Chapter 4 History of tobacco in chronological order

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History of tobacco in chronological order: Before 1500

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Tobacco gourds and pouches were the insignia of Aztec priesthood, and were

described as symbols of divinity. "Tobacco smoking was already well-established

among the Aztec upper classes as an after-dinner activity before Europeans first

witnessed it." And in the Maya culture, many of the deities in stone monuments,

ceramics, and in paintings are depicted as smokers, as are some mythological

animals.

Tobacco in History, p. 31

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Early information on the smoking of cigars originates from artifacts of the Mayas of the

Yucatan region of Mexico. Smoking of tobacco was part of the religious rituals and

political gatherings of the natives of the Yucatan peninsula as shown in the artwork on

a pottery vessel from the 10th century where a Maya smokes a string-tied cigar. Five

hundred years later, in 1492, when Christopher Columbus landed in America, he was

presented with dried leaves of tobacco by the House of Arawaks. Columbus and his

crew were thus the first Europeans who became acquainted with tobacco smoking.

Early in the 16th century, Cortez confirmed that tobacco smoking was practiced by the

Aztecs in Mexico. In addition, tobacco was grown in Cuba, Haiti, several of the West

Indian Islands, and on the East Coast of North America from Florida to Virginia.

Quote from Cigars, p. 55

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In the pre-Columbian period, tobacco was consumed from Quebec in eastern Canada

south to southern Argentina, and on the Pacific coast north to the Aleutian Islands.

There were five principal methods of tobacco consumption: smoking, chewing,

drinking, snuff and enemas.

Tobacco in History, pp. 24 and 33

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