At the end of the first millennium, the Andean chiefs of a pre-Inca civilization would have created a slightly hallucinogenic drink in order to take precedence over other populations. A team of anthropologists explore the mysteries of the brew, mixing vilca beans and fermented alcohol, reports the New Scientist.
Soar lightly, seduce, then conquer… The members of the Huari civilization, who lived in the Peruvian Andes between 550 and 1000 AD, perhaps mixed hallucinogenic seeds in their beer, tell the New Scientist. This drink would have allowed chefs to bond with “ordinary people” while strengthening their social status, according to the latest findings made by the team of anthropologist Matthew Biwer of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
“A feeling of flight”
Since 2015, explains the British science magazine, “Matthew Biwer and his colleagues excavate a Huari site called Quilcapampa [dans les Andes péruviennes]. He calls it ‘crossing post along a road’ and claims it was only occupied for a generation, between around AD 800 and AD 850.”
At the center of the site, the team recently discovered a pit filled with a million seeds of Schinus molle : a kind of wild pepper tree growing in Peru. Its pink berries were used to make a fermented alcoholic beverage similar to beer known as “chicha” – a name given today in the country to fermented corn drinks.
A few steps away, in a garbage pit, the team found beans from the vilca tree or Anadenanthera colubrina. However, these, widely used in Andean cultures, contain hallucinogenic substances such as dimethyltryptamine or DMT, a potent psychotropic drug. Matthew Biwer comments:
I haven’t tried vilca myself, but ethnographic accounts often describe it as’ causing a feeling of vol’.”
In principle, enzymes in the stomach deactivate their active compounds during digestion. But the mixture with the shisha would prevent their action and would therefore produce “A very mild and controlled hallucinogenic effect”, explains Matthew Biwer.
Coax the populations
For the anthropologist, this effect would have been sought by the Huari chiefs to appease the populations they wanted to conquer. Their civilization flourished in present-day Peru between the middle and the end of the first millennium. It’s the “First example of an expansionist state in the Andes”, preceding the Inca Empire.
“As the Huari state expanded into the Andes, its rulers had to find ways to impress and bond with local people. To do this, they often organized feasts ”, relates the magazine. Offering a hallucinogenic experience would therefore have been a way for chefs to get closer to people by offering them an unknown drink.
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