The coca leaf is obtained from a shrub native to South America, specifically the warm and humid regions of the Andes (Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru). The history of coca plant use is nearly as long as humanity itself. Archaeological remains confirm its consumption in northwestern Peru as early as the sixth millennium BCE.

by Jean-Pierre Chaumeil

Since 1971, Jean-Pierre CHAUMEIL, a French ethnologist, has spent several periods in the Peruvian Amazon, especially among the Yagua of the northeastern region, with whom he lived for more than three years together with his wife. His primary interest is the comparative study of shamanism and, more generally, everything surrounding the new forms of religiosity in the Amazon. He is the author of several books, among them “Voir, savoir, pouvoir” (Ed. de l’EHESS, Paris, 1983) and “Ñihamwo” (CAAAP, Lima, 1987). A research officer at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), he belongs to its Amerindian Anthropology Research Team (France).