The Peyote Effect cover art

The Peyote Effect

From the Inquisition to the War on Drugs

Preview
Subscribe now Free with 30-day trial
Offer ends on 14 April, 2026 at 23:59.
Prime logo
Pay ₹5/month for 2 months and ₹199/month after 2 months, Cancel anytime. Offer ends on 14 April 2026 at 23:59. Take this offer!
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep.
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks.
Download titles to your library and listen offline.
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

The Peyote Effect

Written by: Alexander S. Dawson
Narrated by: Paul Brion
Subscribe now Free with 30-day trial

Pay ₹5/month for 2 months and ₹199/month after 2 months, Cancel anytime. Offer ends on 14 April 2026 at 23:59.

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹836.00

Buy Now for ₹836.00

LIMITED TIME OFFER | Get 2 Months for ₹5/month

About this listen

The hallucinogenic and medicinal effects of peyote have a storied history that begins well before Europeans arrived in the Americas. While some have attempted to explain the cultural and religious significance of this cactus and drug, Alexander S. Dawson offers a completely new way of understanding the place of peyote in history.

In this provocative new audiobook, Dawson argues peyote has marked the boundary between the Indian and the West since the Spanish Inquisition outlawed it in 1620. For nearly four centuries, ecclesiastical, legal, scientific, and scholarly authorities have tried (unsuccessfully) to police that boundary to ensure that while indigenous subjects might consume peyote, others could not.

Moving back and forth across the US-Mexico border, The Peyote Effect explores how battles over who might enjoy a right to consume peyote have unfolded in both countries and how these conflicts have produced the racially exclusionary systems that characterizes modern drug regimes. Through this approach, we see a surprising history of the racial thinking that binds these two countries more closely than we might otherwise imagine.

©2018 The Regents of the University of California (P)2018 Tantor
Addiction & Recovery Americas Mexico Social Sciences United States
No reviews yet