scientists, esoteric scholars, writers and artists. their art and knowledge of mexican drugs between 1930 and 1945

This article examines the early research works of diverse social scientists on drugs in Mexico in the first half of the 20th Century. This knowledge of ancient rituals of contemporary Mexican indigenous communities was generated through distinctive methodologies that anthropologists, archeologists and ethno-botanic specialists made public to the Western World during the early twenties and thirties. Driven by the attraction of these discoveries many esoteric amateurs, but also many writers and artists experimented with these substances and produced an extensive repertoire of interesting references. The texts, the poems and the images that these experiences delivered had an important impact on the debate consisting of what to make upon these substances in the social and legal spheres. Before the prohibition guideline became worldwide the works of these social scientists, writers and artists contributed to the initial knowledge of drugs in Mexico.