[4] The importance of this stela lies mainly in the fact that it is the clearest iconographic finding regarding the ancestral and ritual use of the Trichocereus macrogonus cactus in the Andes.

[1][5] The presence of this entheogenic cactus in the Chavín lithic art located in one of the main structures of the ceremonial center has generated several interpretations about the function of the archaeological site.

The stela of the cactus bearer remains at its original location, that is, in the northwest quadrant inside the circular plaza at the archaeological site of Chavín de Huántar.

[7] The cactus bearer's headstone was found in 1972 along with five other tombstones and it is estimated that in total there must have been 28 stelae of similar dimensions in the north and south quadrants of the west hemicycle of the plaza.

[7] The headstones found in the northwest quadrant show anthropomorphic beings walking as if in a procession, from right to left towards the east staircase, most of them carrying some object in their hands.

[13][14][15] The latest research in 2019 by archaeologist and anthropologist Richard Burger of Yale University —based accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) analysis of bones obtained at the site— places the beginning of the occupation of Chavín de Huántar in 950 BC.

[31][32] Lumbreras' description of the headstone is as follows:[33] "The personage does not have a human face, although it could have a mask, where the most outstanding element are thick fangs that exceed the lips of a mouth whose corner is quite large.

The fangs are curved backwards and pointed, the other teeth are in block, like those of humans, except for those at the end of the mouth, where they bend the lips and are triangular and exempt.

[1][37][38] In sites such as Tembladera and Cupisnique in the Lambayeque region, more than 32 ceramic representations of the San Pedro cactus have been found associated with spotted felines, snakes and birds of prey.

[41][42] Archaeologist Rosa Fung Pineda found remains of rolled bark that she assumes from the San Pedro cactus at the archaeological site of Las Aldas on the central coast in the Ancash region, occupied in the period 1200 to 900 BC.

[43] In 2016 a group of archaeologists found this time a very well preserved cactus stem of the genus Echinopsis buried at Huaca El Paraíso in the Lima region dated to 2000 BC.

[44] Today, the cactus is the central element in the ritual practices of northern curanderismo, an expression of traditional medicine that takes place in the northwestern part of Peru, in the regions of Cajamarca, La Libertad, Lambayeque, Piura and Tumbes, and in southern Ecuador, in the province of Loja.

[49][50] It is commonly agreed that the different structures (buildings, plazas, stairways) of the archaeological site at Chavín de Huántar had mainly ceremonial functions and were associated with a religious cult.

"[55] Additionally, the center of the circular plaza aligns with a structure located on a hill to the east across the Mosna River exactly with the sunrise on the summer solstice each December, suggesting that there was a reason related to astronomical observation when this sector of the archaeological monument was designed.

[57] The representation of entheogenic plants in the cultural material found in the archaeological site of Chavín de Huántar is solid with respect to the use of the San Pedro cactus.

[60] Archaeologist John W. Rick argued that "in the multiple media created or used —landscape, architecture, decoration, light, sound, drugs— I find evidence of finely tuned manipulation by site planners, executors, and orchestrators.

[64][65][66][67] Burger also proposed that the seeds of Anadenanthera colubrina, not belonging to the ecosystems around Chavín, was one of the visionary plants that were part of this exchange, being brought to the archaeological site by pilgrims and traders from the lowland jungle.

These hallucinogenic agents caused the transformative effect sought by priests and other religious officials in their quest for communication with the unseen powers that affected the natural world.According to this perspective, the attributes of animals such as the jaguar (Panthera onca) or the harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) in the sculptures of the Chavín culture are related to the alter egos of South American shamans.

[69] In this sense, the presence of ceramics, metal plates, textiles and stelae such as that of the cactus bearer with attributes of felines, eagles and snakes is part of the religious message of shamanic transformation embodied in the architecture of the temple.

[72] Thus, according to Feldman Gracia, the cactus manages —by its psychotropic action— to amplify the perception and mental faculties of the person who ingests it:[73] The eye of the feline, with an eccentric pupil, replaces that of the "bearer of St. Peter"; this metonymic substitution refers to the sensitization of sight and the opening of the capacity to "see".