The ethnobotany of Mesoamerica is extremely rich. The region is the original home of many useful plants. Amongst the numerous species, maize (Zea mays), avocado (Persea americana), henequen (Agave fourcroydes), maguey (Agave cantala), and chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens) immediately come to mind. All of these are inherited from aboriginal peoples who domesticated them long before the arrival of Europeans.
Perhaps the ethnobotanical aspect most typical of the region was the medicinal and ceremonial use of psychoactive or hallucinogenic plants. The Indian populations of Mesoamerica discovered and still employ in their magic and medicine many species with psychophysical properties. Even more significant is the evidence that from ancient times these plants have been considered sacred. That explained why the few plants with these unworldly effects amongst the half‐million species in the world have such weird effects when ingested; they must be endowed with spiritual power, according to...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
De la Cruz, Martinus. The Badianus Manuscript; an Aztec Herbal of 1552. Ed. and Trans. Emily Walcott Emmart. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1940.
Frei, Barbara. Medical Ethnobotany of the Zapotecs of the Isthmus‐Sierra (Oaxaca, Mexico): Documentation and Assessment of Indigenous Uses. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 62.2 (1998): 149–65.
Heinrich, Michael. Medicinal Plants in Mexico: Healers’ Consensus and Cultural Importance. Social Science and Medicine 47.11 (1998): 1859–71.
Hernández, Francisco. Nova Plantarum Animalium et Mineralium Mexicanorum Historia. Rome: Deversini, 1651.
Leonti, Marco, Otto Sticher, and Michael Heinrich. Antiquity of Medicinal Plant Usage in Two Macro‐Mayan Ethnic Groups (México). Journal of Ethnopharmacology 88.2 (2003): 119–24.
Ruiz de Alarcón, Hernando. Tratado de las supersticiones y costumbres gentílicas … entre dos Indios … desta Nueva España (Treatise on the Heathen Superstitions that Today Live Among the Indians Native to this New Spain, 1629). Trans. and Ed. J. Richard Andrews and Ross Hassig. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984.
Sahagun, Bernardino de. Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España (General History of the Things of New Spain). Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research, 1953–1983.
Wasson, R. Gordon. The Hallucinogenic Mushrooms of Mexico and Psilocybin. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Botanical Museum, Harvard University, 1963.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Schultes, R.E. (2008). Ethnobotany in Mesoamerica. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9567
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9567
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4559-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4425-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law