Breath and Smoke: Tobacco Use among the Maya

Abstract

Tobacco is sacred for Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. Breath and Smoke delves into tobacco's origins in Maya culture and rituals and traces its residues across space and time. Beginning in the eighth century and moving through the present day, the volume brings together an interdisciplinary range of scholars whose analysis of myths, ethnography, material culture, hieroglyphics, historical documents, healing practices, and chemical residues showcase the myriad ways that mahy (tobacco) has been used, traded, and exalted. By examining tobacco's nexus as a spiritual, medicinal, ritual, and recreational substance, editors Jennifer Loughmiller-Cardinal and Keith Eppich reveal tobacco's significance as more than just a powerful botanical. Maya peoples consider it to be a sentient, godlike substance. While maize, chocolate, and jade have long been recognized as important commodities in ancient and modern Maya cultures, this volume proposes that tobacco held a similar role and continues to be highly prized.The contributors highlight the role of tobacco, originally domesticated in Peru and Ecuador, as a mystical therapeutic intoxicant. Erik Boot (in chapter 2) analyzes similarities in origin stories of tobacco from Pipil, Sauk, and Penobscot peoples. In all three stories, tobacco is derived from a woman. In chapter 3, Martin Pickands's analysis of mythic narratives among Mopan, Q'eqchi’ Maya, Lacandon, and Yucatec Maya peoples reinforces tobacco's feminine origins. These myths reveal that tobacco was considered original medicine derived from the moon goddess. Kevin Groark (in chapter 4) examines contemporary Tzeltal and Tzotzil Maya usage of powdered and masticated tobacco. A detailed folk pharmacology reveals that the tobacco plant, its potency and storage, is highly gendered. Typically found in household gardens because it repels malevolent spirits and animals, cures illness when smeared over the body, and is offered as food in ceremonies to the gods, tobacco garners great respect because it is considered a sentient being, possessing a soul and the ability to act. Michael McBride (in chapter 5) explores tobacco's use in hunting magic across the Americas. He suggests that the altered states of consciousness induced by shamanic magic were critical to sustaining Maya dynastic rule and military dominance. Among Ch'orti’ Maya people today, Kerry Hull shows in chapter 6, not only is tobacco smoke curative, but it is also used in sorcery rites.Like all great analyses of commodities, the volume looks beyond origins to trace tobacco's residues in archaeological and ethnographic contexts. Through a review of the word mahy in hieroglyphic texts, Erik Boot (in chapter 7) finds that tobacco is associated with the glyph may (deer), which thus reinforces tobacco's ties to hunting practices. Vessels to store and gift tobacco were highly prized and labeled with the glyph ’otoot (home), another indication of the reverence bestowed on this plant. We can see this reverence in the snuff bottle buried with Lady K'abel, who ruled the city-state of El Perú-Waka’ in northwestern Petén. Delicately carved with hieroglyphs, the alabaster bottle is a rare find and contains tobacco from the distant city-state of Copán. Keith Eppich and Olivia Navarro-Farr (in chapter 9) suggest that this bottle embodied its owner's wealth as well as shamanic and divine power. Hieroglyphic texts and visual iconography illustrate tobacco's godlike status, but they do not fully capture the scope of tobacco use in daily life and ritual practice. Seeking to unearth new methods for documenting tobacco's significance, Jennifer Loughmiller-Cardinal (in chapter 8) looks at residue analysis in Maya ceramics and in the soil in caves and burials. Collecting tobacco residue from snuff vessels makes it possible to physically trace social relationships and geographic movement. Jeb Card and Ana Claudia María Alfaro Moisa (in chapter 10) offer a detailed analysis of miniature tobacco flasks in El Salvador's Museo Nacional de Antropología Dr. David J. Guzmán. Gifted socially, these flasks map out regional patterns of economic and political influence. Initially developed during the Classic Maya period, snuff containers eventually spread globally.Through this comprehensive overview of tobacco, Breath and Smoke aims to render visible new perspectives on Maya life and culture. Indeed, we are given glimpses into how tobacco has been indigenized, gendered, sexualized, ritualized, and mythologized. The volume does an adroit job of highlighting the continuity between contemporary and ancient Maya practices and of balancing specialized analyses with narrative storytelling. One angle that has been left unexplored is how tobacco and other highly prized commodities are racialized. Anyone who is interested in Maya culture will be riveted by the myths, images, and analyses contained in this volume.