Tobacco (Nicotiana rustica and N. tabacum) is a plant that was and is used as a pscyhoactive substance, a narcotic, a pain killer, and a pesticide and, as a result, it is and was used in the ancient past in a wide variety of rituals and ceremonies. Four species were recognized by Linnaeus in 1753, all originating from the Americas, and all from the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Today, scholars recognize over 70 different species, with N. tabacum the most economically important; almost all of them originated in South America, with one endemic to Australia and another to Africa.
A raft of recent biogeographical studies report that modern tobacco (N. tabacum) originated in the highland Andes, probably Bolivia or northern Argentina, and was likely a result of hybridization of two older species, N. sylvestris and a member of the section Tomentosae, perhaps N. tomentosiformis Goodspeed. Long before the Spanish colonization, tobacco had been distributed well outside its origins, throughout South America, into Mesoamerica and reaching the eastern Woodlands of North America no later than ~300 BC. Although some debate within the scholarly community exists suggesting that some varieties may have originated in central America or southern Mexico, the most widely accepted theory is that N. tabacum originated where the historical ranges of its two progenitor species intersected.
The earliest dated tobacco seeds found to date (that I could find anyway) are from early Formative levels at Chiripa in the Lake Titicaca region of Bolivia. Tobacco seeds were recovered from Early Chiripa contexts (1500-1000 BC), although not in sufficient quantities or contexts to prove use with shamanistic practices.
Curanderos and Tobacco
Tobacco is believed to be one of the first plants used in the New World to initiate ecstasy trances. Taken in large amounts, tobacco induces hallucinations, and, perhaps not surprisingly, tobacco use is associated with pipe ceremonialism and bird imagery throughout the Americas. Physical changes associated with extreme doses of tobacco use include a lowered heart rate, which in some cases has been known to render the user into a catatonic state. Tobacco is consumed in a number of ways, including chewing, licking, eating, snuffing and enemas, although smoking is the most effective and common form of consumption.
A series of ethnographic interviews (Jauregui et al 2011) was conducted between 2003-2008 with curanderos (healers) in east central Peru, who reported using tobacco in various ways. Tobacco is one of over fifty plants with psychotropic effects used in the region that are considered "plants that teach", including coca, datura, and ayahuasca. "Plants that teach" are also sometimes referred to as "plants with a mother", because they are believed to have an associated guiding spirit or mother who teaches the secrets of traditional medicine.
Like the other plants that teach, tobacco is one of the cornerstones of learning and practicing the art of the shaman, and according to the curanderos consulted by Jauregui et al. it is considered one of the most powerful and oldest of plants. Shamanistic training in Peru involves a period of fasting, isolation and celibacy, during which period one ingests one or more of the teaching plants on a daily basis. Tobacco in the form of a potent type of Nicotiana rustica is always present in their traditional medical practices, and it is used for purification, to cleanse the body of negative energies.
Also see Tobacco among the Maya
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Plant Domestication, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
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