Peyote and Indigenous Spirituality in Times of Conflict
The topic of this essay deals with the cultural conflicts of religion and race, specifically the idea surrounding Central American shamanism and the use of the peyote cactus as in conflict with the Catholic Church and U.S. Government. The thesis of this essay is that the efforts to eliminate the practice of the consumption of peyote and the rituals involved in it were originally rooted in the process of forced Christianization of the Indigenous peoples of Central America, followed by governmental attempts aimed at controlling the use of narcotics.