Resumen

BENITEZ CORONA, Víctor Alfonso. El uso de San Pedro en el norte del Perú. Un acercamiento etnohistóricoThe Use of San Pedro in Northern Peru. An Ethnohistorical Approach. Textos Antropológicos [online]. 2017, vol.18, n.1, pp. 25-36. ISSN 1025-3181.

On the north coast of Peru, it has existed since time immemorial, recorded on the use, consumption and abuse of medicinal plants, which have allowed the Peruvian inhabitants to enter into communication with nonhuman beings who inhabit, organize and reign the spaces ofnature that surround them. In this sense, the objective of this work is to show how the use ofthe "San Pedro" cactus is used by the self-appointed ritual specialists, healers, masters, compactors, maleros, herbalists, shamans and spiritualists to cure Peruvian diseases, through rituals strongly supported by the popular religiosity of that country, without falling into concepts misused as "drugs" or spaces of"drug addiction" imposed by the West since the twentieth century. On the other hand, we trace and localize the testimonies thatspeak about the great appreciation and the use ofthe Echinapsis cactus better known as "Achuma" or "San Pedro" in antiquity, through the archaeological vestiges, as well as the testimonies ofthe conquering chroniclers and ofthe colonial archives.

Palabras llave : Medicinal plants; San Pedro; ethnohistory.