Abstract
The sixteenth century documents, pictorial codices, and iconographic and hieroglyphic texts are all evaluated to consider how earlier Indo-European perceptions of the New World influenced our current understanding of the roles and importance of maize to sociocultural development. Primary focus is given to the earliest primary and secondary ethnohistoric accounts regarding the role of maize to New World cultures. Since all the sixteenth century accounts were written to be part of history, they are generally narrative and descriptive (Carmack 1973). Their analytical and historical importance is not only that they provide a picture of relatively pristine native culture (see, e.g., Cortés 1963 (1485–1547?); 1991 (1519–1526); Díaz 1953 (1567–1575); and Landa 1975 (1566)), but also that they are a reflection of the sixteenth century New Word culture and their perceptions of the world around them. The only regions where native documents compare in ethnohistoric value to the Spanish sources are those written in Mexico and Guatemala during the sixteenth century (Carmack 1973; Carmack et al. 1996; and Barber and Berdan 1998). Most of the preHispanic codices were destroyed in various campaigns to eradicate pagan idolatry (Acosta 1961 (1590); Durán 1971 (1581); Landa 1975 (1566); Las Casas 1992 (1552); and Sepulveda and Las Casas 1975 (1540)). Those codices produced after the conquest are largely commissioned by the Spanish nobility and illustrated by indigenous and mestizo scribes who had converted to Catholicism. Consequently, the content of most such colonial indigenous texts were conditioned to varying degrees by sixteenth century European perceptions and cultural biases (Staller 2009).
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Notes
- 1.
Spanish influence stimulated a large corpus of Contact Period native Quichean documents. Most were written during the first half of the sixteenth century. The fact that some Spaniards as well as Mesoamerican scribes were literate is important for the study of native culture and sixteenth century European culture —therefore of potential value to archaeological and anthropological reconstruction (Carmack 1973; Carmack et al. 1996; and Schwartz 2000).
- 2.
The Capitulaciones reserved certain rights to the Crown of Spain in newly conquered territories, while at the same time guaranteeing the expedition leader due mercedes or rewards for services rendered to the Crown (Elliot 1963, p. 58). Columbus also expected to enjoy the spoils of conquest, through the attainment of property and captive slaves, as well as to receive the grants of the land and title of noble (Elliot 1963, pp. 58–59; see also Madariaga 1947).
- 3.
The House of Habsburg (sometimes spelled Hapsburg) was an important royal house in Europe best known for supplying all of the Holy Roman Emperors between 1452 and 1740, as well as numerous rulers and ruling families of the Spanish and Austrian Empire (Evans 1979). Charles V was heir to the Habsburg’s of Austria, The Valois of Burgundy, Trastamara of Castile and the House of Aragon (Elliot 1963, pp. 61–64; Evans 1979; Maltby 2002).
- 4.
The colonial letters or relaciones that come most often to mind are Hernán Cortés’ letters to Charles V of Spain such as “la carta de Vera Cruz” (Cortez 1991 (1519–1526), pp. 16–20, 33–34: Innes 1969), his Cartas y Documentos (Cortés 1963 (1485-1547). or Francisco Pizarro’s accounts through his scribe Xerex, of the conquest of Peru (Xerex 1985 (1534); see also Pizarro 1921 (1517)), or Bernal Díaz’ first-hand account of the conquest of Mexico (e.g., Díaz 1953 (1567–75)).
- 5.
Most of the pre-colonial codices written by the Yucatec Maya were destroyed under the orders of Diego de Landa, in his lifelong quest to eradicate idolatry.
- 6.
The first part of De La Natural Hystoria de Las Indias appeared in Seville during 1535. The complete work was not published until 1851–1855 for the Spanish Academy of History. Though written in a diffuse style, it embodies a mass of curious information collected first-hand. The incomplete Seville edition was widely read in the English and French versions published, respectively, in 1555 and 1556 (Fernández de Oviedo 1969 (1535)).
- 7.
Columbus's voyages across the Atlantic Ocean began a European effort at exploration and colonization of the western hemispere. Columbus's four voyages (between 1492 and 1504) came at a time when there was growing national imperialism and economic competition among various European nation states. The national imperial expansion occurred under the rule of Charles V, who in 1516 took the throne of Spain upon his marriage to Princess Joanna, the second daughter of King Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile (Elliot 1963, pp. 2–3). Charles V, later, took power as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, just before Cortés landed on the present-day Veracruz coast (Madariaga 1947; Maltby 2002). Many western ruling families in both the Christian and Islamic cultures began seeking wealth by establishing trade routes and colonies in other parts of the world (Madariaga 1947; Maltby 2002; and Schiebinger 2004).
- 8.
The bird turkey (Meleagris gallopavo L.) derives its name from these early trading patterns. European explorers who first encountered turkeys in the New World believed the birds to be type of guineafowl, and because of their importation to Central Europe by Turkish traders, there was a general tendency at that time to attribute exotic animals and plants to far-off places (Coe 1994b). During the sixteenth century, anything “Turkey” or “Turkish” was synonymous with “foreign” (Madariaga 1947; Elliot 1963).
- 9.
The last statement by Coma probably refers to parched maize.
- 10.
The first botanical illustration of maize appeared in 1535 in a little known book by Jerome Bock. Most early depictions were in herbals. Herbals were species lists popular in western Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as they satisfied an interest in the flora and fauna that grew around many European societies. Herbals were essentially precursors to regional flora lists documented by modern ecologists and botanists (Weatherwax 1954, p. 35).
- 11.
Fuchs made no attempt at a natural system of classification, but the woodcuts were however based upon first-hand descriptions, as well as botanical samples and are anatomically and morphologically accurate. Many later sixteenth – eighteenth century herbals have copied images from this herbal. Fuchs’ herbal includes 512 images of plants, largely locally grown, and printed from woodcuts. These include some of the earliest depictions of maize and chilli peppers in the Old World.
- 12.
Oviedo wrote two books about the natural history of the Americas, a shorter and longer version of the same theme, and an image of maize first appeared in an Italian translation, edited by Ramusio and first published around 1552 in a series of editions (Weatherwax 1954, p. 37, Fig. 14).
- 13.
The Mexican today make tortillas (tlaxcalli) or maize bread by soaking the kernels in water with ashes and chunks of lime. When the kernels have softened, the mixture is heated to the boiling point, and then placed upon a metate (metlatl) or griddle where it is ground into flour from which small, thin cakes are padded into shape. The cakes are then baked on a dry griddle (Durán 1971 (1588), p. 136 f. 6).
- 14.
Translation by Lee Newsom (2006, p. 328).
- 15.
When gourds were introduced into Europe, in the sixteenth century, they were generally associated with Old World species of cucumbers and melons. Many New World introductions of the family Cucurbitaceae, which is predominantly distributed in the tropics, were confused with similar edible fruits from the tropical regions of the Old World. Gourds and melons were amongst the earliest cultivated plants in both the Old and New Worlds.
- 16.
New World crops such as maize, beans and squash replaced Old World legumes and cereal grains in the Spanish diet, but indigenous cultures also began to incorporate such European crops into their diets (Landa 1975(1566), p. 67; see also Staller and Carrasco 2009; Staller 2009). Particularly important European contributions to the neotropic diet were poultry, pork, beef, and to a lesser extent mutton. Native techniques for cultivating indigenous crops and hunting wild game and fish were also adopted by the Spanish (Chaney and Deagan 1989, p. 180).
- 17.
A huge driving force of the Aztec state economy involved the destruction of large amounts of prestige goods and even ritually sacrificed humans. Such destructive activities and human sacrifice took place in the course of their state/court rituals and festivals. These cultural patterns suggest that both redistribution and ritual destruction of wealth was central to Contact Period political economies (Carrasco 1999, pp. 81–85).
- 18.
Chinampas were not owned by the farmers but the calpulli, which is a Nahuatl term meaning “Big house,” and referred to the core territorial unit of Aztec social organization (Schwartz 2000, p. 254). Calpullis were associated to land units or barrios and could refer to a clan system, somewhat analogous to ayllu in the Andes (see below). Farmers and their families who worked the chinampas and could increase their landholdings if the family increased in size or the calpulli-owned vacant land.
- 19.
Rather than grinding maize into flour to make cakes or tortillas as in Mesoamerica, the ways it is prepared in the Andes are parching (chojllo), popping (rosetas), boiling (chocohoka), and roasting (kamcha or hamka) (Valcárcel 1946, pp. 477–482).
- 20.
Tacácmez refers to the area between the mouth of what is today the Esmeraldas River and Cape San Francisco (Ceiza del León 1994 (1553), 86 f. 1).
- 21.
- 22.
Mit’a is a Quechua term used to refer to a form of corvée labor provided to the state for services rendered or commodities provided. In pre-Hispanic, non-market Andean economies, it represented a form of reciprocity between the polity and the community of laborers (Staller 2006b, p. 449).
- 23.
Quechua term for a landholding collectivity, self-defined in kinship terms, including lineages, which derive their wellbeing and identity from the same locality or place, and through this identity set apart as a distinct social unit (Staller 2006b, p. 453). Ayllu is similar in certain respects to the Aztec calpulli although in the case of the calpulli with reference to barrios in different parts of the city (see e.g., Carrasco 1999; Schwartz 2000).
- 24.
Translation by Sophie Coe 1994b, pp. 195–196.
- 25.
The Quechua word for maize beer is akka or aqha while the Aymara term is kufa (Nicholson 1960). Indigenous Andean populations in the present generally refer to maize beer as chicha.
- 26.
Karl Taube (1985, p. 181) points out, “his elongated tonsured head mimics the long-tasseled cob. Maize grain, at times infixed into his head, is an identifying feature of his personified nominal glyph.” Jade ornaments generally associated with the necklace worn by the young Maize Lord evoke verdant, precious qualities of the living plant (Karl Taube (1985, p. 181)).
- 27.
The Popol Vuh is an oral narrative of Quiche Maya mythological origins thought to have been written in the middle of the sixteenth century by Maya speakers (Stross 2006, p. 584).
- 28.
The conquistador Hernán Cortés sent the Dresden Codex as tribute to King Charles V in 1519 (Madariaga, 1947). The book was then lost and rediscovered later in Vienna in 1739. Since that time, it has been housed in the Royal Library in Dresden, Germany. It was partially destroyed by the firebombing of that city during World War II. Despite the damage inflicted upon the manuscript, the Dresden Codex is considered the most complete of the four remaining American codices (Aveni 2000).
- 29.
Quetzalcoatl literally means the “plumed or feathered serpent” and is considered by Mesoamerican scholars to have been the primary deity associated with priests and merchants, and revered for bringing language and civilization to Mexico. This deity has also been found to be associated with the Maya pantheon, where it was called Kukulucan. In both cases, offerings of maize in various forms were central to the rituals, rites and as offerings associated with this deity (Schwartz 2000).
- 30.
Tezcatlipoca literally means, “smoking mirror” in the Nahua language and he was considered the deity of rulers, sorcerers, shaman and warriors, as well as the lord of the night sky and divination (Schwartz 2000, p. 256). Taube and Miller (1993, p. 164) maintain that despite his many associations and symbolic referents, Tezcatlipoca was the “embodiment of change through conflict.”
- 31.
Huitzilopochtli, the blue hummingbird of the south, a form of sun god, was the patron deity of the Aztec and its temple located beside the main plaza or zocalo in the sacred center of Tenochtitlan was the site of much ritual human sacrifice (Schwartz 2000, p. 5; Carrasco 1999, pp. 199–200). Durán’s reference emphasizes the great importance of the maize goddess through her association with the patron deity of the Aztec culture.
- 32.
Tlalocan means “place of Tlaloc,” and had a temple dedicated to this deity on its summit (Durán1971 (1588?), p. 156). The temple on the summit of the mountain also had a centrally placed idol dedicated to the deity and smaller idols dedicated to the surrounding mountains and hills (Durán 1971 (1588?), p. 156).
- 33.
The central temple precinct was dominated by a great 60-meter-high pyramid with twin temples (the Great Teocalli), one to Tlaloc, and another to Huitzilopoctli, the patron deity of the Aztecs. Around the central precinct were 70–80 other palaces and temples, including the ruler's residence and the school for the priesthood. Beyond the enclosing wall were other palaces, temples, markets, and the adobe residential buildings, some of them two stories high with gardens on their roofs (Schwartz 2000; see also Díaz del Castillo 1953 (1567–75), pp. 177–182).
- 34.
If the Mesoamerican accounts are accurate, this would be in contrast to the Andes where popcorn varieties were most commonly used to make maize beer (see below).
- 35.
This term for maize beer is thought to be derived from “teiuinti,” a general term for intoxicating in those areas where pulque was not used for such drinks (Bruman 2000, p. 78).
- 36.
It is highly significant that the distribution of cornstalk beverages, and its use as a condiment directly corresponds to the biogeography where maize was originally domesticated, and where the earliest evidence of maize has been recorded archaeologically (see Bruman 2000, Map 8).
- 37.
Maguey leaves were also used to make thread from which cloth was manufactured, as well as paper “twice as big” as the size of paper produced by the Spaniards (Motolinía 1979 (1528), p. 246; see also Parsons 2006, 2009; Parsons and Parsons 1990). Jeffrey and Mary Parsons (1990, pp. 363–364) have noted that the management and exploitation of maguey and seed crops augmented the carrying capacity of the cold central highland environment (tierra fria) almost twofold than if such highland environments would have been solely cultivated with seed crops (see also Parsons 2009).
- 38.
Mecate is a Nahuatl term from the word mecatl or “cord.” The bark is sold in markets in Chiapas in the forms of small skeins composed of long pliable strips used mainly for tying bundles (Bruman 2000, p. 91).
- 39.
The term molle comes from Quechua word for tree, molli (Goldstein and Coleman 2004, p. 523).
- 40.
Huaca is a Quechua term for “sacred or extraordinary”. It is an all-encompassing term that can refer to sacred places in the landscape, mountains, certain locations associated with myth and legend, certain objects which were out of the ordinary or unusual in some way, even venerated ancestors (Vega 1966 (1609), p. 73, 76–77; Staller 2008, p. 269–270).
- 41.
Social disorder is generally defined in Inca culture as acts or activities that were detrimental or in some way harmful to the Sapa Inca or ruler or to Inca rule.
- 42.
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Staller, J.E. (2010). Ethnohistory: Impressions and Perceptions of Maize. In: Maize Cobs and Cultures: History of Zea mays L.. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04506-6_2
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