Diegueno Indians Ceremonies and Shamanism #60724

The people known as Diegueño, called by themselves Kawakipai or southern people, occupy the extreme southern part of California. The region which they inhabit coincides approximately with the boundaries of San Diego county.

In culture, the Diegueño show a marked similarity to their neighbors, the Luiseño on the north, and the Cahuilla on the northeast.

Most of the rites which the Diegueño have in common with the Luiseño belong to a definite cultus. This cultus is what has been described among the Luiseño as the "Chungichnish worship." Among the Diegueño it is known as awik or Western system. As described elsewhere in the present paper, and in another paper of this series by a different author, this cultus centers around an initiatory rite, which consists in drinking ceremonially a decoction of toloache or jimsonweed, Datura meteloides.
In studying the religious practices of the Diegueño a distinction is therefore always to be kept in mind between the rites which belong on the one hand to the cultus and on the other to the ordinary ceremonies, since the latter exhibit a totally different animus, and have no definite relation either to the cultus or to each other.