La más importante ceremonia religiosa entre los taínos fue el llamado “rito de la cohoba”. La inhalación de polvos alucinógenos hechos con semillas de la planta conocida científicamente como Anadanthera peregrina o Piptadenia peregrina se hacía al través de artefactos especiales para este tipo de ritual. Para aspirar los polvos, en caso de consulta a los dioses, el cacique los absorbía con un tubo muchas veces decorado, y para ello eran colocados sobre la cabeza de un ídolo con una especie de plato en la cabeza donde en un recipiente se habían colocado dichos polvos.
Este “ídolo de la cohoba” está representado por muy variadas figures, and generally has a height ranging between 40 and 60 centimeters. The Chronicle explains that choosing the tree which was to manufacture a zemi, had to undergo the ritual of cohoba, questioning the tree until I said yes, he was ready to be converted into zemi. The cohoba, was used in health consultations, war, predictions, and the chiefs and nitaínos, or rank of the chief supporters, apparently had his personal idols, which explains why many of them have different expressions.
cojoba The cohoba or was practiced in the West Indies since the arrival of the first Arawaks. It was a tradition inherited from the forest tropical where the ritual is still performed. Among the rituals of the Taíno culture was the Piptadenia that produced cohoba powders, but there was the snuff. The plant was used mainly by Amerindians to extract healers diseases, expel spirits and even as incense.
This article was published in the newspaper TODAY by Aura Rodriguez in 2007
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