, and person’s age.

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Sociocultural drivers of mycological knowledge

Sociocultural Drivers of Mycological Knowledge: Insights from Wixarika and Mestizo Groups in Western Mexico

Mara Ximena Haro-Luna, José Blancas Vázquez, Felipe Ruan-Soto, Laura Guzmán-Dávalos
| January 2022

Traditional mycological knowledge (TMK) is complex, not distributed equally among the entire population, and constantly adapting to current social situations. There are sociocultural factors that could influence the fact that some people retain a greater wealth of knowledge, for instance, cultural affiliation, migration, occupation, level of schooling, and person’s age.

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Photograph ©Tracy Barnett

Inside a Massive, Illicit Peyote Ceremony During Mexico's COVID Lockdown

Nathaniel Janowitz
| November 2021
On December 18, Mexico City and neighboring Mexico State entered a weeks-long coronavirus lockdown for the first time since the spring. The next evening, I hid in a sleeping bag surrounded by people vomiting in a small park near the famed Teotihuacán pyramids outside the capital, as dozens consumed the psychedelic peyote cactus at a clandestine ceremony.
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Photograph ©Tracy Barnett

Inside a Massive, Illicit Peyote Ceremony During Mexico's COVID Lockdown

Nathaniel Janowitz
| November 2021
On December 18, Mexico City and neighboring Mexico State entered a weeks-long coronavirus lockdown for the first time since the spring. The next evening, I hid in a sleeping bag surrounded by people vomiting in a small park near the famed Teotihuacán pyramids outside the capital, as dozens consumed the psychedelic peyote cactus at a clandestine ceremony.
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The Peyote Files (Episode 1)

Bia Labate and Nicholas Spiers
| February 2021

This three-part web series joins Dr. Bia Labate on an eye-opening road trip through West Texas to meet Dr. Martin Terry, one of the world’s leading experts on Lophophora williamsii (peyote). Spanish and English subtitles available. In episode one, Peyote Territory, Bia Labate and Martin Terry trek through peyote’s natural habitat in what is today Texas and discuss its unusual morphology, psychoactive nature, history of human interest, and Martin’s irrepressible zeal for all things cacti.

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Logo ©Hablemos de Hikuri 2021

Let's Talk About Hikuri

Lizbeth Bonilla & Pedro Nájera
| January 2021
“Let’s Talk About Hikuri” (‘Hablemos de Hikuri’) is a project that was designed to create spaces for dialogue about hikuri (Lophophora williamsii), or peyote, in order to provide debates and reflections on the use and consumption of this cactus and consider proposals for its protection and use.
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Closing of Sacred Plants in the Americas Conference. Photo Courtesy Chacruna Archives, 2018.

Colonial Shadows in the Psychedelic Renaissance

Diana Negrín da Silva
| June 2020
Article detailing the impacts of the "Psychedelic Rennaissance" on peyote conservation, peyote politics and the appropriation of Wixarika culture by global consumers.
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Peyote in flower. Photo by Keeper Trout.

Beautiful Flowers: Women and Peyote in Indigenous Traditions

Stacy Schaefer
| March 2019
The focus of this article is to elucidate the unique roles women have in peyote religious practices of the Wixárika Indigenous people of Mexico and the Native American Church (NAC) in North America and Canada. Special consideration is given to the meanings associated with these female practicioners/participants in spiritual terms and physical experiences. In Wixárika thought, flowers symbolize both women and peyote (Lophophora williamsii, a small spineless cactus which contains mescaline). Flowers exude beauty, are indicators of fertility, and, through their reproductive anatomy, give new life via seeds. Women, likewise, have the wondrous ability to bring new life into the world. Akin to Wixárika notions of femaleness, women in NAC traditions personify the feminine essence in NAC peyote ceremonies. Schaefer emphasizes Wixárika peyote traditions because of her extensive fieldwork among women in that culture. Her intention is to bring awareness about entheogens in women’s lives.
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