Papers by Giorgio Samorini
Antrocom Journal of Anthropology, 2024
Studies on the iboga cults In this second contribution towards the study of the traditional uses ... more Studies on the iboga cults In this second contribution towards the study of the traditional uses of the hallucinogenic plant iboga in equatorial Africa, some aspects are exposed regarding the formation of false clichés of missionary and colonial origin which have influenced and indoctrinated the same natives, to the point of convincing them of the reality of these Western models. These concern the missionary idea of a monotheism of the natives; the belief that various populations, in particular the Fang, were devoted to cannibal practices; and, as regards the religious cult of Bwiti, where iboga is used as a visionary source of divine revelation, the original practice of human sacrifice. Finally, the Masonic interpretations of Bwiti proposed by both missionaries and some scholars of this cult are considered.
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Antrocom Journal of Anthropology, 2024
The hallucinogenic plant Tabernanthe iboga is used as a source of visions by various ethnic group... more The hallucinogenic plant Tabernanthe iboga is used as a source of visions by various ethnic groups of western equatorial Africa in the context of a complex system of religious, therapeutic and divinatory practices that can collectively be defined as 'iboga cults'. The most renowned are the religious cults known as Bwiti. The author presents a series of studies on the iboga cults, based on field investigations in Gabon undertaken in the period 1991-2022. In this first article, the first written documents attesting to the traditional use of iboga are presented and discussed. At the current state of research, the oldest reference to the existence of Bwiti is dated to 1861, while the oldest reference to iboga is dated to 1862. 1862 is also the first date of the arrival of this plant in Europe. Inconsistencies in the translation of ancient texts from the original English to the French are highlighted, which have generally escaped French-speaking scholars and which also concern the first quotations of Bwiti.
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Bulletin of Regional Natural History, 2023
After a look at the history of scientific studies of Cannabis in Europe and Italy, in its two for... more After a look at the history of scientific studies of Cannabis in Europe and Italy, in its two forms of fiber hemp (C. sativa) and psychoactive hemp (C. indica), this article traces the history of the medical, botanical and agronomic studies undertaken in Naples starting from the mid-19th century. Two main historical periods stand out. A first phase, mainly in the 70s and 80s of the 19th Century, involved medical studies with Indian hemp which involved prominent figures of the Neapolitan culture, including Sebastiano De Luca, Eugenio Fazio, Paolo Panceri, Mariano Semmola. Raffaele Valieri's clinical research undertaken at the lncurabili Hospital stands out for its originality; his studies on the therapeutic properties of sativa hemp can be considered the most extensive and detailed not only in Italy but in Europe. A second phase, dated to the 1930s, saw the first Italian cultivations of Indian hemp by Biagio Longo at the Experimental Station for Officinal Plants of the Botanical Garden of Naples. In 1931 Longo gave rise to the "Calcutta strain", which was kept active throughout the 20th century with annual cultivations and became the primary reference sample in scientific research carried out in Italy on Indian hemp.
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Antrocom Journal of Anthropology, 2023
In the 1990s, the Bulgarian chemist Svetlana Balabanova undertook a series of chemical analyses a... more In the 1990s, the Bulgarian chemist Svetlana Balabanova undertook a series of chemical analyses aimed at searching for drugs in almost a thousand human remains from the archaeological sites of four continents. Most of these analyses resulted in findings that were ‘impossible’ from the point of view of the accepted history of drugs, such as the presence of cocaine in Egyptian mummies, derivatives of Cannabis in Peruvian mummies, and nicotine in Eurasian mummies and skeletons; results that contradicted the established knowledge regarding the post-Columbian diffusion of cocaine, hemp and tobacco between the Old and New Worlds. What caused a sensation and brought Balabanova to global prominence were her theses to justify these results, which conjured up transatlantic journeys by the ancient Egyptians to reach South America, with a commercial exchange of coca and hemp, and the presence of native species of tobacco in the Old World. This article presents a review of the Balabanova affair based on a comprehensive consultation of all the publications of this scholar concerning archaeological and ethnobotanical research. Careful observation of the numerous contradictions and inconsistencies present in these studies lead to new deductions, which reveal the strong possibility of falsification of the results of various chemical analyses, and the likelihood that other chemical analyses were never even performed. The publication of the results of these ‘ghost’ researches can be explained by analysing Balabanova’s character, as evidenced by reading her writings on ethnobotanical revisionism which are generally not taken into consideration, and which show how much Balabanova can—and should be— considered a ‘proto-conspiracy theorist’, whose only interest was to ‘alter our cultural history’, at whatever cost.
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Revista Cultura y Droga, 2023
Objetivo: recopilar y analizar el conjunto de datos etnográficos sobre el uso tradicional entre l... more Objetivo: recopilar y analizar el conjunto de datos etnográficos sobre el uso tradicional entre las poblaciones americanas del hongo embriagante Amanita muscaria. Metodología: durante la adquisición de los datos se realiza una cuidadosa evaluación, realizando críticas y correcciones donde se considera que los datos estaban presentados de manera inadecuada desde el punto de vista metodológico. Otro tipo de datos que se tienen en cuenta son los nombres populares que recibe este hongo y sus etimologías. También se analizan las causas que han provocado un proceso cultural de “mortalización” del A. muscaria, de modo que entre muchos grupos étnicos, tanto americanos como del Viejo Mundo, este hongo ahora se considera mortalmente venenoso. Resultados. El uso tradicional de A. muscaria como fuente embriagante se ha conservado hoy entre algunos grupos étnicos de América del Norte (Ahnishinaubeg, Ajumawi, Wixaritari), y los fines de uso son principalmente religiosos y chamánico-terapéuticos. Las etimologías de los nombres populares revelan una gama de asociaciones semánticas similares a las encontradas en el Viejo Mundo, y dan testimonio de un conocimiento de las propiedades embriagantes de este hongo que se conservó hasta épocas muy recientes en algunos grupos nativos de Mesoamérica. La presencia de este hongo en América del Sur parece deberse a la reciente actividad de reforestación antrópica, y esto explicaría la falta de documentos arqueológicos, históricos y etnográficos para esta región. Conclusión: los datos aquí recogidos hacen sospechar una mayor difusión del conocimiento de las propiedades embriagantes del A. muscaria entre los nativos norteamericanos y mesoamericanos en épocas pasadas; conocimientos olvidados o transmitidos en secreto aún hoy, tras la centenaria represión colonial contra los cultos nativos, incluido el uso de fuentes embriagantes.
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Drug Science, Policy and Law, 2023
In recent years, the historical record of psychedelic therapy in Europe and the Americas has unde... more In recent years, the historical record of psychedelic therapy in Europe and the Americas has undergone considerable revision. In this article, we contribute to this re-interpretation by sharing documentation relating to psychedelic therapy carried out in Italy during the period 1927–1966. Our library research has uncovered one hundred publications, documenting at least 60 clinical studies in which psychedelics were administered. There is evidence of some primacy regarding this psychedelic research: Italy has the world record, for the twentieth century, for having carried out the largest number of clinical studies on patients with psilocybin and with lysergic acid amide (LSA); humans first received the high dose of 500 mcg of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in Italy; and LSD plus LSA, and LSD plus psilocybin, were administered simultaneously for the first time. The most successful Italian clinical studies appear to have been those in which psilocybin was used in the treatment of depressive states, with the observed optimal dose being that of 3 mg administered intravenously every second or third day, alternated with placebo injections. Another therapeutic target that seems to have provided interesting results concerns the use of LSD and psilocybin for what was then called “neurosis.” Italian psychiatrists have also made useful contributions to theoretical aspects concerning psychedelic therapies, for example in the conflicting debate on the “psychotomimetic paradigm” and in the distinction between the “primary” and “secondary” effects of these substances.
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Book chapter, 2022
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Antrocom Journal of Anthropology, 2022
In the traditional world, the effects of intoxicating plants are usually interpreted as doors for... more In the traditional world, the effects of intoxicating plants are usually interpreted as doors for access to, and communication with, the supernatural world. Alongside the more well-known species that have been subjected to in-depth ethnographic and scientific studies, the ethnographic documentation of the last two centuries is sprinkled with references to intoxicating plants about which very little is known, sometimes only the names they are called by local people. Many more plants are not even mentioned within the ethnobotanical treatises. Here, I focus on the tenatsali of the Zuñis, a plant widely mentioned in the oral literature and in the ethnographic descriptions of the ritual practices of this population, long resident in New Mexico. Still unidentified, anthropologists are divided on the question of whether it is a real plant or if it existed only at a mythical level. For the first time the mythological and ethnographic data concerning tenatsali are gathered together and analysed from an ethnobotanical point of view. The author comes to the conclusion that it is probably a real psychoactive plant or, more generally, an intoxicating source, kept secret by Zuñi initiatory groups and medicine-men, who perhaps continue to use it today.
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Antrocom Journal of Anthropology, 2022
The fly-agaric, with its characteristic red hat sprinkled with white spots, is the best known mus... more The fly-agaric, with its characteristic red hat sprinkled with white spots, is the best known mushroom of Eurasian iconography, depicted countless times in children’s fairy tales and Christmas themes. Endowed with intoxicating properties and used for millennia in Siberia as a visionary shamanic source, for several centuries Western culture has also attributed deadly properties to it. The cultural genesis of this “mortalization” process brought to the opposing values of “poisonous / intoxicating” and “negative / positive”; a semantic ambivalence that has also been present in Russian culture since pre-Soviet times. The mukhomor — the Russian name for fly-agaric— was employed in the final years of Soviet power as a symbol of redemption by dissident underground movements, and its significant presence in contemporary Russian intellectual, literary and artistic production is presented on the basis of historical and ethnomycological considerations.
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Revista Cultura y Droga, 2020
Con el fin de identificar en los antiguos escritos italianos las informaciones acerca del uso de ... more Con el fin de identificar en los antiguos escritos italianos las informaciones acerca del uso de fuentes embriagantes empleadas por las poblaciones nativas del Nuevo Mundo, se procede a la búsqueda y atenta lectura de textos antiguos fechados a partir del final del siglo XV. Resultados. Se evalúan los textos de Pietro Martire D’Anghiera, donde aparecen noticias del empleo del polvo alucinógeno para inhalar, llamado cohoba entre los antiguos indios taínos. El idioma de estos textos es el latín (1511) y el italiano a partir de 1534. Esta nueva datación implica una prioridad cronológica europea hasta ahora poco reconocida y que se pretende reevaluar con este estudio. Finalmente, se describen las primeras referencias a la ayahuasca en escritos italianos, a partir de una obra de 1850 de Gaetano Osculati.
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Book chapter, 2020
The author proposes some methodological considerations regarding the archaeo-ethnomycology of psy... more The author proposes some methodological considerations regarding the archaeo-ethnomycology of psychoactive mushrooms, with the aim of delimiting the area of scientific research from what the author has previously defined as "phanta-ethnomycology": a literary vein that has produced and continues to produce pretentious theses based on superficial or preconceived observations. This article provides an updated review of two archaeological sites studied by the author, which are located in the heart of the Sahara Desert and in South India.
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Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 2019
Modern sophisticated archeometric instruments are increasingly capable of detecting the presence ... more Modern sophisticated archeometric instruments are increasingly capable of detecting the presence of psychoactive plant sources in archeological contexts, testifying the antiquity of humanity’s search for altered states of consciousness. The purpose of this article is to provide a general picture of these findings, covering the main psychoactive plant sources of the world, and identifying the most ancient dates so far evidenced by archeology. This review is based on the archeological literature identifying the presence of psychoactive plant sources, relying on original research documents. The research produced two main results: (a) a systematization of the types of archeological evidence that testify the relationship between Homo sapiens and these psychoactive sources, subdivided into direct evidence (i.e., material findings, chemical, and genetic) and indirect evidence (i.e., anthropophysical, iconographic, literary, and paraphernalia); and (b) producing a list of the earliest known dates of the relationship of H. sapiens with the main psychoactive plant sources. There appears to be a general diffusion of the use of plant drugs from at least the Neolithic period (for the Old World) and the pre-Formative period (for the Americas). These dates should not to be understood as the first use of these materials, instead they refer to the oldest dates currently determined by either direct or indirect archeological evidence. Several of these dates are likely to be modified back in time by future excavations and finds.
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Antrocom Journal of Anthropology, 2019
The alan plant and the ancestor cult among the Fangs of Gabon” - During the past centuries, the F... more The alan plant and the ancestor cult among the Fangs of Gabon” - During the past centuries, the Fang, a Bantu-speaking ethnic group of the Western Equatorial Africa, used the hallucinogenic plant alan (Alchornea floribunda) in the Byeri initiatory ceremonies. Byeri was a cult of ancestors that involved the conservation and worship of the ancestors’ skulls. Despite the assertions that this cult has disappeared, it continues to be practised by today’s younger Fang members in a modified, simplified form, as a way of reviving traditional values. This article brings together the few ethnographical data on the Byeri – a cult kept secret – including the data collected by the author during his research in Gabon.
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Antrocom Journal of Anthropology, 2018
Ethnography of daturas in Africa - Daturas belong to the tropane Solanaceous group of plants, tra... more Ethnography of daturas in Africa - Daturas belong to the tropane Solanaceous group of plants, traditionally used in the Old and New World for their intoxicant properties. In Africa two species – Datura stramonium, and D. metel – are used in religious, initiatory, divinatory, magic-therapeutic rites, and also as tools during trials by ordeal, in courts of law, and in criminal proceedings. The present study describes some African traditional cults and rites where daturas are involved, with a particular focus on the Bori possession cult among the Hausas of Niger, the feminine initiatory rite among the Tsongas of Mozambique, the ordeal ceremony among the Ba-Rongas of South Africa, the leba shay Abyssinian juridical institution, and the datura’s ritual complex of Senegalese marabouts.
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Revista Cultura y Droga, 2016
Se identifican las fechas más antiguas que se conozcan de la relación humana con las principales ... more Se identifican las fechas más antiguas que se conozcan de la relación humana con las principales plantas embriagantes del mundo. Los datos han sido extraídos de la literatura arqueológica especializada, excluyendo los dudosos o erróneos. Las fechas más antiguas, en su conjunto, evidencian de manera general la utilización de las drogas vegetales a partir de los períodos pre Formativos (para las Américas) y Neolíticos (para los otros continentes) de las culturas humanas.
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Revista Cultura y Droga, 2018
Se analizan los aspectos históricos del culto brasileño de la Jurema, un culto religioso donde se... more Se analizan los aspectos históricos del culto brasileño de la Jurema, un culto religioso donde se utiliza una fuente visionaria obtenida de algunas especies de Mimosa. Se analizan los documentos escritos en los siglos XVIII y XIX, donde se cita a la Jurema, muchos de los cuales forman parte de los actos de la Inquisición. Resultados. La primera noticia relacionada con la bebida de la Jurema data de 1739, registrada en los Estados brasileños de Pernambuco y Paraíba. La ausencia de documentos arqueológicos ligados a la Jurema, y la fecha tardía de su aparición en los documentos escritos, sugieren una historia reciente de su culto.
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Antrocom Journal of Anthopology, 2017
With the name “mescalbean cult” or “mescalism”, a group of ritual practices of the North American... more With the name “mescalbean cult” or “mescalism”, a group of ritual practices of the North American Planes Natives are named, in which a vegetal psychoactive source was employed. The human relationship with this visionary source originates starting from the most remote antiquity, and lasted until the end of the XIX century of our era. In the present study the historical, ethnographical, archaeological, and mythological aspects of these rites are reviewed, bringing clarifications on the problem of the relationship of mescalism with peyotism, and on some terminological and ethnobotanical confusions which dragged in the studies for several decades. Lastly, some ethological aspects concerning the animal relationship with the mescalbean are analyzed, and which could clarify the origins of the human relationship with this intoxicant source.
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Book chapter, 2017
Una generale rassegna sull'impiego degli afrodisiaci presso diverse popolazioni antiche e moderne... more Una generale rassegna sull'impiego degli afrodisiaci presso diverse popolazioni antiche e moderne di tutto il mondo.
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Cultura y Droga, 2014
Las técnicas modernas arqueométricas están brindando nuevas contribuciones cognitivas acerca de l... more Las técnicas modernas arqueométricas están brindando nuevas contribuciones cognitivas acerca de la relación ancestral del hombre con las plantas embriagantes. En este artículo exponemos datos actualizados sobre los orígenes de la utilización de las fuentes embriagadoras de Sudamérica, incluyendo aclaraciones conceptuales y metodológicas.
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Rivista di Studi Indo-Mediterranei, 2016
Pur essendo due frutti nettamente differenti in natura, la melagrana e la capsula del papavero da... more Pur essendo due frutti nettamente differenti in natura, la melagrana e la capsula del papavero da oppio sono caratterizzati da una notevole similitudine quando riportati nell'iconografia pittorica e plastica; una similitudine che continua a essere un problema per gli archeologi, i classicisti e gli storici dell’arte che si devono cimentare nella loro identificazione. Il presente studio espone lo stato attuale di questa problematica, apportando alcuni chiarimenti di natura etnobotanica che possono risultare utili per i futuri studi umanisti. Viene inoltre evidenziato il ruolo storico della melagrana come fonte di una bevanda alcolica, un dato che è generalmente disconosciuto dagli studiosi; un valore come inebriante che non va inteso in opposizione, né in alternativa alle associazioni simboliche normalmente attribuite a questo frutto, bensì come valore aggiunto, come un tassello mancante che va a integrarsi nel suo complesso sistema polisemico.
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Papers by Giorgio Samorini