A Datura Ritual Complex in the Mississippian Southeast

Abstract

In the American Southwest and northern Mexico, it has long been argued that ceramic vessels with exterior surfaces that are covered with small nodes are Datura seed pod effigies. Datura is a genus of flowering plants containing psychoactive alkaloids that, when consumed, can induce hallucinations. Scholars have argued that these noded vessels were part of a ritual complex originating in Mexico and spreading throughout the Southwest. In his 2012 article, Lankford hypothesized that this ritual complex made its way into the southeastern United States based on the presence of the ceramic type Fortune Noded in the Mississippi River Valley. In this article, we evaluate three hypotheses suggested by Lankford. Our absorbed residue study did not support his first hypothesis that Fortune Noded vessels were directly related to Datura consumption. However, existing archaeological data do support the idea that a ritual complex including noded vessels moved through the Caddoan region to the Central Mississippi Valley. Those data also confirm Lankford’s final hypothesis that Datura was used in Mississippian period contexts in the Central Mississippi Valley. We conclude that Lankford’s hypothesis has merit and suggest that noded vessels and other ritual equipment be considered inalienable objects that moved through a network of ritual practitioners.