the reindeer is said to have an inordinate predeliction 
(Wasson 1972:204) and which some scholars regard as 
the Paleolithic or Mesolithic prototype for the Meso- 
american mushroom cults. 
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the esteem, 
not to say veneration, with which some American In- 
dians regarded the deer represents a survival from an 
ancient, archaic, shamanistic substratum—a substratum 
that forms the underlying basis of American Indian 
ideology, including that of Mesoamerican civilization, 
and the ultimate roots of which he in the religion of 
Eurasian Paleolithic and Mesolithic hunting and gather- 
ing culture. ‘The curious association of deer as celestial 
mount on the shaman’s ecstatic Journeys and the sacred 
hallucinogens that are employed as aids in such mystical 
quests in parts of northern Asia as well as in America 
might well be a part of this very ancient belief system. 
In this connection, a new series of radiocarbon dates 
from rock shelter sites in Trans-Pecos Texas and north- 
ern Mexico is of special significance. These dates, for 
which IL am indebted to J. M. Adovisio of the University 
of Pittsburgh‘, confirm a time depth of over ten thousand 
years for the use of the potent hallucinogenic red seeds 
of the Sophora secundifiora shrub by Desert Culture 
hunters and food collectors as well as historic tribes in 
the same area. More than that, one important and well 
studied Texas site, known as Bonfire Shelter, yielded 
Sophora secundiflora from the lowest occupational stra- 
tum—Bone Bed II, witha C" age of 8440 to 8120 B.C., 
in direct association with Folsom and Plainview pro- 
jectile points and the bones of extinct bison. The same 
'A4 short paper on the topic by J. M. Adovisio and G. F. Fry was 
presented at the 71st Annual Meeting of the American Anthropol- 
ogical Association, Toronto, Canada, November 1972. A fuller treat- 
ment by the authors is in preparation. 
[24] 
