Americans Celebrate with Food, Whether New Year's Eve, the 4Th Of
Corn-Pork-Beef-Wheat Evening Presentation Iowa State University Ames, Iowa Americans celebrate with food, whether New Year’s eve, the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, or a host of local or regional, secular and religious festivities. American food has evolved and diversified through the centuries, from the simple, sustaining dishes of Colonial times to the complex food combinations that characterize the new millennium. Behind each food lies a history of use at different times at different geographical regions of America. Today, my objective is to briefly explore four of these foods: corn and pork; beef and wheat. And I begin with corn. Some call it maize, others call it corn. Regardless of name it is the same food, Zea mais. The word maize comes from the Taino language, spoken by the Arawaks, a Caribbean Native American nation, who greeted Columbus in 1492. The word maize subsequently transferred to Spanish, and entered other European languages as well. The alternative word, corn, originally spelled corne, is an Old English generic term for grain, whose meaning subsequently shifted to designate wheat. American-style English, however, continues to use the word corn in the sense of maize, usage that has continued into the 21st century. Maize was domesticated and first cultivated in the central valley of Mexico, perhaps 6,000 years ago, and ultimately became the primary dietary staple throughout Mesoamerica. Cultural exchange and trade gradually brought maize and other Mesoamerican crops northward into the geographical region now defined by the United States, where the grain was adopted in the semi- arid lands of the American southwest about 1,000 years ago, and about 800 years ago in the eastern seaboard region of North America.
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