Program for M@P2021

Welcome to Maya at the Playa Web Edition

Harri Kettunen - University of Helsinki

Mat Saunders - Davidson Day School/AFAR

Maxime Lamoureux - St-Hilaire - Davidson College/AFAR

Thursday, September 23 - 6:00pm

Harri, Mat and Max will kick the weekend off by sharing a brief overview of the conference and updates on all of AFAR’s projects and programs. They will attempt to help everyone navigate this virtual space, while summoning the spirits of the Maya at the Playa Conference to ensure an enjoyable time.

Mexican Cuisine: Prehispanic traditions and Colonial transformations

Claudia Alarcón Cacheux - Independent Gastronomy and Foodways Researcher

Verónica A. Vázquez López - Tulane University

Thursday, September 23 - 6:30pm

The workshop will present an overview of the history of Mexican cuisine, from its Prehispanic roots to the impact brought by the Spanish colonization.

The workshop is divided into two sections. In the first part, we will examine some sources that provide information on Prehispanic culinary traditions and how ingredients and traditions were introduced through the Spanish colonization, giving birth to what we now know as Mexican Cuisine. We will talk of the milpa agricultural system as a key element in culinary practices, which represents an element of continuity and resilience. In the second part of the workshop, we will prepare a few traditional recipes with strong Prehispanic roots that are part of daily life in Mexican households.

Continuity & Change in Ancient Maya Foodways

Marc Zender - Tulane University

Friday, September 24 - 4:00pm

This paper reviews archaeological, iconographic, epigraphic, and linguistic evidence for some select Maya foodways, principally the relative roles of corn and cacao products, documenting both the remarkable stability of some traditions and the equally significant changes in others, mostly due to cultural contact, civilizational rupture, and generational shift during some two millennia of recorded Maya history. Although hardly a frequent topic of Maya monumentality, with a few notable exceptions, numerous ceramic vessels, murals, and graffiti depict and/or textually reference Classic comestibles and beverages, and modern Mayan languages share numerous terms for these items, suggesting a long antiquity for various foods and drinks. Similarly, archaeologists have long documented the instruments and places of consumption, and have had surprising success in recent years in the direct chemical identification of ancient foodstuffs. Less clear have been the social settings for which various foods were considered appropriate: legacies of several periods of contact with Central Mexican culinary traditions (in the Early Classic and Postclassic periods), and the wholesale transformation of the royal court and its cuisine in the wake of a disastrous early 9th century civilizational collapse. And yet, surprising details about the dynamic social and political roles of food emerge if one takes a diachronic view informed by evidence from several distinct but complementary disciplines.

In pursuit of an experience: Representations of Maya communities, heritage, and cuisine in “foodie” media

Harper Dine — Brown University

Traci Ardren - University of Miami

Friday, September 24 - 5:00pm

Recent years have seen blossoming interest in “foodie” and cooking shows that pair a quest for “authentic” experience with footage of aesthetically pleasing, succulent food, through which the viewer can vicariously consume another culture. Within the last four years (2018-2020), the popular streaming platform, Netflix, has produced four original series in which at least one episode focuses heavily on Maya heritage and cuisine (especially the dish cochinita pibil), represented both as a facet of Yucatecan food today and as a remnant of the distant past— and in either case, as radically authentic, remote, and tied to the Maya area. In this paper, we analyze the representation of Yucatec Maya-speaking communities and Maya cuisine in these four series (Salt Fat Acid Heat; Ugly Delicious; Chef’s Table BBQ; Taco Chronicles), highlighting themes of past-present collapse, exoticization, appropriation, and what this indicates about the intended audience of the series. The shows catch themselves in contradicting narratives, creating tension between a desire to represent Maya cuisine as unchanged from the past while omitting discussions of Maya communities and their heritage in the present, or engendering erasure through co-option. Through this analysis, we question who benefits when a global spotlight settles on Maya communities and their food heritage.

Breaking Tamal: Commensality and Politics among the Ancient Maya

Maxime Lamoureux-St-Hilaire- Davidson College

Friday, September 24 - 6:00pm

Food is the great unifier. When humans gather, they drink and they eat. Elementary laws of anthropology are articulated by reciprocity – a force that dictates if the balance of sociopolitical relations is maintained or not. While the parameters of reciprocity vary greatly among and within modern and ancient societies, its variable influence dictates who remains connected with whom. And sharing food, either as the object of exchange, or the medium to facilitate other exchanges, always plays its part in every reciprocal event.
In this talk I explore the topic of commensality – the act of eating a meal with others – as a ubiquitous adhesive sociopolitical force among all segments of Maya society. This foray into ancient Maya foodways and political rapports brings forth questions of daily sustenance, feasts, and even larger gatherings. Beyond logic and theory, what archaeological correlates can we expect of these ever-recurring events? As archaeologists, should we be wary of using the term feast? Beyond broken pots and butchered bones, what evidence is there for ancient Maya commensality?

Buried Foods, Underworld Foods, Deep Foods: Oaxacan Gastronomy in Historical Context

Shanti Morell-Hart - McMaster University

Friday, September 24 - 7:15pm

 Contemporary Oaxacan cuisine holds iconic status, in a nation already known—and even celebrated in UNESCO’s List of Intangible Heritage—for gastronomy. Countless festivals each year are devoted to individual ingredients and special preparations, including chapulines enchilados, mezcal, quesillo, tejate, and at least seven moles. Though the origins of specific recipes may be disputed, archaeological investigations have managed to reveal a suite of culinary elements and activities through various methods and proxies. From early domesticates in the Archaic period, to seed banks in the Postclassic period, we see how food ingredients were hunted, cultivated, tithed, and hidden away for protection. They were also inherited, treasured, remembered—and sometimes forgotten.  

             Although many dishes in modern Oaxacan cuisine represent Deep Food, to borrow Devon Peña’s expression, the cuisine itself is far from timeless. Research into ancient Oaxacan cuisine has tracked earliest evidence of foodways through a contemporary boom in culinary heritage industries, revealing transformation as much as tradition. Here, I resituate the ‘Colombian Exchange’ in a deeper historical framework to address millennia of transported landscapes, family recipes, and seed exchanges, alongside tax, tribute, and offerings to the dead.  

Food Justice, Celebrity Chefs, and the Archaeology of Farming Communities in the Yaxunah Ejido, Yucatán

Chelsea Fisher - Washington & Lee University

Friday, September 24 - 8:00pm

In the past decade, the cooks from the Yucatec Maya community of Yaxunah have gained an international following thanks to the attention of acclaimed celebrity chefs. Now, even during the pandemic, culinary tourists flock to Yaxunah to explore the town’s archaeological ruins and to partake in the Maya meals made famous through local cooks’ collaborations with Noma, ranked as one of the best restaurants in the world, and with Netflix, which has filmed two media projects featuring the town’s cuisine. What does this attention mean for the long-term sustainability of food systems and Indigenous Maya food justice in Yaxunah and in other Yucatec communities? Here I share insights from the deep history of the Yaxunah landscape, gathered through ecological surveys conducted alongside practitioners of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and through archaeological investigations of Preclassic and Classic era Maya farming households in Yaxunah’s agricultural landholding. I will also reflect on the possible roles that meals, shared by archaeologists and community project members on-site, might play in advancing a truly long-term reckoning of food justice and agricultural sustainability in the Maya lowlands.  

From the Visible to the Invisible: Ancient Maya and Teotihuacan Foodways as Understood by the Study of Macro- and Microbotanical Remains

Clarissa Cagnato

Saturday, September 25 - 10:00am

Although paleoethnobotany (or the study of plant remains in archaeological contexts) supplemented by iconography, epigraphy, and ethnohistorical records have greatly enriched our knowledge regarding ancient Mesoamerican foodways, there is much that we still do not know regarding its nuances. In this talk I will focus on what we have learned on Maya and Teotihuacan foodways in recent years as revealed by the study of plant remains, both visible (macrobotanicals) and those invisible to the naked eye (microbotanicals). I will emphasize the importance of bringing together these assemblages to explore the intricacies of diets but also the ritual use of plants by ancient Mesoamerican people.

“Building Blood”: An Ethnographic Examination of Plants in Medicine and Myth among the Mopan Maya of San José, Belize

Kerry Hull - Brigham Young University

Mark Wright - Brigham Young University

Saturday, September 25 - 10:30am

Traditional exploitation of botanical resources by Mopan Maya of San José, Belize, provides a major portion of their food, medicine, and raw materials for daily life. In this study, based primarily on fieldwork data, we detail the use of forest botanicals by the Mopan Maya for ritual and medicinal purposes. In this paper, we discuss how the Mopan Maya of Belize attribute certain diseases to a folk understanding of human blood (k’ik’) properties. The Mopan believe specific plants affect the quality or nature of blood (i.e., it being too “sweet,” “strong,” “weak,” etc.). We further describe how specific plants are said to affect the quality or nature of blood and the native ethnobotanical methods used to moderately “strengthen” or “build” blood. We look at how certain blood-related disorders are diagnosed by traditional healers (ilmaj) based on perceived irregularities in the blood and the variety of methods prescribed to ingest or tap into curative qualities of individual plants. Furthermore, we investigate emic Mopan concepts of wellness and disease embedded in their understanding of blood and the necessity to maintain an equilibrium within their blood by using forest botanicals. Finally, we detail the use of various medicinal plants by the Mopan in treating specific categories of physical and ethnopsychiatric disorders.

Libations and Beverages of the Gods: Gender, Foodways and Ritual Feasting in Colonial Maya Rituals, 1527-1797

John F. Chuchiak IV - Missouri State University

Saturday, September 25 - 11:15am

Food and drink offerings for the gods remained some of the most important Maya sacrifices given in a ritual context. The very act of offering food and drink to the gods, P’a chi in Yucatec Maya, meant “to open the mouth.” The term alone, in combination with the custom of "feeding" the offerings to the mouth of the god-image (“idol”), illustrates the significance of food offerings for the Maya and their gods. The ritual and religious significance of food and drink offerings in Maya religion cannot be underestimated in a land where subsistence remained precarious. Offerings of food and drink propitiated the deities and ensured a good harvest because the Maya believed that if one fed the gods, the gods would in tum feed them.

Central to these Maya concepts of ritual feasting and offerings to their gods and spiritual intercessors were several important ritual beverages and libations. Made variously from fermented honey, cacao and corn, the sacred Maya triad of ritual beverages Saca, Balché and Chuyul Ha (a corn and cacao-based beverage), these three beverages and the gendered nature of their ritual creation served an important role in Maya acts of ritual feasting and in solidifying and unifying acts of communal social cohesion.

 This paper examines the intricacies of Colonial Yucatec Maya perceptions and usages of these three sacred beverages and libations to the gods, and examines aspects of gender and social relations involved in their elaboration and ritual use.

There was Only Joy in their Hearts When They Feasted: Feasting as a Means of Binding of the Flesh among the Highland Maya

Allen J. Christenson - Brigham Young University

Saturday, September 25 - 1:00pm

As in many cultures whose livelihood is based to a significant degree on agriculture, the Maya believe that human birth, death, and rebirth are inextricably linked to the life cycle of sacred plants such as maize or the world tree. Among the Maya, maize is not only essential to survival as a staple of their diet, but to all aspects of their cultural identity, ritual practices, familial relationships, and even their ability to speak their language properly. According to the Popol Vuh account of the creation, human beings were created in order to sustain and provide for the world, to maintain its life-giving ability, and to ensure that the lives of the gods themselves are renewed in season. Maya gods are not all powerful or immortal. A god cannot be reborn without passing through old age, weakness and ultimately death. Both life and death must dance together on the great stage of the world in predictable but inevitable cycles. The relationship between the Maya and maize is one of reciprocity. Human beings could not exist without maize as the principal staple of their diet. But the creator gods also require human beings to tend, care for, and nurture the maize crops.

Manjares tradicionales de San Martín Jilotepeque, Guatemala

Dora Maritza García Patzán - Universidad Comenio de Bratislava

Saturday, September 25 - 1:45pm

La comida es un elemento muy importante para conocer a las sociedades, en cualquier parte del mundo, reflejo de su producción, costumbres y tradiciones alimentarias. No podemos negar que al viajar a cualquier lugar nos interesamos en conocer los platos tradicionales, su forma de preparación, elementos culturales y por supuesto, su sabor. En el caso de Mesoamérica, existen ingredientes comunes y característicos, como el maíz, cuya domesticación se remonta alrededor de 9000 años a.C. que se plasmó en varios elementos de las culturas antiguas y que continúa hasta la actualidad. Es así, como nos ubicaremos en el Altiplano central de Guatemala, en un pueblo maya kaqchikel ubicado entre las montañas, llamado San Martín Jilotepeque “cerro de maíz tierno”, donde precisamente la base de la alimentación es el maíz. Dentro de los principales platillos de Jilotepeque, se puede mencionar el Subanik y el Pulique, este último plato el más arraigado en mi familia destinado a las principales fiestas y celebraciones. Entorno a la preparación de estos platos, que se desarrolla alrededor del fogón, se mantiene una línea de tradiciones que se han transmitido de generación en generación. No es solo la preparación de comida, es todo un ritual profundo que une a la familia, especialmente a las mujeres que son las encargadas de cocinar con sus utensilios y vasijas específicos. Cada elemento tiene un significado especial y los momentos para cada procedimiento, desde que se buscan los ingredientes, hasta el momento en el que se sirve y se come en diferentes contextos. 

The Archaeologist’s Plate, or Eating Like an Archaeologist

Shawn Gregory Morton - Grand Prairie Regional College

Meaghan Peuramäki-Brown - Athabasca University

Saturday, September 25 - 2:30pm

Food is the perfect subject for archaeological research, not only for its inherent materiality but also for the breadth of studies to which we might subject it. We can understand the creation and consumption of food as an economic or social activity, a technological process, an expression of creativity or conformity, piety or blaspheme, or (more commonly than we would perhaps like to believe) as a political statement. It speaks to health and well-being. It is the subject of artistic representation and literary description. It’s also, judging by what’s trending at any given time on Netflix, simply and intrinsically interesting. There is no mystery to this; we are interested in food because it is universal. We all eat, ideally, every day. Archaeologists and other anthropologists can learn a lot about Maya peoples (past and present) by studying their food. However, in a departure from this theme, we turn the lens to explore the archaeologist's food traditions in this presentation. We’ll focus our discussion on the foodways of a small segment of these researchers—those of us working in Belize—to get a taste of what’s on the archaeologist’s plate and what it says about us as the research subjects.

Classic Maya Breakfast: Recipes in Classic Maya Texts

Albert Davletshin - Universidad Veracruzana

Daria Sekacheva - Russian State University for the Humanities

Sunday, September 26 - 11:00am-2pm

In traditional societies, number, time and content of meals are strictly regulated. Cultures are biologically wise and without any doubt advancement of Mesoamerican, Egyptian, Chinese and many other cultures can be explained in terms of what, when and how people ate. Transition between sleep and wakefulness is not easy as pie for many of us: how would you deal with it without coffee and tea? Many names for dishes and drinks are found on ceramic vessels of Classic Period, so we can reconstruct few recipes. During the workshop, we will try to figure out which dishes the Ancient Maya started the day with, what foods and drinks were never consumed for breakfast and how many meals a day a person could afford. Our point of departure will be a recently deciphered term for “breakfast plate”. The workshop will focus on inscriptions and images on ceramic vessels.