Abstract
Among the typical artifacts of the Hohokam culture of southern Arizona during the period from a.d. 500 to a.d. 1150 are rectangular, stone “paint palettes.” The function of these objects has always been uncertain, but comparison on the basis of size, form, decoration, materials, and provenience with the snuff trays, or tabletas de rapé of South America strongly suggests that Hohokam paint palettes were associated with the use of hallucinogenic plant materials. Also significant to the problem is the close coincidence in time between the use of palettes by the Hohokam and prehistoric use of tabletas in Chile, Colombia, and probably in Guerrero, Mexico. Other Hohokam artifacts such as bone tubes, effigy vessels, and mortars and pestles also resemble utensils of the inhalatory complex found in archaeological sites in Mexico, Costa Rica, the Antilles, and South America. Use of these utensils in inhaling hallucinogenic snuff is reported in historic times in the Antilles and South America and continues to the present in areas of the Amazon Basin and northwestern Argentina.
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