[Aztlan] Tobacco in Enema? & "Maya Flasks and Miniature Vessels"

[John B. Carlson]

7/7/07

Hello AZTLAN Listeros,

I just had the time to go over a couple of recent 
threads including the discussions of possible 
Maya use of tobacco for the "Maya Enema Ritual" 
as it has been called. I believe Justin Kerr 
posed the first question on 11 June related to an 
image on one of three "Maya Flasks" from the Jay 
I. Kislak Collection that are shown in his 
photograph (Kerr 6271). Because these topics have 
been part of my work for some years now -- (I 
have been working with the Jay I. Kislak 
Collection of "Maya Flasks and Miniature Vessels" 
since 1990) --  I thought I would make a quick 
report of some results in advance of the several 
forthcoming publications and a book (with the 
study and a searchable catalog/database) that 
have resulted from my comprehensive 
investigations of "Maya Flasks and Miniature 
Vessels." This project, begun in the mid-1980s, 
was "finished" in 2006 -- you all know what that 
means... such researches are never finished -- 
but it is now in the process of being published.

In regard to the questions raised in Justin's 
post and those that followed, here is my brief 
text entry draft for this flask (see Kerr 6271: 
right)

http://research.famsi.org/portfolio_thumbs.php?_allSearch=6271&x=32&y=11&date_added=

in the forthcoming Kislak Collection catalog:

"Right: This remarkable flask takes the form of a 
miniature Maya enema vessel with the appliquéed 
figure of the bearded "Old Enema Man" stretched 
out around the belly of the pot. He is 
self-administering his enema with a bulb-style 
clyster. Based on several other flasks of similar 
design - including true effigies in that the 
miniature pot is personified by the Old Man - 
coupled with the fact that tobacco-based enema 
practices are well documented in the Americas, 
John Carlson has argued that flasks such as this 
one contained specific may tobacco enema 
preparations, and that indeed, the "Maya Enema 
Ritual," as it has been called, was fundamentally 
a tobacco-based practice, probably for ritual 
entheogenic as well as medicinal purposes. Native 
tobacco itself is a powerful hallucinogen when 
taken in strong doses. Based on ethnographic 
evidence, other substances which may have 
included peyote, toad venom, Psilocibe mushrooms, 
and morning glory seed extract were added to what 
were probably alcoholic brews such as balché. The 
effects would have been rapid and highly 
inebriating."
[FOOTNOTE here: I have used the expression "Old 
Enema Man" for convenience because I'm not 
convinced that such representations are always 
the Old God N. But, in many cases, he would seem 
to be a version of God N.]
[NOTE: I prefer Gordon Wasson's term "entheogen" 
-- creating god within -- over hallucinogen or 
psychedelic in certain cases. Tobacco and most of 
these substances were experienced as powerful 
personified supernaturals in Native American 
cultures.]

When I first saw this flask seventeen years ago, 
I hypothesized that, whatever was contained in 
that flask -- which was modeled on the much 
larger "Maya enema vessel" -- was used in the 
liquid preparations for those practices. The 
Kislak collection contains close to 200 flasks 
and miniature vessels and, so far, my overall 
study is based on the examination of between 500 
to 600 examples total. These include several more 
"enema flasks" in other collections with explicit 
representations of the "process," including a 
depiction of a previously unknown type of "Maya 
tripod enema pan" to catch the... well, you can 
guess. But it wasn't until about six years ago 
that I realized that tobacco was ONE important 
ingredient that was kept in such containers. 
Furthermore, the subject that originally got me 
involved with all of this in the first place (in 
the mid-1970s -- it was an astronomical question) 
was a quest for the nature and identity of the 
old Maya God L. The identification of God L -- 
including the "reading" of one of his names -- 
has been one of the results of the present 
project. I talked about this first publicly at 
the University of Miami Lowe Art Museum in 
February 2003 with slides, and later around six 
times at places such as the Washington, DC, 
Pre-Columbian Society, and the AAA annual meeting 
in Washington, DC, in December 2005. However, 
unless you saw one of these talks with the 
arguments and proof of the reading -- or talked 
to someone who had been there --  you wouldn't 
know because the full discussion has not yet 
appeared in detail in print. A preprint of the 
decipherment and reading of God L's name should 
be out later this summer on a web site, and I 
will post the URL on AZTLAN when it is ready.

This web site will also eventually include book 
chapter summaries with the essential results of 
my "Maya Flasks and Miniature Vessels" Project, 
including:

* The history of the study of Maya Flasks and Miniature Vessels.

* (I) A comprehensive Primary Bibliography of 
sources (such as for where all known images and 
mentions of flasks and miniature vessels have 
been published), and
  (II) a Secondary Bibliography of sources related to my research, including:
(a) the chemical analyses of the contents,
(b) the related ethnobotanical sources,
(c) the ethnographic sources on contemporary 
native tobacco and other entheogens and the many 
uses of "may" preparations,
(d) Tobacco use and tobacco shamanism in several 
other cultural contexts in the Americas,
(e) proposed decipherments of some of  the Maya texts,
(f) Maya ethnomedicine, past and present, 
including practices of midwifery and "shamanism," 
as related to the Flasks,
(g) Examples of uses of bottles in various other 
cultures, particularly including Chinese snuff 
bottles,
(h) the relevant Mesoamerican religious traditions,
(i) discussions of Maya and other Mesoamerican 
funerary and mortuary practices as related to 
Flasks.

* The Primary Morphological Classification of 
"Maya Flasks and Miniature Vessels" that I 
created and refined over the years. This is as 
"complete" as I can make it, is ready to be 
presented and is already functioning on a 
searchable electronic database.

* A classification of all of the different types 
of Maya glyphic texts that appear on the flasks 
as well as the glyphs that appear in these texts. 
This classification is ready for presentation for 
other scholars to use, and is already functioning 
on the electronic database.

* Decipherments and "readings" of some of the 
texts on Flasks. I have been partially 
successful, and I think these texts reveal a 
great deal. In fact, I have found examples of 
rhyming couplets that relate to the contents, as 
part of dedicatory expressions.

* A three-level "Flask Iconographic Theme Index" 
classification to explore all of the many types 
of visual scenes (often elaborate) that appear on 
Flasks. The images often correlate with the Class 
of the Flask. (For example, ball game scenes and 
paraphernalia are heavily represented on Flasks. 
It is likely that their contents were used 
extensively by ballplayers. Can you picture them 
chewing tobacco?)

* The basic chemical analyses of the contents of 
close to 50 flasks is "complete," and the 
information is recorded in the database. A 
chapter in the study presents and interprets the 
results of these analyses and suggests further 
research. Follow-up analyses with more 
sensitivity and focus are planned.

* Maya gourd flasks for "may" preparations are 
still in use today and I have assembled an 
extensive amount of data and photographs, much of 
it unpublished, from several sources. Several 
different species of gourd are used. Ceramic 
flasks have also been employed quite recently in 
the highlands of Chiapas and may still be in use. 
[As an aside, one style of enema clyster was also 
fashioned from a gourd. The other was almost 
certainly animal skin (or bladder) and a bone.]

* The evidence for the use of hallucinogens and 
entheogens in "may" preparations is discussed in 
some detail including the specific connections 
with the "Maya Enema Ritual" practices.

*******************************************************************

***>  For completeness, I have included a quick Project summary below:

The Jay I. Kislak Collection, now at the U.S. 
Library of Congress, includes one of the world's 
largest, most complete and balanced collections 
of ancient Maya ceramic bottles and miniature 
vessels, often imaginatively called "poison 
bottles" or "pilgrim's flasks" in the literature. 
They have been known for more than a century from 
rare archaeological discoveries and museum 
collections, but their contents and purposes had 
remained elusive having never previously been 
studied as a group until John Carlson's 
comprehensive multidisciplinary "Maya Flasks and 
Miniature Vessels" research project. This work 
was funded in part by the Jay I. Kislak 
Foundation beginning in the early 1990s, 
culminating in a 2005-06 "Kislak Fellowship in 
American Studies" at the John W. Kluge Center of 
the Library of Congress. As a result of this 
research, based on glyphic, iconographic, and 
contents analyses, it was demonstrated that the 
majority of flasks were most likely created 
primarily as "medicine bottles," many being 
"tobacco flasks," specifically to hold 
preparations of powdered native tobacco mixed 
with alkaline lime and other ingredients called 
"May" or "Moy" in various Maya languages. May was 
and still is used for its medicinal, intoxicating 
and magical-protective properties. It may have 
been "snuffed," but today, (a) it is taken orally 
between cheek and gum for dental and health 
problems, but mostly for ritual "intoxication" 
(often taken with much alcohol); (b) as a 
poultice for skin ailments, insect bites, and 
ritual uses; (c) in liquid form for internal 
complaints including parasites and 
gastro-intestinal ailments; (d) for birthing and 
midwifery practices; and (e) scattered "on the 
road" for supernatural protection for merchants 
and travellers. Several secondary uses of flasks 
are also now established including as pigment 
containers. It has also become clear that such 
flasks were often placed within burials of 
individuals, usually one per individual, and that 
red pigments such as cinnabar vermilion and red 
iron oxide-based ochres such as specular hematite 
were placed in and on the outsides as a vital 
part of the mortuary and interment processes. In 
essence, Maya flasks represent the oldest known 
tobacco snuff bottle tradition in the world.

One of the special results of the project was the 
decipherment and "reading" of one of the names of 
the Old Maya God L as May and probably Ch'ul May: 
"Holy Tobacco," or "Holy Medicine," based on the 
epigraphy. He is essentially the "First Shaman" 
or "First Priest," the primary Maya God of 
Medicine and Curing. The Old Goddess "O", Chac 
Chel, patroness of midwives and healers, is his 
female counterpart and together they form a 
version of the old "Primal Ancestral Pair," 
essentially the Xpiyacoc and Xmucane of the 
Quiché Maya Popol Vuh legend or Oxomoco and 
Cipactonal of the Highland Mexican tradition. God 
L is the very personification of Tobacco itself 
in all of its forms in the same sense that the 
Maya Maize God E is the personification of Corn. 
An Old God of the Maya Underworld, Patron God of 
Merchants, Messengers, and Ambassadors, and of 
the planet Venus, he is closely related to the 
traditional "Elder Brother" figure known as 
Bankilal among the Tzotzil Maya who is often seen 
facing his younger brother, God K, who is related 
to the smoking lightning axe of the Maya Storm 
God complex. God L also has prominent Jaguar and 
Armadillo aspects - these are probably among his 
ways or co-essences -  and his Armadillo carapace 
cape and wide brimmed hat may be closely related 
to his elite merchant/ambassador's raincoat and 
gear. (Note: Justin and Barbara Kerr recently 
published a convincing argument that the 
Armadillo is indeed the "way" of God L. I agree, 
but would suggest that he had other "ways" 
including a Jaguar "way" or aspect.) Old God L is 
also the senior cosmogonic god, at least by the 
Late Classic Period, who presides over gathering 
of supernaturals for the almost endless cyclical 
renewals or re-creations of the Maya cosmos in 
the great 13 Baktun cycle, the cycle that will 
complete and continue on, once again, around 
December 21st, 2012 C.E.

As a result of this research, I believe I now 
have some understanding of the nature of the 
relationships between the various personae of the 
Maya God L (and related entities, including, 
e.g., other "black gods" and personages) as this 
supernatural complex has developed and evolved 
over the millennia in resonance with other 
Mesoamerican traditions of the use and veneration 
of tobacco by their "priests," "shamans," and 
healers.

Once again, this post is in response to the 
several recent threads of discussion and I am 
simply making some comments on the scope of my 
research and a few of the results. Obviously, you 
would be wise to be skeptical about some of the 
interpretations until you had the chance to 
review the data and proofs and form your own 
conclusions. You never know... I might be "out of 
my gourd." But seriously, much of the detail, in 
summary form, will be available this year in 
outline and preprint before final publication.

Sincerely,

John

-- 


John B. Carlson, Ph.D., Director
The Center for Archaeoastronomy
P. O. Box "X"
College Park, MD  20741-3022  USA
(301) 864-6637  office
http://www.archaeoastronomy.net
<Tlaloc at umd.edu>