Cannabis, the plant that produces hemp as well as hashish, is now known primarily as one of the leading psychoactive plants in world use, following only tobacco and alcohol in popularity. Probably one of the oldest plants known to man, cannabis was cultivated for fiber, food and medicine thousands of years before it became the "superstar" of the drug culture (Schultes 1973).

Public concern about the youth "drug culture," particularly in Western societies, has stimulated unprecedented support for research on various drugs,,including cannabis. Most of the research on cannabis has dealt with botanical, biochemical and pharmacological aspects. Sociological surveys have also been undertaken, particularly in the work of various National Commissions, in an effort to determine the epidemiology of marihuana use. More recently, support has been made available for multidisciplinary studies of cannabis use and users in societies where there is long-term traditional use of the plant in various forms.

The papers in this volume were originally presented at a conference on Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Cannabis, convened in Chicago, August 1973, during the IXth International Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. It brings together much of the contemporary social science data and thought on many world areas where cannabis has been traditionally used as a multipurpose plant, about which there has previously been little or no scientific reporting. The volume also introduces new botanical classifications and presents data on clinical studies of cannabis users.

The Conference was attended by some sixty scientists, in the fields of anthropology, botany, genetics, pharmacology, psychiatry and sociology, involved in various aspects of research on the complexities of cannabis in relation to man and culture.

The major objectives of the Conference were to bring to light existing cross-cultural information on cannabis use in traditional areas and to locate social scientists familiar with cultural factors in cannabis use; to assemble information on ethnobotanical and ethnohistorical questions as well as on contemporary features of cannabis use; to review the work of National Commissions on marihuana and examine some of the legal issues; to provide comparative data on cultural and social class differences in use of and reactions to cannabis; and to compare the traditional uses of cannabis with the Amerindian uses of psychoactive plants such as tobacco and peyote.

While the exact place of origin of cannabis has not yet been determined, it is generally believed to have originated in central Asia and the oldest recorded references to its use are in the ancient literature of China, India and the Near East. Traditional folk use of cannabis undoubtedly has the greatest antiquity as well as the most extensive diffusion in these areas, and a number of the articles included in this volume present vfirious aspects of cannabis use in this part of the world.

Hui-Lin Li, one of the contributors, maintains that the first documented medical uses of cannabis in China, in an herbal text of the second century A.D., chronicles oral traditions passed down from prehistoric times, based on archeological, botanical and linguistic evidence. The antiquity of cannabis as a cultivated species in China, Hui-Lin Li observes, is attested to by its multitudinal uses in ancient times and its important role in the practice of Shamanism. He posits that there was widespread ritual use by the Neolithic peoples of northeast Asia, and that the nomadic tribes carried the plant and its ritual uses to western Asia and to India, where it proliferated. As reported in the article by Khwaja Hasan, medical and sacred use in India is also known to have a long tradition, predating written records.

Sacred use of cannabis in Assyria, Babylon and Palestine has been recorded, and Herodotus described Scythian funeral rites involving purification with vapor from cannabis seeds. This was corroborated by the Soviet archaeologist, S. I. Rudenko. In her article in this volume, Sula Benet traces the derivation of the generic term Cannabis from the Hebrew term kanebosm that appears both in the Hebrew and Aramaic translations of the Old Testament. Hemp was used for sacred and secular purposes, for the ropes of Solomon's temple and the robes of the priests. Benet surmises that both Scythians and Semites diffused ritual use of the plant to southern and eastern Europe on their westward migrations from Asia Minor. According to the Old Testament, cannabis was among the merchandise carried by caravans on the trade routes of the ancient world. The Old Testament, like the medical and sacred writings of other ancient civilizations, is based on venerable oral traditions.

Determination of the origin of cannabis has recently become a matter for ethnobotanical reconsideration as well as for ethnohistorical reconstruction. The classification by Linnaeus, in 1753, of Cannabis sativa as a monotypic species, which has been generally accepted by Western botanists for almost two centuries, is critically examined in two of the articles in this volume. William Stearn, in his analysis of the botanical basis of the Linnaean classification, describes the problems of plant collection at the time and argues that these difficulties limited the possible recognition of other species. Developing this theme, and recognizing the need for investigating wild cannabis in its native habitat, Richard E. Schultes offers a completely revamped approach to cannabis taxonomy. Based on his own field studies and review of the work of Lamarck that has been generally rejected, and that of Soviet botanists, neglected because of linguistic barriers, Schultes proposes a polytypic classification. This article stands as the first major reexamination of the taxonomy of cannabis since Linnaeas and Lamarck and raises serious scientific questions which may We'll affect long established social and legal conventions.

Recent research interest in cannabis is part of an increased Western interest in the constituents and uses of folk medicinal plants, including psychoactive plants. Schultes has pointed out that only about twenty of the approximately sixty known plant species that have been used as "intoxicants" may be considered of major importance. And of these twenty species, "only a very few — the coca, the opium poppy, cannabis and tobacco — are numbered among the world's commercially important plants" (Schultes 1969 : 5). Of these four, cannabis is undoubtedly the most extraordinary with respect to the diverse range of purposes for which it has been used by man over the millennia — as food, for mercantile artifacts, for medication as well as an "intoxicant."

Variously known as charas, dagga, hasish, ganja, kanebosm, kancha, kif, marijuana, mbange, la santa rosa, zamal — among a myriad of terms — cannabis has had several streams of ethnobotanic diffusion, probably going back to the Neolithic. Two major cultural complexes appear to have encompassed use of the plant over time — a traditional folk stream which reveals remarkable continuity and a contemporary, more circumscribed configuration.

The folk stream is multidimensional and multifunctional, involving both sacred and secular use, and is usually based on small-scale cultivation: ancient use for cordage and clothing; and some use until recent times for home manufactures such as fiber skirts; use in the dietary for seasoning, soups, porridges, stews and sweets; extensive use in folk medicine, for man and beast; use as an energizer and invigorant ; ritual use; and general use as a euphoriant and symbol of fellowship. Except for ritual purposes involving members of the priestly class, regular multipurpose use in the folk stream has been generally confined to the lower social classes: peasants, fishermen, rural and urban artisans and manual laborers. The sociocultural components of folk use were first described by the Royal Hemp Commission of 1893, sent to India to examine the alleged pathological effects of ganja uses. Given the antiquity and florescence of cannabis use in India and the thorough description in the Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1969) which provides remarkable ethnographic coverage, it would not be inappropriate to adopt the Hindi term and refer to the folk stream as the "ganja complex."

The second stream of dispersion, or expansion, of cannabis use encompasses two major currents with different functions. The first is based on the use of hemp for commercial manufactures utilizing large-scale cultivation primarily as fiber for mercantile purposes mainly in Russia, Canada and the United States. Commercial production of hemp fiber predates the colonial period and was given further impetus with colonization and the rise of mercantile trade. The second current, going back only about a century to the formation of the Club des Hachichins in Paris, is linked mainly to the search for psychedelic experiences. Diffused in the mid-twentieth century to the United States and Canada and Western-oriented youth in traditional cultures, it generally is an upperand middle-class social phenomenon, limited to the psychedelic function and may be called the "marihuana complex."

The two cultural complexes, then, differ in form, function, and social class composition. It is not possible, at this juncture, to reconstruct exactly the migratory routes of the plant and its uses, but the papers in this volume provide supportive evidence for the "two cultures" of cannabis which have emerged and some of the ethnohistorical background for the diffusion of traditional uses.

Whether through stimulus diffusion or independent experimentation, through the availability of wild species or the cultivation of introduced species, over a wide area of the Old World similar traditional uses and functions of cannabis may be traced. With few exceptions, there has been remarkable continuity in these patterns of use over the centuries, as may be seen in the articles on Asia, China and eastern Europe.

Diffusion on the African continent is examined by Brian du Toit in his article on the ethnohistory of cannabis smoking in southern and eastern Africa. He hypothesizes that cannabis and the pipes used were diffused by Arab traders during the first centuries A.D., and that once it had been introduced it spread to other parts of the continent. While other writers have suggested that cannabis use in Africa, south of the Sahara, is comparatively recent, du Toit's hypothesis is bolstered by Nikolaas van der Merwe's article on an archaeological find in Ethiopia of fourteenth century pipe bowls containing cannabis residue. The introduction of cannabis to Egypt is attributed to mystic devotees from Syria, arriving in the twelfth century, as noted in the article by Ahmad Khalifa.

Given the economic importance of hemp in the period of European expansion, somewhat more information exists on its introduction to the New World, although here, too, there is no precise ethnohistorical documentation and much of this has been reconstructed by anthropological and ethnobotanical research. Cannabis is one of the few psychoactive plants not indigenous to the Western Hemisphere, and was introduced to the New World colonies by the British, Spanish and Portuguese colonizers. Hemp was very important economically during the mercantile period, and the fibers, oil and seeds were of major value for a variety of essential manufactures. Hemp was introduced to the thirteen North Ameridim colonies during the seventeenth century and cultivation was vigorously encouraged.

Hemp, in fact, was an article of keen commercial competition among rival colonizing powers since Russia had the world monopoly and hemp manufactures were vital to the shipping industry and, consequently, to the plantation of the colonies. Spain, possibly following the lead of England, introduced hemp to its colonies for mercantile purposes. Introduction of cannabis to Brazil has been attributed to African slaves; however, W. H. Hutchinson proposes that Portuguese sailors may have been another source. Cannabis was used by the Portuguese Royal Court in both Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro. During the colonial period, slaves were permitted to plant maconha between the rows of sugar cane.

Hemp for commercial manufacture was also introduced to the West Indies at the end of the eighteenth century but never became an important source of fiber. Multipurpose use (other than for fiber) was introduced to Jamaica in the mid-nineteenth century by the identured laborers from India, who may have brought with them a different species, Cannabis indica, and the essential cultural ingredients of the "ganja complex" that eventually spread to the black working class, rural and urban.

From behavioral as well as ethnohistorical considerations, comparison of the cannabis complexes affords an exceptionally interesting point of departure for the social sciences. In ganja complex areas, cannabis has been traditionally used by the folk — farmers, fishermen, artisans and manual workers — with elite usage generally confined to the priestly class (e.g., Brahmins in India, priests in the Near East). Upper-class attitudes toward cannabis users have generally been negative; in India, for example, the derogatory term "ganjeri" was used as an epithet, while in Colombia, as William Partridge points out, the poor are stigmatized as "marihuaneros" (whether or not they use marihuana). Nevertheless, traditional use has been extraordinarily well structured and regulated. Ganja is used to serve multiple functions, economic, energizing and medicinal, as well as recreational and psychoactive — it is sedative and stimulant, symbol of fellowship and network nucleus, sacred and secular. Reactions to ganja are conditioned by cultural expectations, i.e., according to the situational function which it is expected to serve.

The evidence now available concerning traditional use supports data gleaned from the Jamaica project, so far the most extensive multidisciplinary study of the effects of chronic cannabis use in the natural setting. Four papers from that project discuss different aspects of the Jamaican ganja complex. Lambros Comitas describes the social networks of cultivation and distribution and patterns of folk use. Vera Rubin discusses the standardized "vision" that sometimes occurs on initiation to ganja smoking and validates the role of smoker. Michael Beaubrun presents the medical and psychiatric findings and analyzes differences among alcohol and cannabis users and the effects of chronic consumption. Ganja may be a "benevolent alternative" to alcohol. Joseph Schaeffer reports on an intensive study of the acute effects of ganja on energy and productivity in a rural community, with data derived from videotaping, techniques for energy measurement and participant observation. Tentative conclusions indicate that while after smoking workers are less productive in certain tasks such as weeding, their productivity in other tasks such as sawing may not be affected and may be increased in tasks like cane loading. The workers' perception of increased energy and their motivation to work is enhanced by the use of ganja.

The studies from Morocco, Jamaica and Colombia indicate the economic importance of small-scale cannabis cultivation by peasants and farmers as a cash crop — another important aspect of the ganja complex. Cannabis cultivation, distribution and use are central to the development of intricate social networks, given the universal legal sanctions against all of these activities. Cannabis smokers are usually part of male-oriented peer groups, in work parties or recreational settings as reported in the papers on Colombia, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Nepal, Morocco, Jamaica and Pakistan. The lone user is a rarity seldom encountered. The "set and setting" determine both the stituational function of cannabis use and the psychocultural effects produced.

Furthermore, cultural screening devices have been developed to eliminate individuals who, for a variety of reasons, may "not have the head for it." This is a significant structural device in societies where the nonsmoker is the deviant; it both avoids peer group ostracism and protects individuals who may be psychologically vulnerable to use of the plant. There are folk remedies to overcome any negative reactions that may occur.

An important source of research was brought to light, as a result of conference preparations by Madame Lucille Barash of the Le Dain Commission. The extensive botanical and pharmacological studies conducted in Czechoslovakia on the identification of plants with antibiotic properties have demonstrated the considerable antibiotic and analgesic properties of cannabis. After studying "the ancient herbaria, folk and primitive medicine," it was recognized that "these admirable properties of hemp have been utilized since ancient times" until the end of the nineteenth century when it was "forgotten and abandoned — without justification — in modern pharmacology" (Kabelik 1954:2). The medical conditions for which cannabis treatment is recommended by the Pharmaceutic Faculty of the Hygienic Institute of the Palacky University in Olomouc are among those still being treated by cannabis preparations in ganja complex societies.

These traditional uses are in sharp contrast to the contemporary cultural use of cannabis. The "marihuana complex," based primarily on exploitation of the mood-altering potential of the plant, has been the object of great public controversy, particularly in the United States. Apparently introduced to the United States by Mexican laborers about the turn of the century and taken up by black stevedores and jazz musicians, a furor about marihuana use — probably tinged with racist attitudes — was raised in the wake of the moral reform movements of the 1920s. Sensational, unfounded attacks in the following decade on its alleged criminal effects engendered the stereotype of marijuana as a "dangerous drug." Public concern was heightened during the 1960s as the social class character of the cannabis using population changed. Marijuana use spread to middle- and upper-class youth in the United States and was diffused to youth in other countries. The "alienation" and "amotivation" of youth were attributed to marijuana which was also held responsible for "escalation" to other drugs such as heroin and LSD. Scientific controversies sometimes still reflect the values engendered by the anti-marijuana campaigns of the recent past.

Several of the articles are concerned with various aspects of the contemporary middle-class use of marihuana in Colombia, Brazil, Egypt, Réunion, Canada and the United States. William H. McGlothlin examines the social class shift of users in the United States during the 1960s, from lower-class minority groups to youth of higher social classes. He argues that the symbolic role of marihuana in the counter-culture, rather than the pharmacological properties of the plant, was the most important factor in its widespread use. Consequently, he argues, the marihuana "epidemic" can be expected to decline, although a residual group of regular users will remain. Jack Blaine and Louis Bozzetti also indicate that marihuana use may be a "fad" expressing the rejection of social values that would recede in time.

Melvyn Green and Ralph D. Miller report that the "non-medical" use of cannabis in Canada, restricted to middle-class college students in the 1960s, was quickly diffused to older and younger persons of all class levels. In contrast to the reports from the United States, they indicate that cannabis use in Canada has been institutionalized as a de facto phenomenon and that its de jure legitimation for recreational purposes is a matter of time.

Modifications in the application of legal sanctions in Canada and the United States and recommendations for decriminalization reflect the decline of acrimonious, often violent, public attitudes directed at the counterculture or minority groups as much as the "demon pot." Several of the papers from Latin America and other world areas indicate concern with the spread of the "marihuana complex" to new sectors of the population. This diffusion is frequently based on introduction by "nomadic" young North Americans or other channels of culture contact. Opinion in these areas tends to reflect the harsh moral and legal sanctions that accompanied the "marihuana epidemic" of the sixties in the United States, tending to link its use to "anti-social" behavior and to seek the etiology of various pathologies — chromosomal defects, spontaneous abortions, psychoses — in the alleged effects of marihuana smoking.

The ethnobotanical and ethnohistorical reports provide significant research leads that may afford a theoretical reconstruction of the different sociocultural frames of reference of cannabis use and its function. Data on the effects of cannabis use point up the problems of research comparability given different methodologies and points of departure. Research findings from clinical studies of cannabis smokers are presented for Brazil, Colombia and Pakistan. Alvaro de Pinho reports that in a study of 728 patients at the psychiatric hospital in Bahia marihuana was not a significant psychiatric factor. However, acute toxic psychoses occurred in some young people who were involved in youth movements and were known to have used marihuana. There was complete and rapid remission of the acute states. B. R. Elejalde reports that chromosomal studies of regular marihuana users in Colombia do not reveal any abnormalities. Munir Khan et al., in a study of seventy male subjects in Pakistan who had consumed cannabis for at least twenty years, reported no findings of significant abnormalities, tolerance to, or dependence on cannabis and no evidence that it interfered with work abilities.

Possibly as an effect of the Zeitgeist, there is often as much scientific controversy about the reported effects of cannabis as there is public clamor about its alleged effects. One of the major problems in evaluating the alleged or attributed consequences of chronic cannabis use (e.g., "brain damage," psychoses, sterility, addiction to hard drugs) has been lack of specificity in defining research methodologies. This problem is confounded when there is inadequate or no data on the actual THC (the presently accepted major psychoactive element) content of the cannabis used, or on the duration and frequency of use; on the subject population, in terms of social class background and life histories, as well as medical histories, including use of other drugs and general medical status; and on the matching of smoker subjects and controls. As cannabis research becomes more sophisticated, the need for cross-disciplinary research on this complex subject also becomes more apparent. W. E. Carter and W. J. Coggins present a multidisciplinary research design for the study of the effects of chronic use of cannabis in Costa Rica.

Cultural factors in the use of other psychoactive plants are examined in several chapters. Johannes Wilbert discusses magico-religious use of tobacco among South American Indians. Tobacco, considered a sacred plant, is chewed to induce visions and trance in shamanistic rituals. The shift from sacred to secular use of tobacco is comparatively recent. Barbara Myerhoff presents the framework of ritual use of peyote among the Huichol, and Marlene Dobkin de Rios offers an overview of man's ritual and medicinal use of hallucinogens. Cultural belief systems and values contribute to the structuring of the subjective experience of visions.

The shift from sacred to secular use of tobacco points up the interdependence of cultural substitutions. In Colombia, for example, tobacco was used by African slaves and Spaniards to reduce fatigue and was allotted as part of the laborers' rations on haciendas. Tobacco was also used medicinally, for a variety of ailments. William Partridge believes that the medicinal use of cannabis may derive from that of tobacco, and Sula Benet posits that the ready acceptance of tobacco in the Old World was based on familiarity with cannabis.
In both hemispheres, psychoactive plants have been used for a variety of purposes, secular as well as sacred, to serve a wide range of human needs. Different emphases on the use of such mind-altering substances become apparent in cross-cultural perspective as may be seen in the sacred and secular uses of tobacco and peyote, as well as in the two cannabis complexes. The collection of papers in this volume may also provide a new understanding of the cultural conditioning of human responses to psychoactive plants, regardless of their pharmacological content.

REFERENCES

INDIAN HEMP COMMISSION

1969 Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1893-1894. Silver Springs, Maryland: Thomas Jefferson Publishing Company.

SCHULTES, RICHARD EVANS

1969 Plant kingdom and hallucinogens. Bulletin on Narcotics 21 (3):3-16.

1973 Man and marijuana. Natural History 82:59-68, 78, 82.