Native tobacco in South America

The cultivation and use of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) was (and still is) widespread in most of the First Nations of the American continent. Originally from the American continent, the planting and consumption of tobacco was part of productive and ceremonial practices.
Tobacco was planted from the temperate forests of North America and Caribbean island territories to the subtropical forests of South America. It was consumed in several ways: chewing, drinking in infusions and especially smoking.

Smoking tobacco was often an act of spiritual content that was related to the need to obtain visions, to communicate with spirits, to project strength and energy and other similar ritual purposes. Tobacco consumption was also widespread among the many First Nations communities of the Southern Cone, which could plant or obtain it through trade. Even today, its cultivation and use is common in almost all native peoples, from the "Yekwana" (Carib) of the Upper Orinoco and the "Mascoy-Lenguas" of the Chaco to the "Guaraní-M'bya", as we have seen personally.
The "Mascoy-Lenguas" usually smoke their tobacco in a pipe (they do not chew it). The pipes they use today can be made of mud or wood, although it seems that in ancient times almost all pipes were made of mud, since in the language mascoy "tierra" and "pipe" are the same word .. The "lenguas" tobacco pipes on the other hand, are usually made of wood.
According to Bargbrooke Brubb, among the "Mascoys" the cane of the pipe is made from the heart of a certain type of cactus, and when the tobacco is exhausted, the natives cut into pieces the stalks saturated with nicotine and smoke them as a substitute."
According to multiple archaeological findings, the First Nations of Uruguay, the Lower Paraná and the Plata also made pipes of cooked clay to smoke their tobacco. Unlike the "Mascoys", the Charrúas used pipes made of animal skins.
There are many documents that record the practices of tobacco consumption by the native communities of the South. According to General Antonio Diaz, they used to smoke their cigars by covering their heads with a blanket to increase the effects of inhalation. Tobacco is also likely to be used for ceremonial practices in order to obtain visions as it does in many other First Nations of the continent.
Unlike certain Chaco towns, the Charrúas also chewed tobacco. To do this they prepared a mixture of bone and tobacco that located under the upper lip, which apparently had the effect of providing calories in winter and favor the preservation of the teeth.
Among the Chaco "Mascoys", the "Yekwana" of the Upper Orinoco and the "Guaraní M'bya" among others, tobacco is grown in small quantities in the chakras. The "Mascoy" women pull out the leaves, and while they are still green they take care of removing the pod, and of crushing them in a hollowed palm stump. Then they form the pulp in small round cakes, wet them with saliva and squeeze it between the hands. Later they let them cook in the sun until they are quite hard. A hole is made in the center of each cake, and several of them are threaded all together according to convenience ... "they do not smoke excessively, since each sucks only a few times before passing the pipe to its neighbor, and rare Sometimes a single person smokes a whole pipe ... »
At present, tobacco, often modified and often denatured, has spread globally, and even its inappropriate consumption has led to addictive behaviors with negative health effects.
From "The people of the jaguar", Danilo Antón, Piriguazú Ediciones.