Ray:
>Long before tea was made from boiling water the (raw)leaves were simply
>wadded into the mouth as a stimulant.  The leaves from which mate tea are
>made are still used in this way by the peasants of the Andes.

Hey, Ray, always good to hear from you! I will break down soon and order
your book (as I got my mother to do) but I was, like Jean-Louis, surprised
to hear you advocate teas...

I assume you're speaking here of the leaves of the bush which can be
processed into cocaine? If so, there is a catch: they have to chew the
leaves with some ashy lime stuff or else it is ineffective. Both items
tasted pretty grusome to me when I tried it a couple times while traveling
the Andes and both times I had to spit them out. The mild buzz was
reportedly a good counter to the altitude/thin air on long journeys. In any
case, the Andean cultures were very ag orientated for thousands of years.
I'm not sure, but I wonder if the highlands supported a thriving
hunter-gatherer population (at least relative to the coastal cultures based
on seafood, or the more classic h-g of the amazon basin)...I don't know.

There is also the betel nut which has been consumed in SE Asia for many
many generations (though I don't know if it was a pre-ag practice). Anyway,
it causes severe damage to the teeth and gums and the people I knew who
chewed it appeared addicted.

And what of the native american indians use of tobacco? Probably less
processed than pemmican, but one could hardly advocate tobacco use simply
because some Indians used it.

I suppose as vices go, tea isn't worth arguing about but it doesn't seem
particularly paleo to me at all (where sucking on leaves is). But if tea is
allowed, how far off is mead (honey fermented into alcohol) or even date
wine?

Then again, maybe we are meant to have a stogie and a snifter of brandy
after a nice porterhouse, eh?  Or some other kind of weed and some
'shrooms? ;)

Cheers,
Kirt

Secola  /\  Nieft
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