With the limited hard data available concerning whistling jars, we can only postulate as to the use and function of these musical artifacts. Music, ritual and contact with more-than-human realms via hallucinogenic substances as well as in everyday belief systems are prevalent among indigenous South Americans today. We can speculate that these mystical religious beliefs were also prevalent in ancient times. With these thoughts in mind, we can theorize that whistling jars were used as a means of spiritual contact. It is unlikely, though, that they were used as receptacles for hallucinogenic substances as no organic stains in the vessels have been found. The disappearance of whistling jars in colonial times suggests, though it does not prove, the theory that whatever finictions or ceremonies with which the jars were associated at the time they were made were discontinued.