BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
Vout. 13, No. 3 
CHICHA, A NATIVE 
SOUTH AMERICAN BEER 
BY 
Hueu C. Cutter! anp Martin CARDENAS? 
SIMPLE FERMENTED beverages enlivened the ceremo- 
nies of most Indian groups in the Americas long before 
the Conquest. These mildly alcoholic brews were so 
common in some regions that they may be regarded as 
furnishing substantial contributions to the diet. Even 
today this is true of Central Mexico, where pulque, made 
from the sap of the maguey plant, is the national drink; 
and of much of Bolivia and Peru, where enormous quan- 
tities of maize chicha are consumed. 
When discussing chicha it is necessary to specify the 
type, for the word ‘‘chicha’’ was spread by the Spaniards 
so that it is now used to designate both alcoholic and 
non-alcoholic beverages made from a wide variety of 
plants and prepared in diverse fashions. Many of these 
are listed by La Barre (1938). In a relatively simple 
community of the civilized Takana Indians near Rurren- 
abaque in the Bolivian lowlands, intoxicating chicha is 
prepared from mandioca (Manihot esculenta Crantz, 
1 Formerly Research Associate of the Botanical Museum of Harvard 
University. This work is part of that done while a Fellow of the Gug- 
genheim Foundation, 1946-47. 
? Professor of Plant Pathology and Genetics, Universidad Autono- 
Ct ve . * 6 
ma Simon Bolivar,’’ Cochabamba, Bolivia. 
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