2006. évi 1. szám - Jura - Pécsi Tudományegyetem

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Kitti Maros: Research on peyotism from a legal anthropological aspect
understanding of Native American approaches to
mental health and child rearing, the role of ritual in
the evolution of human societies, and the federally
recognized role of Peyote Ceremonies in contemporary
healthcare services on Indian reservations.
Calab reses oppinion is, that the fact ignoring of this
consensually validated knowledge, is curious at best,
but more likely an inexcusable abuse of power.
As Lawson and Morris (1991) point out, there is
an „unavoidable hypocrisy” in the Smith case that
derives from the fact that both the State of Oregon
and the federal government continue to profit from
the sale of alcohol and are now attacking a major
source of strength that Indians have found in their
own efforts to combat alcoholism. Alfred Smith was
employed by a substance abuse treatment program
and was a member of the Native American Church
and there is no contradiction between these two roles.
If his employers were truly interested in providing
culturally relevant services for Native American
clients, they would have found out that the Native
American Church’s approach is one of the most successful
in this area, recognized by the Indian Health
Service and a host of scholars.
This paper has argued that, the Smith case did not
simply involve freedom of religion but also freedom
of culture (e.g. raising one’s children using traditional
methods) and freedom of therapy (implicating a medical
autonomy right). Freedom of therapeutic modality
is a new concept but one that follows from the view
that human societies have developed unique ways of
understanding and adapting to their environments
and sustaining mental health. These adaptations have
included psychopharmacological traditions that cannot
be reduced to „drug use”.
The Native American Church is considered a
mental health system with a ritual pharmacological
intervention, an associated aftercare plan, a support
network involving a community of non-abusers,
and a philosophy of life. In either case, outlawing
this tradition is thus unethical from a clinical and
human rights point of view because it amounts to
the disruption of a functioning therapy. If we remove
the Native American’s right to use Peyote, we will
destabilize a fragile mental health equilibrium for
hundreds of thousands of Native American people.
The objective of this part of my paper was to
maintain, with arguing in favor of Calabrese’s
hypotesis,that the therapeutic nature of this ritual
peyote use can be revealed. My main concern was
that the potential therapeutic efficacy of ceremonial
use manifests through its symbolism in a feedback
process.In my interpretation the ritual peyote use
must be viewed through the lenses of the homo
religioso. In this context, ritual peyote use is considered
in terms of exclusive mental health adaptations
including symbols to support socially valued pattern
of ceremonial experience, self-awareness and
emotional control. The meaning of the ceremony
is embedded in its symbolism: the potential therapeutic
significance is not solely contingent upon its
psychoactive action or sociological features, but it
also manifests in the symbolism. The life-course of
the individual is symbolized in the ritual, and furthermore,
it is embedded in a symbolic context that
highlights the natural transformative processes of
birth, the changing of the moon, and the dawning of
a new day. That is to say, the symbolism of the ritual
and the benevolent therapeutic efficacy of it are in
a complementary distribution; they function within
the framework of a feedback process. Therefore, the
symbolism in peyote rite acts as the very vehicle of
the ritual procreation of self-awareness, which, in
turn, is a tool of the potential therapeutic efficacy of
ceremony. Moreover, as I have proved, peyote bears
dual significance in this concept and it is regarded
as omniscient and omnipresent. This omniscience
and omnipresence manifests and is perceived by
the members universally; this characteristic feature
helps the adherents of the Native American Church
to combat excessive drinking.
IV. Conclusion
In the abstract of my essay I wrote about my intention
to point out the significance of the investigations
of legal anthropologists: how important the resarch
on the problems of the ethnic and the religious minorities
can be from the legal aspect. The case of Mr.
Smith, which caused upheavel in the society and devided
the legal community, reflects on the difficulty,
that the rigid implementation of the law should be
avoided, thus the adjustment of the rules to everyday
life is indispensable. The achievements of the legal
anthropological research methods are necessary in
the legal practice: to enlighten the social aspects of
various defects of legal practice. In the future, the
courts will likely be called to decide on many cases
dealing with the rights of minority subcultures, and
it might be better if the courts took into concideration
the anthropological knowledge, so they would not
accused of abuse of power.
Reference List
Albaugh, Bernard J. “Peyote in the Treatment of
Alcoholism Among American Indians,” .American Journal of
Psychiatry 131:1247-1250.
Anderson, Edward, F. “Ethnobothany of Peyote”.
Available:
http://www.erowid.org/plants/peyote/peyote_
JURA 2006/1.