Kim MacQuarrie’s Peru & South America Blog

Last Uncontacted South American Indians Flee Forest Destruction in Paraguay

posted on November 23rd, 2008 in Environment, Indigenous Rights, Paraguay, Uncontacted Tribes

 

Ayoreo natives in Paraguay

Four Ayoreo men making contact with the outside world in 2004. The same men have uncontacted relatives who continue to live in their rapdily disappearing forest.

(Note: The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode are thought to be the last group of uncontacted South American Indians living south of the Amazon Basin. Roughly 300 Totobiegosode have not yet been contacted…

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Proof that Ancient South Americans Took Hallucinogens Discovered in Mummies’ Hair

posted on November 8th, 2008 in Andes Mountains, Archaeology, Bolivia, Recent Discoveries, Tiwanaku Culture

 Tiwanaku ceramic vessel in museum in La Paz, Bolivia

Tiwanaku ceramic vessel in museum in La Paz, Bolivia; evidence of South Americans taking hallucinogens dates back at least to the Chavin culture, in north/central Peru, which flourished from 1,000 to 200 B.C.

Andean Mummy Hairs Show Hallucinogen Use

Discovery News

Oct. 29, 2008 — Andean mummy hair has provided the first direct archaeological evidence of the consumption of hallucinogens in pre-Hispanic Andean populations, according to recent gas chromatography and mass spectrometry analysis…

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