Note 83 — THE ETHNOLOGY OF PEYOTISM

In the old shamanistic curing, the shaman was the performer and the others merely onlookers, but in peyotism the inevitable physiological effects of the drug made all present potential receivers of power, and shamanistic display and rivalry was correspondingly increased. This had not wholly disappeared even in early Plains peyote-using groups: the Tonkawa, Lipan, and Kiowa had shamanistic displays of power in peyote meetings, and we have recorded considerable witchcraft anxiety in early Kiowa, Comanche, Caddo, and Tonkawa meetings.