The Pilgrimage to Guadalupe: Sacred Renewal in Mexico City
Along the Calzada de Guadalupe in Mexico City, I walked shoulder to shoulder with a growing swarm of pilgrims. They moved briskly and flocked in passage, with printed images of
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Theme: Anthropology and Archaeology
A Residual Note on Weeping
One of the last things I remember doing on the Harvard campus before quarantine was to hurry down a narrow and winding staircase to the underground levels of the Fine Arts Library. I had recently learned about a Black Cuban artist named Belkis Ayón Manso…
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Shamanic Tourism
Today it is hard to find someone who has not heard of the infamous hallucinogenic plant mixture called ayahuasca commonly prepared from the stems of Banisteriopsis caapi and the leaves of Psychotria viridis or chacruna. The brew, well known for its purging and visionary…
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A Tale of the Three Canudos
English + Español
When we arrived it was still daytime. It had taken us twelve hours to get there, almost twice as much as expected. As I got off the bus, I felt a heat wave slap me on the face. The air was humid,
A Food for the Goddesses
Maya women were the artisans who invented a panoply of ancient beverages and sauces containing cacao. This association between cacao and women extended to an association with certain Maya goddesses. While originally introduced from South American, the…
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