The Archaic Diet in Mesoamerica: Incentive for Milpa Development and Species Domestication Author(s): Daniel Zizumbo-Villarreal, Alondra Flores-Silva and Patricia Colunga-García Marín Source: Economic Botany, Vol. 66, No. 4 (15 December 2012), pp. 328-343 Published by: Springer on behalf of New York Botanical Garden Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23325647 Accessed: 09-04-2019 03:03 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23325647?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Springer, New York Botanical Garden Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic Botany This content downloaded from 129.108.9.184 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 03:03:47 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Daniel Zizumbo-Villarreal*, Alondra Flores-Silva, and PatriciaThe Archaic Colunga-García Diet in Mesoamerica: Marín Incentive for Milpa Development and Species Domestication1 Unidad de Recursos Naturales, Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán A.C., Mérida, Yucatán, México "Corresponding author; e-mail: [email protected] The Archaic Diet in Mesoamerica: Incentive for Milpa Development and Species Domestication. One of the central questions in the development of Mesoamerican civilization is how the alimentary, agronomic, and ecological complementarities were achieved within the milpa agroecosystem, which is one of its more important and distinctive cultural elements. In the Mesoamerican center of origin of agriculture and domestication of plants, located in western Mexico, we inquired among Náhuatl communities about the ancient dishes prepared with wild plants that are part of their ancient foodways, and the tools and technology used to prepare them. We found that the wild progenitors of Agave spp., Zea mays L, Cucurbita argyrosperma Hort. Ex L.H. Bayley, Phaseolus spp., Capsicum annum L., Solanum lycopersicum L., Physalis phyladelphica Lam, Spondias purpurea L., Persea americana Mill., and Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit are consumed in dishes that remain in the present food culture of the poor peasants, and are prepared with techniques and tools that were available in the Archaic period: Sun drying, roasting, toasting, baking, cracking, grinding, crushing, fermenting, and soaking in plain water or in water with ash, using three stone fireplaces, stone toasters, crushers, grinders, rock pits, and three types of earth ovens. A remarkable finding was that beans could be incorporated into the diet without boiling, but just by toasting, stone grinding, and baking in corn dough tamales. Results obtained suggest that the basic Mesoamerican diet could have been shaped before the species involved were domesticated. Its nutritional complementarity since the Archaic period could have been one of the incentives for the development of the milpa system and the domestication of its species, achieving in this way also their ecological and agronomical complementarity. La Dieta Arcaica en Mesoamérica: Incentivo para el Desarrollo de la Milpa en Mesoamérica y para la Domesticación de Especies. Una de las preguntas centrales acerca del desarrollo de la civilización Mesoamericana es cómo se logró la complementariedad alimentaria y agroecológica dentro del agroecosistema milpa, el cual es uno de sus elementos culturales más importantes y característicos. En el centro Mesoamericano de origen de agricultura y domesticación de plantas que se encuentra en el occidente de México, investigamos entre comunidades Náhuatls los platillos basados en plantas silvestres que forman parte de su cultura alimentaria antigua, y las técnicas e instrumentos que utilizan para elaborarlos. Encontramos que los ancestros silvestres de Agave spp., Zea mays L, Cucurbita argyrosperma Hort. Ex L.H. Bayley, Phaseolus spp., Capsicum annum L., Solanum lycopersicum L., Physalis phyladelphica Lam., Spondias purpurea L., Persea americana Mill., e Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit son consumidos en platillos que permanecen en la cultura alimentaria de los campesinos pobres, y que son elaboradas con técnicas y herramientas que estuvieron disponibles en el periodo arcaico: secado al sol, asado, tostado, horneado, triturado, molido, exprimido, fermentado y remojado en agua o en agua con cenizas, usando el fogón de tres piedras, los tostadores, exprimidores y moledores de piedra, los pozos de piedra y tres tipos de horno bajo tierra. Un hallazgo relevante es que los frijoles pudieron ser incorporados a la dieta sin ser hervidos, sino solo tostados, molidos en piedras y horneados en tamales de masa de maíz. 1 Received 30 March 2012; accepted 14 September 2012; published online 24 October 2012. Economic Botany, 66(4), 2012, pp. 328-343 © 2012, by The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, NY 10458-5126 U.S.A. This content downloaded from 129.108.9.184 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 03:03:47 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 2012] ZIZUMBO-VILLARREAL ET AL.: THE ARCHAIC DIET IN MESOAMERICA Los resultados obtenidos sugieren que la dieta básica Mesoamericana pudo haberse conformado antes de que las especies involucradas fueran domesticadas. Su complementariedad nutricional desde el periodo Arcaico pudo haber sido uno de los incentivos para el desarrollo del agroecosistema milpa y la domesticación de sus especies, lográndose así también su complementariedad agroecológica. Key Words: Archaic diet, Mesoamerica, domestication, milpa, foodways, Agave, Zea, Cucurbita, Phaseolus, Capsicum. Introduction (Leonard et al. 2002; Savolainen et al. 2002) and with a possible African domesticate, the bottle Mesoamerica is a geographical and cultural area extending from central Mexico to the northern and gourd (Lagenaria siceraria L.), as a container (Erickson et al. 2005). These instruments endowed western portions of Central America. In it one of small human groups with a high mobility, the prime ancient civilizations was developed. Its bountiful gathering, and the capacity to hunt foodways were based on the agro-ecosystem known minor wildlife (MacNeish 1964; MacNeish and as milpa, composed of maize (Zea mays L.), beans Nelken-Turner 1983; Poinar et al. 2001). (Phaseolus spp.), and squashes (Cucurbita spp.). For these human groups, fire became a key tool These species, although cultivated in the same for hunting and for the initial use of species that habitat, occupy different ecological niches. To this were later domesticated. More than 220 groups of trio, other particular species of each subregion are hunter-gatherers from the southwestern and the integrated. In spite of their ancient and present Great Central Plains of North America used fire importance, we know little about the way and time to establish pastureland, guide and hedge animals, in which this agro-ecosystem was established. One and to increase the production of fruits and grains of the central questions of its study is how the (Griffin 2002; Lewis 1972; Parker 2002; Russell alimentary and agroecological complementarity of 1983; Williams 2003). They also used rocks as its species was achieved. tools for grinding seeds and grains. Fireplaces and Archaeobotanical and genetic-molecular studies earth ovens were used for cooking tubers and indicate that in the west of Mesoamerica, in the roots rich in starch and inulin, as well as for biogeographic region Balsas-Jalisco (BJR) (Fig. 1), cooking meat resulting from hunting. Fireplaces maize and Cucurbita argyrosperma Hort. Ex L.H. and earth ovens have been identified in Europe Bayley were domesticated ca. 9,000 BP (Matsuoka and Asia as early as 32,000 BP and 30,000 BP et al. 2002; Piperno et al. 2009; Ranere et al. (Thorns 2009; Wandsnider 1997); whereas, in 2009; Sanjur et al. 2002), as was Phaseolus vulgaris the North American Paleo-Indian sites, the oldest L. (Kwak et al. 2009) and P. lunatus L. (Serrano records come from Alaska and the Great Plains Serrano et al. 2012), being then possible that in between 10,500 BP and 10,000 BP (Thoms 2009). this area they could have been integrated as an In Mexico, the earth oven registries date from agro-ecosystem. 6,900 BP in the north and west of the country The human groups that arrived in Mesoamerica (Dering 1999). between the years 10,600 BP and 10,000 BP, In the west and the south of Mesoamerica, coming from the southwestern and the Great between 10,000 BP and 9,000 BP, the cool Central Plains of North America, had a culture adapted flora was replaced by seasonal rain forest based on hunting and gathering. They had ample and acute, prolonged dry periods during spring, utilization of plants, particularly mesquite (Prosopis previous to the start of the summer rains (Metcalfe spp.), oak acorns (Quercus spp.), grass grains, and 2006; Piperno et al. 2007). The paleoecological century plant (Agave spp.) stems (Dixon 2000; records indicate an increased accumulation of Doebley 1984). Their previous knowledge of the carbon from the west of Mesoamerica to the south alimentary use of agaves, cacti, grasses, and coast