Visions of a Huichol Shaman

By Peter T. Furst

Book Overview

The brilliant visionary yarn paintings of the shaman-artist Jose Benitez Sanchez emerge transformed into two-dimensional form from fleeting, sublime visionary experiences triggered by the complex chemistry of the divine peyote cactus. Benitez's visions are of the Huichol universe in Mexico's rugged Sierra Madre Occidental, as that world came into being in the First Times of creation and transformation and in the ongoing magic of a natural environment that is alive and without firm boundaries between the here and now and the ancestral past. Modern yarn paintings-more than 30 in the University of Pennsylvania Museum's collection are illustrated here-have their roots in the sacred art of communication with numberless male and female ancestors and native deities, related in the two remarkable Huichol origin myths also presented here to shed some light on Native American culture and provide some understanding of the religious experience that informs it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1931707979
• ISBN13: 9781931707978
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum Publication
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.9" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

Art and Peyote Anthropology

Shamanistic art the world over is punctate (which I think is related to the awareness of the fabric of retinal cell color sensation); thus, the embroidered linen art of the Huichol natives of western Mexico is not suprising, if not unusual. This book is a fascinating account of the mythology, peyote lore, way of life, and art and craft of these Indians. It focuses on the shaman-artist José Benítez Sánchez. Peter T. Furst, the anthropologist and author, provides over 50 colored photographs and full explanations. We learn much about the peyote cactus as sacred sacrament and source of visionary art. Examining the complex, dense, symbolic, and colorful art may suggest similar patterns seen on Tibetan thankas (particularly mandalas), Australian Aboriginal art, and also Fillmore and Avalon Ballroom posters of the LSD-influenced 1960s. The book may be short, merely 106 pages, but it is eye-opening and leaves the reader with much to ponder.