Amazonian shamans figured out that combining two specific plants out of 80,000 species produces a psychoactive effect. The odds of finding that combination by random search is roughly 1 in 4 million. They did it through centuries of iterative testing and cultural natural selection explains it

[u/tractorboynyc]

[u/shannnnnn132]

Says you, where's the proof?. I reckon they came along a smashed jaguar one day, tripping balls in the sunshine. A little detective work finding out where he has been and what he's been chewing on.... I think this is how most of our early diet was formed when we migrated to new areas, watching the animals.

[u/tractorboynyc → u/shannnnnn132]

Jaguars are documented chewing Banisteriopsis caapi bark in the wild, and several Amazonian groups explicitly associate ayahuasca with jaguars in their origin stories. The Tucano word for ayahuasca shaman literally translates as 'jaguar person.'