{"id":5685,"date":"2026-09-13T18:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T18:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/?p=5685"},"modified":"2026-09-13T18:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T18:57:07","slug":"mind-altering-drugs-played-key-role-in-rise-of-andean-civilization-science-aaas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/13\/mind-altering-drugs-played-key-role-in-rise-of-andean-civilization-science-aaas\/","title":{"rendered":"Mind-altering drugs played key role in rise of Andean civilization | Science | AAAS"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

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Drug-based rituals, it is now becoming clear, played a central role in the emergence of Andean civilization. Rick believes Chav\u00edn\u2019s ritual leaders invited elites from other regions to take part in elaborate ceremonies centered on ingesting powerful substances amid a dramatic sound and light show. In so doing, \u201cthey harnessed the process of mental alteration to establish powerful levels of authority.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Chav\u00edn\u2019s success spawned imitators throughout the region. In subsequent centuries, the Tiahuanaco and Wari peoples built on these traditions to cement political, social, and religious power as their territories expanded to encompass vast swaths of western South America. Widespread ritual drug use fell into decline only when the Inca rose after 1200 C.E.; Spanish conquerors suppressed remaining practices after their 1532 invasion. Although psychoactives remained in use for medicinal and small-scale religious purposes\u2014many can still be found for sale in open-air markets\u2014their powerful and pervasive influence on Andean society was relegated to the shadows.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Mind-altering drugs played key role in rise of Andean civilization | Science | AAAS<\/a><\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drug-based rituals, it is now becoming clear, played a central role in the emergence of Andean civilization. Rick believes Chav\u00edn\u2019s ritual leaders invited elites from other regions to take part in elaborate ceremonies centered on ingesting powerful substances amid a dramatic sound and light show. In so doing, \u201cthey harnessed the process of mental alteration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-quote"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfIY-1tH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5685"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5688,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5685\/revisions\/5688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}