On the Origins of Ayahuasca. The Problem. The ayahuasca drink is made from the stem of the ayahuasca vine, Banisteriopsis caapi. Sometimes, but rarely, the drink is made from the ayahuasca vine alone almost invariably other plants are added. These additional ingredients are most often the leaves of any of three compaeros, companion plantsthe shrub chacruna, Psychotria viridis the closely related shrub sameruca, Psychotria carthaginensis and a vine variously called ocoyag, chalipanga, chagraponga, and huambisa, Diplopterys cabrerana. It is in fact the companion plant that contains the potent hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine. But DMT, when taken orally, is inactivated by peripheral monoamine oxidase A, an enzyme found in the lining of the stomach, whose function is precisely to oxidize molecules containing an NH2 amine group, such as DMT. There are thus two ways to ingest DMT or plants containing DMT. The first is by parenteral ingestionusing a route other than the digestive tract, such as smoking, injection, or inhalationwhich bypasses the MAO in the stomach lining. For example, a number of indigenous peoples around the Orinoco Basin in Venezuela inhale a snuff called epen, made from the resinous fluid in the inner bark of several trees in the genus Virola that contain large amounts of DMT Schultes 1. Seit, 1. 96. 7 Schultes Swain, 1. Similarly, the Guahibo Indians of the Orinoco Basin use a snuff called yopoalso called cohoba, vilca, and huilcamade from the DMT rich beans of the plant Anadenanthera peregrina De Budowski, Marini Bettlo, Delle Monache, Ferrari, 1. Mckenna Towers, 1. Ott, 1. 99. 6, p. But it is also possible to mix the DMT with an MAO inhibitor that prevents the breakdown of DMT in the digestive tract. And that is just what the ayahuasca vine containsthe beta carbolines harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine, which are potent inhibitors of MAO A. Origins Unknown Games' title='Origins Unknown Games' />The television series, Game of Thrones, based on George R. R. Martins book series A Song of Ice and Fire, has been praised for its gritty realism and epic storyline. Combining the ingredients of the ayahuasca drink allows the DMT to produce its hallucinogenic effect when ingested orallya unique solution that apparently developed only in the Upper Amazon. The gastrointestinal effects of the beta carboline MAO inhibitors additionally make the ayahuasca drink a powerful emetic and purgative. These facts raise two highly controverted and interconnected puzzles. How in the world did indigenous peoples in the Upper Amazon come up with the idea of combining DMT with an MAO inhibitorAnd when and where did they first do it I have the answer to these questions. We do not know. Popular Estimates. Game Project 64 1.6 on this page. Writers on ayahuasca have often proposed that the use of the drink is very ancient the date of about 5. BP recurs frequently. Anthropologists Ana Mara Llamazares and Carlos Martnez Sarasola 2. Archaeological finds in Ecuador show that the indigenous Amazons have been using it for about 5. Anthropologist Jeremy Narby 1. Western Amazonia, who hold the keys to a way of knowing that they have practiced without interruption for at least five thousand years. Anthropologist Peter Furst 1. BC or even before. The claim that the ayahuasca drink has been used for 5. A quick search of ayahuasca tourist and related websites reveals virtually identical statements of this claim The use of Ayahuasca has been recorded over 5. Amazon and surrounding areas, Ayahuasca has been known to people for over 5. This plant medicine has been used for over 5. Origins Unknown Game' title='Origins Unknown Game' />Homo sapiens. The latest chapter of human evolution begins with the emergence of Homo sapiens. The anatomy of Homo sapiens is unique among hominin species and appears. Details around the Xbox Scorpioenhanced Assassins Creed Origins state the release date and the setting of ancient Egypt. Amazonian basin, Ayahuasca has been used for over 5. These examples could be multiplied. And this claim is, in fact, remarkable. Just for perspective, the date of 3. BC would make the origins of the ayahuasca drink as old as the founding of the first Egyptian dynasty, five centuries older than the reign of the Sumerian king Gilgamesh, and almost ten centuries older than the earliest South American devices yet discovered for the ingestion of DMT containing plantstwo pipes found in association with Anadenanthera seeds in northwest Argentina, which have been radiocarbon dated to 2. BC, and which had residues that tested positive for DMT Torres, 1. And while it is true that the parenteral ingestion of DMT containing plants is of considerable antiquity in South America, there is no corresponding archeological or documentary evidence prior to the eighteenth century for the combination of a DMT containing plant with the ayahuasca vine for oral ingestion. But first Why such extraordinary claims for which support is so thin I think there are two reasons. The first is that, in an attempt to legitimate ayahuasca use, its proponents invoke the culturally resonant trope of a millennia old indigenous wisdom. The second is the odd affectation of European colonialism that indigenous people are without historythat, unlike Europeans, they are unchanging in their isolation and innocence. It then follows that the practices of present day indigenous peoples must reproduce the practices of thousands of years ago. Both reasons, I believe, malign the creativity, adaptability, and ingenuity of indigenous cultures. The Use of DMT Containing Snuffs. Archeological evidenceranging from the discovery of distinctive snuffing devices to the identification of plant residues in snuffing kitspoints to a long history of indigenous South American peoples parenterally ingesting DMT containing plants by both snuffing and smoking for an excellent survey, see Torres, 1. Wassn, 1. 96. 7. As we noted above, such inhaled DMT is unaffected by the MAO A in the gastric tract, and thus acts as a hallucinogen without the addition of the ayahuasca vineand thus too without the gastrointestinal effects of the ayahuasca beta carbolines. The Heart of Chavn. The earliest known snuffing devices in South America come from central coastal Peruwhale bone snuff trays and bird bone tubes, dated to approximately 1. BC Torres, 1. 99. The use of snuffed DMT containing plants later becamealong with the use of the San Pedro cactusa central feature of the Chavn culture, which occupied the northern Andean highlands of Peru, about halfway between the tropical forests and coastal plains, from approximately 9. BC. Elaborately carved mortars, presumably used to grind Anadenanthera beans, have been uncovered Burger, 1. I am not aware of any chemical analysis of residues on these snuffing devices. Particularly striking is artwork at Chavn de Huantar that shows figures with wide open eyes and streams of mucus running from their nostrils, presumably as a result of snuffing some of these heads appear to be half human and half feline or half bird ill. Torres, 1. 99. 5, p. Cordy Collins, 1. Precious Heirlooms. Of similar antiquity are three ceramic snuffing bowls found on the island of Carriacou, near Grenada in the Antilles. These Caribbean islands were colonized from South America about 4. AD. In a study headed by Scott Fitzpatrick of North Carolina State University Fitzpatrick, Kaye, Feathers, Pavia, Marsaglia, 2. Braun, 2. 00. 8, petrographic analysis of the mineral content of the bowls indicated that they were not made using local materials, and thus were probably not manufactured on Carriacou, but rather imported from elsewhere. Moreover, a type of radioactive isotope analysis called luminescence dating placed the three snuffing bowls roughly between 4. BCthat is, somewhere between five and eight centuries before they were carried to the islands by migrants from South America.