Speaker Bio
Nidia A. Olvera Hernández is a Mexican historian and anthropologist. She has a Ph.D. in modern and contemporary history at the Mora Institute in Mexico City. Nidia earned a bachelor’s degree in ethnohistory from the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) and a masters in social anthropology from the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS), in Mexico City. Her main areas of interest are the old and modern history of psychoactive substances and drug policy. She has worked like a Project Coordinator at the United Nations on drug treatment programs, has experience working on social research consultancies, with ONGs and like professor at the Autonomous University of Mexico City and ENAH. She is co-editor of the book Plantas Sagradas en México: tradición, religión y ritualidad [Sacred Plants in Mexico: Tradition, Religion and Ritual, COLSAN/Chacruna Institute 2023] and author of several peer-reviewed articles. Currently she is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Project “Poison, Medicine or Magic Potion? Shifting Perspectives on Drugs in Latin America (1820-2020)” at Radboud University, Netherlands.
ICPR 2024 Abstract
Historical representations around peyote during the early XX century in Mexico
During XIX and XX Century the peyote cactus and its recent discovered alkaloid: mescaline, were already objects of scientific research in Mexico and abroad. Prominent pharmacologists, doctors, botanists, anthropologists and artists focused on the properties and diversity of uses of peyote from various parts of the world. This presentation aims to describe the different representations around peyote in Mexico during XIX and the beginning of the XX century. Based on local-historical sources, such as pharmacopeias, botanical, ethnographical, legal, medical and pharmacological research the representations of peyote in Mexico will be addressed.
The Mexican scientists took up part of the knowledge of indigenous and popular medicine to incorporate it into the pharmacopeia, but only what seemed rational to them, employing Eurocentric parameters and with the idea of pursuing a model of civilization and progress. But other practices continued to be considered superstitions or related to backwardness, superstition or non-scientific. Even so, these contributions to psychedelic science need to be studied further. This pioneering scientific research in the study of peyote has been little considered in research from the global north and can contribute to current discussions about peyote and mescaline.