Who's assimilating?

It is interesting to read a book that tries to tackle 2 commodities at once. Our reading this week tries to show how similar tobacco and chocolate were because of their symbolic use by the
Amerindians and their medicinal introduction to Europeans. Very little time is spent discussing the growing, harvesting and distributing of these commodities. A lot of the book discusses their use in America and Spain's struggle figure out what to do about it. At first it was seen as pagan idolatry but the use of tobacco and chocolate quickly spread to the Spanish, mestizo and African populations that were exposed to it. With contact comes contamination, mingling and shared experiences. Indians may have been required to adopt Christianity, but in return they affected the culture of their conquerors as well.  Rather than stomp out the use and spread of these commodities, Spain becomes the threshold through which all of Europe becomes exposed to the pleasures of these New World commodities. In the end, the pagan qualities were forgotten in favor of the "medicinal" uses (not the first time I've encountered that irony).