Getting High in Siberia

C.H.A.M.P. and BOSLab are excited to cohost an evening at the intersection of mycology, anthropology, and storytelling with Lawrence Millman Ph.D., mycologist, author and artic explorer.

The program centers on the ritual use of the wapak (Amanita muscaria), a hallucinogenic mushroom with deep cultural significance among Indigenous peoples of Siberia. Millman will introduce and contextualize Pegtymel (2000, 32 min), a visually striking documentary filmed and produced by Andrei Golovnev that follows the summer life of a reindeer-breeding Chukchi group.

Described by anthropologist Asen Balikci as “a visual poem,” Pegtymel blends everyday camp life with myth, vision, and history. The film depicts the daily life of Chukchi reindeer herders along the Pegtymel River on the coast of the Chukchi Sea in northeastern Russia, where seasonal rituals intersect with fly agaric–induced visions. These stories, told by elders such as old man Natalko, are echoed in ancient petroglyphs painted on the Pegtymel cliffs more than a thousand years ago. Through a mosaic of ethnographic detail and symbolic imagery, the documentary traces a vivid dialogue between ancient and contemporary traditions, humans and nature, offering a rare, intimate view of Chukchi cultural traditions that continue to thrive today.

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