The Cocaine Eaters

This is a tough book to review, and tougher to rate. It is tough because it was quite a difficult read, took me a long time, and yet has so many good points too.

It is the story of two young Englishmen who head to Colombia with the purpose of spending time with the indigenous Indian tribes - their goal, primarily, was to record their traditional music. Their secondary goals were quite basically to spend time with them, gain an understanding of their cultures, their lives and their futures. The authors however, are without academic qualifications to make them suitable for this research - anthropology or sociology degrees. Neither plays a musical instrument, although both have an ‘interest' in music. Brian Moser is a geologist, Donald Tayler a hydrologist (working on dam reconnaissance). They often question their own ability to make analysis during these travels. (Tayler goes on to study anthropology after the journeys in this book.)

The name of the book initially intrigued me, but as I commenced reading I recognised it as simply a sensationalist title to attract some attention to this book - not that that seems to have worked with zero ratings and zero reviews on Goodreads! Anyway before the Prologue is three pages in the authors admit in a footnote which is attached to the statement “... on the Vaupes and Apaporis are people who pound coca leaves into a power.” The footnote reads “Cocaine itself is a white crystalline alkaloid isolated from the leaves of the coca plant. As a narcotic, it is injected and is highly addictive. The Indians who chew coca leaves or take coca in the form of powder receive only a very small proportion of the active principle in their blood, the effect is correspondingly less harmful.

So moving on from the bit of grandstanding with the title, the book tells of four separate journeys in Colombia to visit six different tribes. I can outline the tribes briefly, but understand that this is not a couple of stoned university students hanging out with Indians chewing coca leaves. This book is close to an academic work. It is very detailed, and scientific in its information gathering, processing and documenting. It is far from a light read, and the relatively low page count is misleading as the type is small and closely line-spaced. This is a heavy read, accompanied by some excellent photographs - which would have been even more incredible with some modern camera equipment - ie they are very limited by their quality.

Journey 1 takes the authors to the Noanama tribe, on the San Juan river near the Colombia / Panama border. The Noanama tribe live in the tropical forest, with a hunting and fishing existence. They showed an absence of any central authority or chief, and the authority lay with the head of the individual houses, along with the considerable influence of the shaman. Family groupings were scattered through the forest. These similarities the Noanama shared with the Tukano, but the following differences were noted: The partially sedentary cultivation of the Noanama and their reliance on maize, as well as differences in craftsmanship and design - pottery, weaving, canoe construction etc.

Journey 2 visits the Tukano tribe, travelling down the Rio Piriparana near the Colombia / Brazil border. As noted above the Tukano shared enough similarities with the Noanama to conclude that in the not so distant history these two tribes had a single origin. The differences noted were the shifting agriculture of the Tukano and their staple being manioc. The two tribes are 600 miles apart, separated by the Andes, so perhaps a split migration is likely. These two tribes have had relatively frequent contact with traders and missionaries.

Journey 3 takes us to the Kogi and Bintukua tribes in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta near the northern coast at the Caribbean Sea. The Kogi have isolated themselves due to the fact that the land they occupy is of little use to the colonisers. The Bintukua however have had rather heavy contact with missionaries and colonising farmers.

Journey 4 visits the Guajiro and Motilon tribes. This journey is slightly further east of Journey 3, close to the Colombia / Venezuela border. Impressions of the Guajiro were minimal, as the authors spent only a very brief time with them - less than two days.

The Motilon, Kogi and Bintukua were essentially highland dwellers, Motilon in Cloud Forest, the others in high savannah tundra. The most noticeable thing about them is they wore clothes - the Motilon a long cloak reaching to his ankles, the Kogi a Jerkin, trousers and a sash. they had developed the use of a loom and wove cotton, sisal and even wool, unlike the forest dwellers who would still have gone naked or worn barkcloth but for the influx of trade cotton. Body paint was also used extensively by the forest dwellers, but not these highlanders.
The highlanders also lived in small settlements and villages, some in wattle walled houses with barricades against wildlife. The lack of authority in the forest dwelling tribes made them more relaxed and less aggressive. However the Motilon, ruled by their chiefs, for example were always itching for a fight - fighting amongst themselves if no enemy were available. The Motilon had developed an openly hostile attitude to intruders. The Kogi were ruled by their priests, leading a lifestyle more set down in rules.

Ironically, there was little about the recording of music in the book. They did manage to record several times, but the descriptions were fairly limited. I did find this a little strange, given it was their primary objective.

So, to rate this book... For a research based, academic book it provides a huge amount of information. To read, it is a bit dry, and fairly hard work, but rewarding nevertheless. I think 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4.