The Coca Plant:  Gendered Conversations with a Totemic Persona

Ana Gretel Echazú Böschemeier; Maria Eugenia Flores

Authors

Ana Gretel Echazú Böschemeier UFRN
Maria Eugenia Flores UNSa

Keywords:

Coca [Erythroxylum coca], Indigenous communities, Andes, Gender, Totemic entanglements

Abstract

This article explores how the Coca plant [Erythroxylum coca], despite its persecution in Americas since the XVIth Century and its criminalization during the “War on Drugs” in the XXth Century, remains a key interlocutor for Indigenous and rural communities in South America, with a focus in the Andean highlands. Viewing Coca as a persona involves understanding it within a complex web of totemic entanglements and plural ontologies. In the Andes, interpretations of Coca emphasize gendered interconnectedness rather than an essential femininity. Coca's gendered agency manifests itself in social, therapeutic, and spiritual practices, reinforcing meaningful conversations between human and nonhuman beings.

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Author Biographies

Ana Gretel Echazú Böschemeier, UFRN

Anthropologist, researcher, translator, and Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Graduate Program in Social Anthropology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte – UFRN, Brazil. She is an associate researcher with the TWAS/UNESCO program. Head of Division - SQTP/DQC/Ministry of Racial Equality, Brazil. Ambassador of the Parent in Science Movement. E-mail: gretigre@gmail.com

Maria Eugenia Flores, UNSa

Anthropologist, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, National University of Salta (UNSa, Argentina). Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET, Argentina). E-mail: pankraleon@gmail.com

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