Sacred Tobacco
ANTH106 Dr Lisa Wynn
Tobacco
• A drug used in v. different contexts in Europe and Na8ve America
• European culture: intent on trade and colonizing new worlds. Europeans took tobacco and made a commercial product out of it.
• Na8ve Americans: domes8cated tobacco and made a sacred drug out of it.
Na8ve American peace pipe Commercial cigareAes
What do all of these plants have in common?
• corn • peanuts • squash • potatoes • tomatoes • chilli peppers • sweet potatoes • green beans • blueberries • cranberries • vanilla • chocolate • tobacco
deadly nightshade
tobacco
Pituri Aboriginal people already extensively used nico8ne-‐containing drugs prior to European discovery
• local species of Nico%ana (probably introduced into Australia by Indonesian and Papua New Guinea traders)
• some used a nico8ne-‐containing plant called Duboisia hopwoodii.
• Drug made from it called “pituri” – high nico8ne content. • alkali ash used to enhance ac8on of the drug • used for shamanis8c purposes to achieve altered states of consciousness
• effects ranging from euphoria to stupor and catalepsy
• Pituri references: • Watson, P 1983 This precious foliage: a study of the Aboriginal psycheac8ve drug pituri. Oceania
Monograph 26. Sydney: Oceania Publica8ons, U Sydney Press. • Watson, R, O. Luanratana, and W. J. Griffin 1983 The ethnopharmacology of pituri. Journal of
Ethnopharmacology 8: 303-‐311 .
South American varie>es of tobacco that became dominant:
• Key varie8es of tobacco came from South America; overlapping distribu8on of rus%ca and tabacum tobacco
• Rus%ca tobacco produced largely for insec8cide and “Turkish cigareAes” (not used for pes8cide anymore – too poisonous)
• Tabacum is milder than Rus8ca. Now the dominant variety. • Indians of South America domes8cated the tobacco and
started growing it in their gardens.
Nico8ne
• Main ac8ve ingredient in tobacco: nico8ne. • Pure nico8ne: a clear oily liquid. A single drop of is said to be
fatal. • Have to smoke about 400 cigareAes all at once together to
get a fatal dose of cigareAes (Nick Modjeska’s calcula8on).
Measuring addic>veness of nico>ne
• Nico8ne is highly addic8ve – possibly more than heroin. • One way of measuring addic8on: looking at how many people in a sample
who give up a drug are s8ll clean ager a year. Heroin addicts more ogen s8ll clean ager a year than tobacco addicts.
• Problems with this way of measuring addic8on? – a lot easier to buy tobacco than heroin – cigareAes are less s8gma8sed than heroin – drug is more widely used (sociability structured around cigareAes)
• Another way of measuring addic8on: the Addic8on Severity Index • Regardless, tobacco definitely a difficult addic8on to kick. Only about 7%
who try to quit s8ll clean ager a year. • As liAle as 2 cigareAes a week can give you an addic8on ager a few weeks. • Withdrawal symptoms: up8ght, fidgety, anxious, irritable.
Two main kinds of tobacco:
Nico%ana tabacum Nico%ana rus%ca • Originated from wild species in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. • Over 50 wild species of Nico%ana
How prepared:
• cured, fermented, and aged before smoking • Na8ve Americans just dried tobacco leaves over the fire
How Na>ve Americans used it • Columbus found the na8ves used it for healing (ogen by blowing tobacco smoke over parts of the body)
• Other techniques used: – Blowing smoke – Tobacco chewing – Some tribes: men take turns blowing tobacco dust up each other’s noses.
– Tobacco juice to drink, rub over the skin, or use as an enema • drinking tobacco juice causes the face to turn pale, the body to
tremble, nausea, vomi8ng, and then a lapse into sleep or semi-‐unconsciousness
• Indian shamans also achieved these results by heavy smoking of large cigars.
• Tradi8onally use of tobacco with inten8on of crea8ng a very heavy dose (overdose) which puts the smoker or drinker into a deep trance/sleep. Nausea, vomi8ng, trembling, pain and discomfort.
Pharmacology
• Nico8ne s8mulates produc8on of neurotransmiAers: – dopamine (neurochemical associated with reward and sa8sfac8on)
– noradrenaline – Serotonin
• Tobacco inhibits the produc8on of enzyme MAOB which breaks down dopamine – thus dopamine level rises
• Complex range of reac8ons for smokers: – calm relaxa8on – s8mula8on and euphoria – High doses: severe s8mulant effect, leading to hyperac8vity, vomi8ng, trembling, and convusions.
– Extremely high doses: narco8c effect – will make you pass out. • Reac8on depends on dose, environmental condi8ons, and
mood and personality of user.
Effect on the heart
• Constricts blood vessels • Increases concentra8on of triglycerides and cholesterol in the blood
• S8mulates components of the blood clonng process • carbon monoxide combines with haemoglobin to form
carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb). Reduces oxygen-‐carrying capacity of blood, makes heart work harder. COHb very stable and takes a long 8me to break down.
Result: huge increase to mortality from heart aAacks amongst smokers (Robson pp.59-‐61).
Possible benefits of smoking • Reduces anxiety and stress (military in WWI: the Allied forces
relied heavily on cigareAes to keep men calm and alert when all night on guard duty or in the trenches).
• Aids in sociability: not because of the drug, but because of the rituals of smoking
• Promotes alertness. • Relieves discomfort and pain • Reduces appe8te. Indians were well aware of this and explained to the Spaniards that they smoked to relieve their hunger.
• According to Robson, it somewhat relieves the symptoms of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and ToureAe’s.
Smoking in the trenches, WWI
Tobacco and shamanism • Tobacco is not a true hallucinogen. Shamans used “tobacco
narcosis” to reach the spirit world. • used as medicine by Na8ve Americans • Smoked throughout the New World for ritual purposes.
• Plains Indians did NOT smoke themselves into unconsciousness; puffed on the peace pipe and passed it around; regarded as a sacred drug and act.
• tobacco to Na8ve Americans: equivalent of grapes to Chris8anity: without it, there could be no communion with the divine.
• tribes who knew of real hallucinogens some8mes mixed hallucinogens with tobacco à combined effect
Smoking the peace pipe
What is a shaman? • Wilbert uses the expression “shamanis8c ecstasy” • Etymology of shaman: from Russian; Russians got
it from Indigenous people of Siberia – a people called the Tungas, who had a well established magical tradi8on of shamans who entered the spirit world to find out why people were sick.
• Shamans of Siberia didn’t have tobacco – got their high through controlled breathing.
• But shamanis8c idea of genng into the spirit world and fixing things up DID spread from Siberia down into the Americas, all the way down to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
• Ager about 1700, smoking for pleasure became more and more the norm for Na8ve Americans, and smoking for trance and spirit communica8on purposes became less and less commons.
Shipibo Shaman, Enrique Lopez, brewing ayahuasca which he uses with tobacco smoke in shamanis8c rituals (Shipibo: Indigenous Peruvians famous for their use of psychedelic vine ayahuasca)
Ethnographic account of a shaman’s use of tobacco from Wilbert
“The shaman inhaled deeply, and as he finished one cigareAe, an aAendant handed him another lighted one. These cigareAes are each about a meter long. The shaman inhaled all the smoke and soon began to show considerable physical distress. Ager about ten minutes, his right leg began to tremble. Then his leg arm began to twitch. He swallowed smoke, as well as inhaling it, and soon he was groaning in pain. His respira8on became labored. He groaned with every exhala8on. By this 8me, the smoke in his stomach was causing him to retch. The more he inhaled, the more nervous he became. He took another cigareAe and con8nued to inhale, un8l he was near to collapse. Suddenly he “died.” Flinging his arms outward and straightening his legs s8ffly, he remained in this state of collapse for about figeen minutes. When he had revived, two aAendants rubbed his arms. One of the shamans drew on a cigareAe and blowed smoke gently onto the shaman’s legs and arms (the one who had gone into the spirit world), and especially on the places that he indicated on his body by touching himself.
Note: this is not a pleasurable drug, but one that is necessary for obtaining knowledge about the spirit world.
North American tobacco myths • Winnebago tribe’s myth: the spirits are desperate for
tobacco, and if we give tobacco to the spirits, they’ll do anything.
• Another North American tribe myth says that the spirits gave tobacco to humans and then forgot to keep any for themselves. Having forgoAen to keep it for themselves, they accidentally gave the humans a way of prevailing over them, by blackmailing them with tobacco. They became dependent on huans to blow smoke (‘food of the gods’) up to them.
• Thus, tobacco provides bridge to the spirit world, but also a means of influencing the gods, who are as addicted to tobacco as the shaman. Tobacco smoke returns to the spirit world as a bridge between seen and unseen worlds, and as a gig/sacrifice it influences the unseen world’s beings.
The Warao • Warao Indians of the Orinoco Delta in eastern Venezuela
(famously their myths were studied by anthropologist Claude Levi-‐Strauss, wrote about them in The Raw and the Cooked)
• 15,000 people speaking the Warao language in Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname
• Very isolated people at the 8me that Wilbert was there in the 1950s. (now heavily touristed)
Claude Levi-‐Strauss (died in 2009, age 100) in the Amazon
Shamanism and tobacco among the Warao • Warao have three different kinds of shaman who use tobacco for both
curing and causing sickness. • Tobacco essen8al in inducing ecsta8c trance experiences. • Everyone smokes, but long indigenous “cigars” used only by shamans • Priests or shamans in the Warao visit the spirit world regularly. They use no
other drug substance than tobacco. • “Light” shamans maintain a bridge of tobacco smoke with the bright part of
the spirit realm; bridge must be constantly renewed by shamans smoking • dark part of the spirit world sends out a blood siphon at night • tobacco smoke: proper food to give to good spirits, and proper séance
medicine to see the bad spirits, which cause most illness. • Novices become shamans by becoming culturally condi8oned for a specific
ecsta8c experience.
Pictures from a Warao village. The Warao live in a region of the Orinoco Delta where tobacco cannot be grown, so the tribe goes to great efforts producing goods to trade for tobacco on trading expedi8ons.
Wilbert’s Conclusions : • Tobacco smoke used both for healing and sorcery (both good and bad) in many
Na8ve American cultures • Before Columbus (pre-‐Columbian), tobacco was mostly smoked for medical and
magical purposes; in post-‐Columbian America, Virginia tobacco was smoked increasingly for pleasure.
• Technically it’s not a hallucinogen, but its role in shamanism in the Americas is very similar to that of hallucinogenic / psychotropic plants. Difference: with most psychotropic drugs, you’re hallucina8ng while awake; with tobacco, you hallucinate while unconscious.
• What the shaman sees is a “non-‐ordinary reality”—this is a term coined by Carlos Castaneda to speak of things that other people see and which are real to them, but which may not be normally seen and perceived by others who are not trained to see and perceive them.
• Parallels between shamanism in the Americas and Siberia are so numerous and extensive that Wilbert believes it must have been a single intellectual tradi8on that spread and travelled over the con8nent and across the Bering Straits.
• Wilbert proposes that for a tradi8on to spread so far, it would have to be very old and to have spread for a very long 8me – he es8mates 15-‐20,000 years for tobacco being domes8cated and spread throughout the Americas.
• Downbeat conclusion: between the missions and the traders, the chances of the Warao keeping their tradi8ons and con8nuing to smoke tobacco in this sacred way are preAy minimal.