We kick off the season with the incredible coca leaf, a sacred plant the Andean people have used for at least 8,000 years! We cover where it grows, how it works chemically, and how it’s been used in healing and divination rituals. Plus, the haunting origin story of Kuka, a princess whose body became the coca plant, and why the coca leaf is not the same as cocaine. We end with the politics behind its ban and the push to reclassify it as a sacred plant. So excited to be back! Sources: A Growing Culture. (2024, November 28). The coca leaf. Offshoot. https://agrowingculture.substack.com/p/the-coca-leaf Earthstoriez. (n.d.). Bolivia | Peru: The legend of Mama Coca. https://earthstoriez.com/bolivia-peru-legend-folklore-mama-coca Fajardo M., Q. N. (2022). The tradition of coca leaf use for ancestral Indigenous people in Latin-America: Deconstructing the coca imaginary. Global History Dialogues. https://globalhistorydialogues.org/stories/the-tradition-of-coca-leaf-use-for-ancestral-indigenous-people-in-latin-america Goldstein, R. (2022). Life in traffic: Riddling field notes on the political economy of “sex” and nature. Cultural Anthropology, 37(2), 251–285. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca37.2.08 Inkaterra. (2019, January 25). The ancient ritual of coca leaf reading in the Andes. Inkaterra Blog. https://www.inkaterra.com/blog/coca-leaf-reading/ Mejía Zapata, G. A. (2025). Mama Coca chronicles: Navigating ancestral heritage and future narratives. Journal of Futures Studies, 30(1), 27–48. https://doi.org/10.6531/JFS.202509_30(1).0003 Przytomska, A. (2024). Embedded and borrowed subjectivity in the shamanic practices among Quechua from the Central Andes, Peru. Etnografia. Praktyki, Teorie, Doświadczenia, 10, 147–166. https://doi.org/10.26881/etno.2024.10.08 Quechuas Expeditions. (2023, February 27). The sacred coca leaf of the Incas. https://www.quechuasexpeditions.com/the-sacred-coca-leaf-of-the-incas/ Soliz, C., & Barragán, R. (Eds.). (2024). The struggle for natural resources: Findings from Bolivian history. University of New Mexico Press. Spencer, T., Westby, S., Massey, M., & Haddox, T. (n.d.). History and uses of the coca leaf. Yachana. https://www.yachana.org/teaching/students/webpages/andean2k/cocaine/history.html
