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Humanities and Social Sciences Library > Collections & Reading Rooms > Print Collection > DRY DRUNK TRAVEL AND DISCOVERYIn 1492, when the floodgates of European explorers opened on North and South America, the many different native cultures there already had long traditions of chewing, smoking, and snuffing tobacco, sometimes in conjunction with other psychotropic plants. Used regularly in ritual and social contexts, tobacco and its counterparts were appreciated precisely for their physiological and mind-altering effects, which, among other things, aided the Amerindians in their pursuit of the supernatural. The early explorers who "discovered" the Americas soon grasped the importance of the plant within native cultures, and verbal and then pictorial descriptions of its use were featured in virtually all publications about the New World. According to these descriptions, native uses ranged from shamanistic ritual, in which the shaman and sometimes other individuals inhaled tobacco smoke to the point of collapse, to recreational consumption. André Thevet, a French monk turned royal cosmographer who traveled briefly to Brazil in 1555, reported that the natives "esteeme it maruellous profitable for many things. . . . They say it is very holesome to cleanse & consume the superfluous humors of the brain. Moreover being taken after this sort, it kepeth the parties from hu[n]ger & thirst for a time. . . ." The novelty of smoking itself, as well as specific rituals such as smoking a pipe of tobacco in peaceful greeting or in preparation for war, provided ample material for study and speculation. 1
2 Despite major efforts to "civilize" the native Americans, European fascination with their wilder side remained strong well into the 18th century and beyond. Here, an unnamed warrior is shown with his tomax, an instrument of peace and war all wrapped into one. 3 4
Quakers, or Friends, settled colonial America and the West Indies within
the first decade following George Fox's formation of the sect in England
in 1649. Although their beliefs discouraged the amassing of money for itself,
Quakers were found at virtually all levels of society; some were quintessential
farmers, while others were known as shrewd but honest merchants. 5 At the core of van der Aa's 65-volume "pleasurable gallery" are de Bry's plates from a century before, but there are numerous new etchings as well, including the scenes on exhibit, which update the style and add new information. The term "calumet" is derived from a Norman French word for "reed," and was used by the French to identify the Amerindian "peace pipe." Generally about 1 1/2 feet long with a bowl made of Dakota soapstone, it was an object of tremendous ceremonial significance, smoked in declarations of war and peace and in friendly greeting. This plate shows a variety of episodes in which the long-stemmed pipe was used: from the welcoming scene in the tent at left, to the ceremonial dance performed at center right. 6
The inaccuracy of detail in this "portrait" –the first representation
to show natives smoking cigars of the "secrete herbe" –led his rival
Léry to contend that Thevet was not responsible for introducing
seeds of Nicotiana tabacum (the most commonly smoked genus of tobacco)
into France as he claimed to have done. Regardless of accuracy, images
such as this one provided a means of visualizing the distant, exotic lands
for contemporary European readers, especially when the images were paired
with the texts of seasoned travel writers such as Thevet. 7 Smith's History of Virginia, published in numerous editions starting in 1624, represents a different phase of New World activity. Earlier attempts at establishing colonies in Virginia had failed. Only the sixth expedition, in 1606, gained some measure of success, and this has been credited to the success of tobacco farming, as the newfangled habit of tobacco "drinking" steadily gained popularity back in England. In the upper-left-hand corner of this map of Virginia, the first accurate mapping of the Chesapeake Bay area, Captain Smith's reception by the chief Powhatan in 1607 can be seen, on the occasion that prompted Pocahantas to save his life. 8 A self-described philosopher and physician, Neander derived most of the information in his "medical - surgical - pharmaceutical" treatise on tobacco from 16th-century herbals. Scenes of native American cultivation and curing of tobacco such as this one, however, were almost completely new. The plates both served as ethnographic information and provided practical instruction, in keeping with his argument that tobacco should be grown domestically since, for medicinal purposes, the green leaves were considered preferable to the dried product. Warning against recreational abuse of tobacco, however, Neander noted that a man was said to have lost the sense of smell from taking too much smoke. Somewhat cynically, he noted that those selling the herb had profited greatly from the fashionable love of its "pleasant perfume," which he termed a "stinking and filthy smell." |
