Andean tribes of the Mérida, Trujillo and Tachira area. 
The ‘“‘how’’ admits of more than one theory. wo 
possibilities especially present themselves when pertinent 
circumstances are considered. 
Chimo could have evolved through the contact of a 
lowland tobacco-use with the coca- complex, as described 
by Acosta Saignes. Or it could have resulted from a 
transmission of ambil techniques, including this tobacco 
concentrate itself, to which it bears so close a likeness. 
This latter possibility involves first of all the question of 
tribal contacts. Aguado (3), describing trading in wrao 
in the Venezuelan Andes, refers to extensive intertribal 
commerce preceding the Discovery. Acosta Saignes (1) 
lists commerce among prehistoric culture traits of the 
area, referring particularly to wrao and cotton mantles 
as trade articles. That there were strong intertribal con- 
tacts throughout an extensive area of both Colombia and 
Venezuela (some substantiated by archaeological discov- 
eries of common elements of culture) is stated in Métraux 
and Kirchhoff’s (45) account of Colombian Indians. 
The question of contact between tribes brings up an- 
other factor: ease or difficulty of access between groups. 
‘The topography of northern Colombia and northwest- 
ern Venezuela comprises mountain ranges separated by 
river valleys. Some of these valleys provide a way to 
the sea, others to the lowlands of the Maracaibo basin. 
The Venezuelan Andes are an extension of the Cordil- 
lera which runs the length of the Pacific coast of South 
America. This range bifureates as it enters Venezuela, 
one branch to the east, the Sierra or Cordillera de Mérida. 
One continues north along the Venezuela-Colombian 
border, the Sierra de Perija (which trends near the Sierra 
Nevada de Santa Marta). 
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is geographically 
and geologically distinct from the Andes, separated by 
[ 37 | 
