As a psychonaut who is interested in the sociological and anthropological aspects of altered states, I really like encountering uses of mind altering substances in traditional societies

Especially because uses such as this are often associated with ancient episodes of cultural evolution - of the sort that were not overshadowed by Judeo-Christian morality (that dominated the last 3000 years of shaping belief systems).

Therefore, from time to time I will bring examples of less known uses of mind-altering substances - some will be new psychoactive substances while some will be very old ones.

We will begin our journey through the ancient paths of mind altering substances with an encounter with one of the oldest human societies on the globe - the San people (the Bushmen) of the Kalahari Desert. This is one of the last populations in the world of hunter-gatherers (and today only a handful of them maintain aspects of this lifestyle). The San people are an ancient ethnic group that lives in one of the harshest areas in the world, in the Kalahari Desert (in Namibia, Botswana and South Africa), a very ancient culture that is a kind of time capsule of people who, in some ways, still behave as their ancestors did 50,000 years ago.

Prima facie, we wouldn't expect to find mind-altering traditions in such a society. On the one hand, life requires a lot of focus and concentration because the environment is harsh and demanding - and in such an environment, you can pay dearly for getting high. This also makes their use of a succulent (aka 'cactiform') called Hoodia gordonii very unusual.

When I say unusual, I also mean unusual according to current understandings of 'mind-altering'. In fact, most people would likely not classify Hoodia as a mind-altering agent, and yet, upon further reflection, that is what it does. Hoodia contains an active called P57 (glycoside) that has been discovered to be a type of natural appetite suppressant. In other words, it doesn't produce any high, just a feeling of satiety (it may also inhibit fatigue) but yes, this is definitely an effect that can be defined as psychoactive. And why do the Bushmen of the Kalahari use it? Well, as part of their practice, they would go on hunting expeditions that lasted for hours and sometimes even days in a row. ‘Persistence hunting’ (as it is called) is exhaustingly laborious, those who practice it have to move lightly and without breaks - sucking on the Hoodia's flesh allows them to keep up the chase until they exhaust their quarry. This, in my opinion, is a great example of adopting a mind-altering effect that provides a real advantage in a completely existential situation. Even if there is no direct lesson from the case of the Bushmen and Hoodia, we can learn from it what I have encountered dozens of times in the nearly three decades that I have been involved in psychonautics - mind-altering can sometimes produce value and benefit in surprising ways that are very difficult to predict.

https://www.amazon.ca/Old-Way-Story-First.../dp/031242728X