In today's world, tobacco is known and used
throughout all quarters of the globe. Although the
prevalence of cigarettes, cigars, and pipes has
made smoking the most popular
form of tobacco consumption today, there is still
a demand for other types, principally chewing tobacco
and snuff.
In botanical terms, the birthplace of the tobacco
plant is thought to have been in the New World,
where the custom of tobacco consumption also originated.
What then, were the forms of tobacco cultivation
and use developed by the earliest inhabitants of
the Americans, and how did they influence the spread
of tobacco to other continents ?
Unitl the momentous voyage of Columbus in 1492,
the New World was for the most part unrelated to
the mainstream of world history.
In pre-Columbian times, the American conti- nents
were home to a variety of remarkable cultures, many
of which had reached a high stage of development.
For the most part, these were unable to survive
the impact of the European invasion, and our knowledge
of them is at best fragmentary--a description which
also applies to our understanding of early American
tobacco use. Nevertheless, the limited documentary
material and archaeological evidence available today
is still sufficient to provide us with a fairly
concrete picture of the role played by tobacco in
pre-Columbian culture : a role not limited solely
to simple enjoyment, but also extending to
ritual and medical aspects of even greater social
and cultural significance.
The discoveries of Columbus marked a turning-point
in the history of tobacco. The plant and its uses
soon appeared in Europe, from which they were spread
throughout the world
by Spanish, Portugllese, and English sailors, merchants.
and explorers.
Tobacco is believed to have arrived in Japan towards
the close of the sixteenth century, at a time when
trade with the Iberian countries was flourishing
--barely a century after its first importation into
Europe.
As tobacco continued its march throughout the world,
many previously unknown patterns and styles of tobacco
consump- tion were developed,to suit local conditions
and tastes in different areas. The successive forms
of European pipes the long
and slender kiseru-style pipes used in Japan and
other East Asian nations, and the hookahs and other
related water- pipes of the Near East are all examples
of notable variations upon
the essential theme of tobacco consumption, that
spread from the Americas to the world at large.
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