- Cohoba
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Cohoba is an old Taino Indian transliteration for a ceremony in which psychedelic ground seed of the cojóbana tree was snufed in twin nasal Y-shaped pipe also called Cohoba.[1] The cojóbana tree is believed by some to be Yopo, Anadenathera peregrina,[2] although perhaps it may have been a generalized term for psychotropics including various quite toxic Datura and related genera (Solanaceae). The corresponding ceremony using cohoba-laced tobacco is transliterated as cojibá. This corresponds culturally to the practice of drug induced "astral traveling" so common to the Americas and elsewhere.
The practice of snuffing Cohoba was popular with the Taino and Arawakan peoples, with whom Christopher Columbus made contact.[3]
Fernando Ortiz, the founder of Cuban Cultural Studies, offers a detailed analysis of the use of cohoba in his important anthropological work, Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y el azúcar.[4]
References
- ^ Aquino, Luis Hernández (1977). Diccionario de voces indígenas de Puerto Rico. Editorial Cultural. ISBN 84-399-6702-0.
- ^ Hallucinogenic Plants by Richard E. Shultes. Golden Press, New York, 1976.
- ^ The Role of Cohoba in Taino Shamanism. Constantino M. Torres, in Eleusis No. 1 (1998)
- ^ Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y el azúcar, Additional chapter VIII, Fernando Ortiz (Madrid: Cátedra, 2002).
Categories:- Psychedelic drugs
- Hallucinogen stubs
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