CULTURE-HONDURAS: Tobacco Linked with Maya Mysticism

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Jun 28 1998 (IPS) - Tobacco was used to conquer love, put spells on people, win battles and make requests to the gods as part of Mayan tradition and today is still used in religious rituals in Honduras.

But the mysteries of its use are still an enigma for anthropologists and historians and make up one of the Maya’s best guarded secrets.

Originally from the Americas, tobacco was taken to Europe by the Spanish at the end of the 16th century. In Honduras, it’s use is widespread among the Lenca and Mayoide indigenous groups.

The mysteries surrounding tobacco are “indecipherable, and we only know that the Maya gave it great mystical importance”, said Honduran historian Marvin Barahona. It is assumed that the Mayans increased the use of tobacco when they reached Central America, in 2000-BC, as part of improvements in their quality of life. Its cultivation was carried out on the same scale as maize and cacao.

Nowadays, indigenous communities use tobacco for medicinal purposes, attributing to it healing properties for asthma and other acute respiratory diseases, according to Barahona.

In western Honduras, the Chorti communities, direct descendants of the Mayas, use tobacco for a range of purposes, including predicting the future, chasing away bad spirits, and praying for rain to make thjeir crops grow.

The Mayas used tobacco even as a form of protection against death. It was common for Indians to cover their faces with ground tobacco and then rub it on their chests and arms in order to chase away the god of death, “Pucuch,” Barahona explained. “If Pucuch wanted to come near an Indian in order to take them away, the smell of the herb repelled him, and he would give up.”

But they also thought it was a god, and according to Mayan lore, they believed that the “chacs” (rain gods) were great smokers. Each spark that came out of a cigar was believed to be a small comet that the “chacs” sent to them for protection, he said.

One of the most common uses of tobacco today is to put or remove spells, according to the “santeros” or witch doctors, who practice the “prayer of the cigar”, a very common ritual conducted for sentimental purposes.

Nine cigars tied together with different colors, symbolizing the kind of “tie” or “job” that is desired, is part of the ritual, the practice of which spans the spectrum of social classes.

Melida Molino, a researcher on Mayan culture, said that the “herb”, as tobacco is known among the Maya, also served to “make friendships, win battles and even smoke for peace.”

The uses were many. “It was common for an Indian to smoke as a preamble to conquering another Indian, as they believed that the smoke had magical powers that enchanted women,” said the expert.

In the modern era, the use of tobacco is more commercial. The factories which make it increasingly offer products that are more compact and attractive, giving a touch of elegance to a smoker’s personality, also with the aim of “making a good deal”, whether it be commercial or sentimental.

Until three years ago, tobacco in Honduras was a traditional product linked to an ancient history. But the quality achieved in the elaboration of cigars has catapulted this country to third place among cigar producers in the world, after Cuba and the Dominican Republic.