Breath and Smoke
Breath and Smoke
Tobacco Use among the Maya
From Classical antiquity to the present, tobacco has existed as a potent ritual substance. Tobacco use among the Maya straddles a recreational/ritual/medicinal nexus that can be difficult for Western audiences to understand. To best characterize the pervasive substance, this volume assembles scholars from a variety of disciplines and specialties to discuss tobacco in modern and ancient contexts. The chapters utilize research from archaeology, ethnography, mythic narrative, and chemical science from the eighth through the twenty-first centuries.
Breath and Smoke explores the uses of tobacco among the Maya of Central America, revealing tobacco as a key topic in pre-Columbian art, iconography, and hieroglyphics. By assessing and considering myths, imagery, hieroglyphic texts, and material goods, as well as modern practices and their somatic effects, this volume brings the Mayan world of the past into greater focus and sheds light on the practices of today.
From artifacts, hieroglyphs, and iconography to folk tales and oral histories, the study of tobacco facilitates a nuanced and sophisticated portrayal of ancient and contemporary Maya.…This collection rewards a close read.
Academically demanding, this book maintains rigorous scholarship and is appropriate for Mayanists, specifically faculty, graduate students, and avocational readers.
Jennifer Loughmiller-Cardinal is a member of the Raman Forensics Laboratory in the Chemistry Department at the University at Albany. She is a contributor to Ancient Psychoactive Substances. Keith Eppich is an associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at Collin College. He is a contributor to Archaeology for the People.
List of Illustrations
Foreword
John E. Staller
Acknowledgments
Note on Orthography
Chapter One. Introduction: Breath and Smoke
Jennifer A. Loughmiller-Cardinal and Keith Eppich
Chapter Two. On the Origin of the Tobacco Plant: A Pipil Myth from Nahuizalco, El Salvador
Erik Boot
Chapter Three. The Intoxicating Lady: Tobacco and the Nature of the Moon Goddess
Martin Pickands
Chapter Four. "Elder Brother Tobacco": Traditional Nicotiana Snuff Use among the Contemporary Tzeltal and Tzotzil Maya of Highland Chiapas, Mexico
Kevin P. Groark
Chapter Five. Allopathic Shamanism: Indigenous American Cultures, Psychopharmacy, and the Prince of Flowers
Michael McBride
Chapter Six. The Smoking of Bones: Ch’orti' Maya Use of Tobacco and Ritual Tobacco Substitutes
Kerry Hull
Chapter Seven. "Tobacco" as Mentioned in Hieroglyphic Texts on Classic Maya Pottery Flasks and in the Late Postclassic Codices: An Essay on the Hieroglyphic Signs Used
Erik Boot
Chapter Eight. Archaeology and Tobacco: Recognizing A Common Staple in Uncommon Ways
Jennifer A. Loughmiller-Cardinal
Chapter Nine. The Curious Case of Lady K’abel’s Snuff Bottle: The Functionality, Form, Context, and Distribution of Classic Maya Tobacco Flasks
Keith Eppich and Olivia Navarro-Farr
Chapter Ten. Modeled Miniature Flasks in the Museo Nacional de Antropología Dr. David J. Guzmán
Jeb J. Card and Ana Claudia María Alfaro Moisa
List of Contributors
Index
