|
Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments:
An Entheogen Chrestomathy
Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. and Paula Jo Hruby, Ed.D.
Author Index | Title Index
The Hippie Ghetto: The Natural History of a Subculture.
Partridge, William L. (1973).
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
ISBN: 0-03-091081-1
Description: Paperback
original, xxii + 88 pages.
Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology Series.
Contents: Foreword by
George and Louise Spindler,
preface, acknowledgments, 7 chapters, references, recommended
readings.
Note: Unlike the common
psychological, biological and political approaches, Partridge's
insights based on cultural anthropology offer fresh perspectives.
Excerpt(s): Sociologists
Munoz have noted
that hippies profess an "ideological mission to turn on the
world." ... And in view of the very impressive array of forces
allied against the use of this drug, its popularity can only be
accounted for by a very religious kind of sense of mission. Psychologist
Keniston writes of these "apostles of drug use,"
For them, drug use is a modern-day chemical equivalent
to mystical experience, to satori and to the great inward journey
of self-exploration and self-discovery. (page 60)
When the observer mentioned to one advocate of such
individual voyages of self-discovery that it was hard for him
to conceive of learning anything in the absence of the ability
to communicate with different people, the comment provoked argument.
And in the discussion that followed the observer was accused of
being weak, dependent upon others, afraid of himself and his inner
feelings, and impotent. In other words, by challenging the notion
(not unique to hippies but characteristic also of Western religion)
that it was the individual who was the locus of morality, wisdom,
insight, and values and by suggesting that these things might
be a product of interaction with others in a social situation,
the observer challenged the efficacy of the journey of self-discovery.
Moreover, he questioned one of the ghetto resident's chief ideological
supports for the use of LSD-the notion of individualism, individual
self-discovery, individual morality, individual responsibility,
individual minds, behaviors, and ideals. And there is probably
no greater good in the mind of the ghetto resident than the heroic
head buffeted by the caprices of ignorant straights but true to
his inner, personal values. And we are reminded once again of
the heroic Christian of Western mythology journeying to Mount
Zion. (page 61).
In the present case, hippies have reformulated the
Judeo-Christian tradition of individual salvation, individual
guilt and sin, the journey of spiritual growth, and created an
ideology we have seen to be the "quest for self-knowledge."
...
Most Americans believe in the Judeo-Christian notions
of individual salvation through good works; spiritual growth through
communion and meditation and prayer; and individual guilt and
sin. ... [Hippies] exist and are defined as a group because they
have created a ritual and environment which defines them so. Any
assemblage of people is not a group. A group must conceive itself
as a unit, and it does this by ritual activity in which its reasons
for existence are symbolically held up for all to see. (page 82).
Compilation copyright © 1995 – 2001 CSP
|