Storm in an Andean teacup
The Economist, 20 January 2011
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO: Tourists who visit Bolivia’s La Paz or Peru’s Cusco are routinely given welcome cups of coca tea to mitigate altitude sickness. For centuries, people who live in the high Andes have chewed coca leaves, whose alkaloids act as a mild stimulant. In 2009, Bolivia, where the new constitution protects coca as part of the country’s cultural heritage, proposed an amendment to the UN convention on narcotics that would remove the obligation to prohibit traditional uses of coca. Other South American countries agree. Coca however is also the source plant for the illegal narcotic cocaine. The USA have opposed the amendment proposed by Bolivia and Bolivia is considering pulling out of the convention. Read the article … Read an article by AFP, 20 January 2011 …
27 January 2011 at 8:50 am
Yatiris, Aymara wise ones use kuka, Erythroxylum coca Lam. leaves, an oracle of the earth, in divination (Bastien 1978:55). This sacred leaf, which is a cornerstone of Andean culture, serves as medicine and as a way of communicating with the supernatural (Healy 1996:245). Coca is used at all fiestas and ritual occasions to promote good will (Figure 15). At these ceremonial events, people beg one another’s pardon, as ill feelings are believed to destroy the efficacy of the rite. Coca is invariably part of every ceremonial offering (Tschopik 1946:556, 561) and ak”ulli (Yapita 1994:140) is the sharing of coca leaf ceremonially (Silva Araya 1998:74). By chewing coca collectively, one calls for unity and communication within the community, and one’s body is united spiritually with the earth (Bastien 1978:56). Currently, coca leaf is being condemned, threatened, eradicated and persecuted because of drug trafficking. However for the Aymara, coca leaf is the symbol of life and hope (Mamani 1993:393).