Use of Tobacco in Mexico and South America is a 1924 booklet written by J. Alden Mason and published by the Field Museum of Natural History. It’s part of a series of booklets on the origins and spread of tobacco across the world that the Field Museum published mostly in 1924, but completed in 1930.
When Europeans first set foot on American soil, tobacco was cultivated throughout the Americas. South of the United States, it was mostly Nicotiana tabacum. It was used for smoking, chewing, snuffing, licking, and drinking by the native populations.
The booklet relates the first European experiences with tobacco: when Columbus landed on Sal Salvador, his crew met with a native in a canoe that included dried leaves. These same dried leaves were seen by 2 of his crew members who were sent ashore – “they met many men carrying firebrands and packages of dried herbs rolled up in a dried leaf. Lighting one end of this, they sucked the smoke out of the other end, giving the information that it comforted the limbs, intoxicated them, made them sleepy, and lessened their weariness”.1
Of cigars, Mason writes, “In the West Indies tobacco was employed in the form of a cigar – dried leaves rolled in a larger leaf. This custom also obtained through most of north-central South America. The native peoples of the Antilles are now extinct, although the cigar still remains the favorite smoke in that region, but in South America many tribes exist in their original state of culture who take their tobacco in the form of cigars.”1
Tobacco was used for several purposes in Central and South America:
- Medicine men used it to heal the sick
- Used in religious ceremonies
- For solace
- As a pastime
The booklet explores the types of tobacco that were used in different parts of the continents and includes photographs of many pipes. It is a brief but informational dive into the customs of tobacco use before the arrival of Europeans.
Use of Tobacco in Mexico and South America can be read for free at the Biodiversity Heritage Library.