ABSTRACT
Drinking chicha was similarly common – a drink made with ground toasted maize, or alternatively with sugar cane juice, and consumed either fermented (‘bitter’) or unfermented (‘sweet’), depending on the occasion. Although cigarettes were consumed in a variety of different occasions, smoking appeared crucial during healing and puberty rituals, where tobacco smoke functioned as a means of metaphysical communication enhancing the agency of those involved in the performance of specific ritual tasks. During the preparatory stages of puberty rituals the most important task is that of preparing inna gaibid, ‘bitter chicha ’, by mixing ground toasted maize and powdered cacao with the boiling juice squeezed from large amounts of sugar cane. This chapter argues that, for the Guna, tobacco smoke is the sweet chicha of nudsugana – auxiliary spirits – and tobacco ashes are the bitter chicha of bonigana – animal spirits.
