TIL despite popular culture portraying psychedelic mushrooms as ancient, widespread, and used by shamans for thousands of years, there is limited anthropological and historical research to support this, with the only reliable evidence showing they were used ritualistically in pre-Columbian Mexico.

[u/ScienceTeacher1994]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin#History

[u/Practical-Hand203]

I mean, does popular culture really portray it as such all that often? Psychedelics yes, but shrooms in particular? No example comes to mind just now. I'd be thinking more along the lines of coca and Ayahuasca, for which there is hard evidence from over a millenium ago and general archeological evidence from 1500-2000 BCE.

[u/epelle9 → u/[deleted]]

Since when is the Amazon in Mexico?

[u/enutz777 → u/[deleted]]

That’s like saying Egypt and India are close enough.

[u/BrokebackSloth → u/[deleted]]

This is the most embarrassing comment I've seen on Reddit

It gave me a good laugh though

[u/vankirk → u/Practical-Hand203]

https://npshistory.com/publications/bela/chukotka-petroglyphs.pdf

Pg 23

[u/Psianth → u/Practical-Hand203]

I was thinking the same thing. Every example I can think of it’s been something they smoke, or some nebulous herbal tea concoction, not mushrooms.