HUICHOL

Huichol: translation

TheMara’akate(sing.mara’akame) of the Huichol (Wixárika, pl.Wixáritari), in the central Mexican Sierra Madre Occidental, make an annual pilgrimage of hundreds of miles into the Wirikùta Desert, the ancestral homeland, in order to harvest thepeyotecactus. The shamans “hunt” the peyote in the form of a deer, firing prayer arrows at the cactus so that it may be safely harvested. The peyote is crucial torituallife, allowing shamans to “see with our hearts,” and this dynamic maintains harmony between human andother-than-human persons. Peyotevisionsare recorded in vibrantly colored yarn paintings, which entered theartmarket in the 1970s and can fetch high prices.The creation myth about the first shaman describes how jealous male shamansdismemberedTakutsi Nakawe in order to steal her power. Recalling this myth aids understanding of thegenderedreality of Huichol shamanic work: today both men andwomenmay become shamans, but men take public roles while women are more secretive for fear ofsorcery.Dreamsare crucial: for Huichol living in the sierra (rather than close to towns and cities), for instance, the governor and tribal authorities are chosen through the dreams of shamans. Shamans also preside over rituals marking the annual cycle of rainy and dry seasons. Shamans may be marked out from birth, chosen due to a prolongedillness, or their proclivity for smoking the sacredtobaccoin childhood can be a sign of future shamanhood, while those who choose to become shamans are perceived to have the most difficult path. Over a five-year apprenticeship, the chasteinitiateobserves dreams and interprets these with the assistance of aneldershaman, often a family member.

Huichol ethnography, by which the Huichol themselves were exposed to a wider audience, was pioneered byBarbara MyerhoffandPeter Furst, who worked with the shamanRamón Medina Silva. Jay Fikes draws attention to problematic areas of the “Delgado-FurstMyerhoff collaboration,” including uncanny resemblances between the exploits ofCarlosCastaneda’s (fictional)Don Juanand their own informants. Fikes also examines the negative impact that popularization by “Castaneda partisans” of Huichol shamanism has had on the Indians. Their work, along with that of Castaneda, brought psychedelic-experience seekers from North America in the 1960s, who disrupted local lifeways. Following in the wake of Furst, Myerhoff, and Castaneda, such contemporary shamans asBrant Secundaand Prem Das are now offering teachings in Huichol shamanism across the world. One positive effect is financial remuneration to the Huichol via the profits of Secunda’sDance of the Deer Center forShamanic Studies. Secunda and Prem Das have nonetheless rewritten native practices for a global andNew Agemarket: Secunda conductsvision questsand expensive pilgrimages (to Alaska, parts of Europe, and other “exotic” locations), while Prem Das, a disciple of Hari Das Baba, has blended yoga with the Huichol traditions he learned from Huichol shaman Don José.