Society leaders in a pre-Inca culture in the Peruvian Andes may have had an effective way to impress ordinary members of society: offer them beer with mild hallucinogenic properties
Since 2015, Biwer and his team have been excavating a Wari site called Quilcapampa. He calls it “a waystation along a road” and says it was only occupied for a generation, between about AD 800 and 850.: a kind of fruit known as molle, or sometimes Peruvian pepper. The molle fruits were used to makeA few steps away, in a garbage pit, the team found seeds from vilca trees . Vilca seeds contain hallucinogenic substances and have been widely used in Andean cultures.
As the Wari state expanded throughout the Andes, its leaders needed ways to impress local people and create bonds with them. They often did so by holding feasts, says Biwer. Providing a hallucinogenic experience would have been an added selling point – especially as vilca doesn’t grow in the Quilcapampa area and must have been imported.
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