Abstract
One of the least-explored areas in the analysis of prehistoric ceramics is how pottery vessels were actually used; that is, the particular purpose they served (Rice 1996:139). Such insights are often thwarted or ignored in classification schemes tailored primarily to deduce temporal frameworks and patterns of ceramic interaction, and most type-variety studies of prehistoric Maya pottery are no exception. Treating pots as tools designed to meet a specific need (Braun 1983) provides valuable insight into prehistoric behavior well beyond what is achievable through typological analysis alone.
My intent in this study is to demonstrate the value of the “pots as tools” perspective by examining the utilitarian vessels used by the earliest fully sedentary Maya villagers (ca. 1000–800 bc) to prepare lime-pretreated maize, or nixtamal, most likely for tamales or other gruel-based foods.1 I begin by outlining the technology and implements required to make nixtamal, the nutritional advantages of preparing maize in this manner, and ethnographic examples of its application. I then summarize available data concerning the productivity of early maize in the Maya Lowlands in order to generate probable crop sizes and corresponding caloric values for the period in question. The volume of ceramic vessels used to process maize in two separate areas of the lowlands, the Belize Valley and central Petén, are presented and linked with estimated household supplies of maize. I conclude that the amount of maize required to make nixtamal at this early date necessitated a multi-household effort in both areas, and that consumer groups in the central Petén were probably larger than in the Belize Valley. The cooperative nature of maize processing indicates extended household social organization from the outset of village life in the Maya Lowlands and hints that during the preceding Late Preceramic period consumer groups were organized in a similar manner.
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Notes
- 1.
All dates in this chapter are presented in uncalibrated radiocarbon years bc.
- 2.
Clearing land with stone tools, which requires about twice the labor input as steel machetes and axes (see Hester 1952), may also have discouraged the unnecessary clearing of primary forest. However, large trees also can be killed by “girdling” the trunk – removing an encircling strip of bark and wood – thus inducing defoliation and allowing sunlight to reach the ground. This strategy, which is greatly aided with the use of fire, has the potential to reduce the requisite labor to clear primary forest (see Piperno and Pearsall 1998:180), although to what extent is unknown in the absence of quantified ethnographic data.
- 3.
The fibrous cup-like depression or socket from which a maize kernel grows and becomes imbedded.
- 4.
Although various preserved portions of prehistoric maize plants are reported for the central Mexican Highlands (see Mangelsdorf et al. 1967:184–187, 190–194), the number of ears per plant through time is unknown.
- 5.
The lack of colanders in northern Belize is not surprising. Swasey material dates to late Cunil horizon times and by 800 bc colander production ceased in all areas. However, their absence in the Pasión area is odd given the considerable ties between serving vessels in this area, the central Petén, and Belize Valley. Either colanders were used and simply not found during excavations, or other methods of rinsing corn were prevalent in the area.
- 6.
James Stuart (letter to author, January 10, 2002), who has made extensive observations of Nahua nixtamal production in Veracruz, states that rinsing in a stream or other moving body of water is preferred, since the frequent replenishment of clean water while the nixtamal is rubbed and kneaded is the most effective means of removing the lime and pericarp pieces. Where access to such a water source is inconvenient, water is periodically brought in and the nixtamal washed in buckets.
- 7.
Mixe-Zoquean speaking groups of the greater Isthmian area to the west (Chiapas, southern Veracruz, and eastern Oaxaca) are a possible source of inspiration for this tradition. The reconstructed Mixe-Zoquean vocabulary includes a word for nixtamal (pici) and numerous other maize-related loan words (Campbell and Kaufman 1976:85, 87) that diffused to distant regions of Mesoamerica, including the Maya Lowlands, most likely during the final two centuries of the second millennium bc.
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Acknowledgments
I thank Martin Biskowski, Oralia Cabrera, John Clark, George Cowgill, John Hodgson, Terry Powis, Ian Robertson, Arleyn Simon, John Staller, Barbara Stark, and James Stuart for their constructive comments. Travel funds to examine ceramic collections were provided by the New World Archaeological Foundation (John Clark, Director). Other people who made this work possible include Jaime Awe, Pat Culbert, Vilma Fialko, Paul Healy, John Hodgson, Juan Pedro Laporte, Lisa LeCount, Richard Leventhal, and the late Gordon Willey. Nora López Olivares, former Director of Prehispanic and Colonial Monuments of the Institute of Sports, Anthropology, and History (IDAEH) in Guatemala City, allowed me to study pottery from Uaxactun and Altar de Sacrificios; Gloria Polizzotti Greis and the directors of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University granted access to pottery from Seibal, Uaxactun, Altar de Sacrificios, and Barton Ramie; and Norman Hammond and Laura Kosakowsky provided access to Cuello pottery at Boston University. Special thanks are due to Arleyn Simon, who provided sound advice and support during our many discussions about pots and corn.
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Cheetham, D. (2010). Corn, Colanders, and Cooking: Early Maize Processing in the Maya Lowlands and Its Implications. In: Staller, J., Carrasco, M. (eds) Pre-Columbian Foodways. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0471-3_14
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