PUREPÉCHA Y PESCADO: Food, Status, and Conquest in 16Th
PUREPÉCHA Y PESCADO:
Food, Status, and Conquest in 16th Century Michoacán
Daniel A. LaCerva
A Thesis
Submitted to the Graduate College of The University of Toledo In partial fulfillment of The requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
August 2017
Committee:
Dr. Charles Beatty-Medina - Chair
Dr. Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch
Dr. Bruce Way
ABSTRACT
This thesis looks at the effects of the Spanish conquest on the diet and social structure of the Tarascan people of Michoacán in the 16th century. Looking at the period from conquest to the early days of the 17th century, this work charts how the Tarascans identified with their food and how the introduction of new foods changed these markers. This change in diet accompanied changes in social structure and disruptions in the lifestyles of both noble and common indigenous peoples. This work identifies the relationships between these disruptions and the development of diets throughout the era of conquest and colonization.
1 DEDICATION
I dedicate this thesis to Katie, for all her love and support, my Father, who fostered my love of history and culture, and my Mother, who inspired my passion for food. I could not have done this without you.
2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge the support of all my professors, staff and peers at the University of Toledo and elsewhere who have helped, inspired, and supported me throughout my schooling there. Without you, I would never have completed this work. I want to thank Dr. Roberto Padilla, Dr. Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch, Dr. Bruce Way, Dr. Chelsea Griffis, Dr. Kristen Geaman, Dr. Seamus Metress, Dr. Rebecca Earle, Jennifer Rockwood, Amada Esquivel, Alysia Shaffer, Yuan Deng, Joshua Steedman, and my mentor, Dr. Charles Beatty-Medina. I would also like to thank the staff and archivists at the Benson Latin American Collection and the John Carter Brown Library.
3 Contents ABSTRACT ...... 1 INTRODUCTION ...... 5 Review of Literature ...... 10 Chapter Breakdown ...... 14 Methodology ...... 16 CHAPTER I ...... 18 TARASCOS Y TAMALES: Food and Identity in Pre-Conquest Michoacán Tarascan Identity and Social Hierarchy ...... 20 Eres Lo Que Comes ...... 22 Maize and Men – The Tarascan Diet ...... 24 Trade and Tribute ...... 29 Social Stratification ...... 33 Conclusion ...... 36 CHAPTER II ...... 38 CONQUISTA Y CARNE: Spanish Influence on Tarascan Diet and Lifestyle Conquest and Food Consumption...... 39 Nobles and Power ...... 41 Comida y Comodidad ...... 43 Introduction of Old World Food ...... 46 New Foodstuffs and New Lifestyles ...... 50 Marketplace & Taverns ...... 52 Conclusion ...... 54 CHAPTER III ...... 55 PULQUE Y PESTILENCIA: Disease and Diet in Late 16th Century Michoacán Relaciones Geograficas ...... 57 Food in the Late 16th Century ...... 59 Pestilencia ...... 61 Reaction ...... 64 Encomiendas and Noble Status ...... 66 Conclusion ...... 68 CONCLUSION ...... 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 72
4 INTRODUCTION
As in most of Mesoamerica, 16th century Michoacán, the Tarascan homeland, saw a massive transformation in social relationships as a result of the Spanish conquest. However, the social crisis it created was nearly as profound within native Michoacán society as the arrival of
European power. Spanish authority reconstituted Tarascan society as native class structures underwent measurable disruption and change. Tarascan commoners and the native nobility underwent a dramatic transformation, evident in all areas of social life, particularly in food culture, long a traditional marker of social demarcation in Michoacán society. Food culture changed in ways that reflected the breakdown of the Tarascan social hierarchy. This thesis examines the changes in food production and consumption and changes in native power structure. I argue that the changing nature of food through the period of conquest and colonization had profound effects on social hierarchy in 16th century Michoacán.
The importance of this study lies in examining how changes in food culture reflected and affected indigenous identity and social relationships in 16th century Michoacán. As food culture changed within Tarascan communities, it assisted in the disintegration of the pre-conquest social hierarchy. In this study, I have applied many fundamental concepts on food and identity in an area where historians have not previously observed food as a marker of societal change. This thesis aims to understand how food, sometimes overlooked in the turbulence of sweeping societal change, highlighted and accelerated changing social relations among 16th century
Tarascans.
Food is linked with the self through the act of incorporation. The incorporation of food into the body is as much a sociocultural act as it is a biological act. By ingesting and incorporating foods into their body, the consumer accepts the food into their body and places
5 himself within the community attached to it.1 By ingesting the same foods, humans make food cultures that could help reflect social hierarchy. Over time, humans establish a staple diet in their civilizations, usually dependent on the availability of goods that they produce and acquire.
However, in many instances, the distribution of food is dependent not on availability, but with concern for maintenance of social hierarchy.
Food is a clear marker of social class. People choose foodstuffs to reflect oneself and how one wants to appear in society.2 Certain foods are attached to certain social classes, so the diner demonstrates a place in that class through consuming those foods. Russell Lynes described what he called highbrows, middlebrows and lowbrows to label different level of the social and cultural hierarchy.3 In his descriptions, highbrows ascribe high cultural meanings to their foods, while the lowbrows are less fussy about their diets. In his instance, highbrows drink red wine and eat salads with oil and vinegar while lowbrows drink beer and eat coleslaw. This implies that wine is a signifier of high class and beer a signifier of lower social standing. Social groups are characterized by different styles of life, and food is a significant expression of style.4 However, as will be investigated in a later chapter, these associations can change dramatically as food cultures and perceptions change.
My work covers the time period between the arrival of the Spaniards and the implementation of congregaciones: 1522 to 1605.5 It looks at the conditions of native peoples in
1 Claude Fischler, "Food, Self and Identity," Social Science Information 27 (1988) 275. 2 Deborah Lupton, Food, the Body and the Self, (London: Sage, 1996) 23. 3 Adrienne Lehrer, “As American as Apple Pie-and Sushi and Bagels: The Semiotics of Food and Drink,” Recent Developments in Theory and History The Semiotic Web (1990) 389. 4 Jack Goody, Cooking, Cuisine and Class: A Study in Comparative Sociology, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) 191. 5 Felipe Castro Gutiérrez, "Identity and Ethnicity in Colonial Michoacán: Corporatism, Social Contract, and Individualism among the Tarascans," in From Tribute to Communal Sovereignty: The Tarascan and Caxcan Territories in Transition, ed. Robert V. Kemper, Julie Adkins and Andrew Roth Seneff (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2015) 141. 6 Michoacán .This area, under the rule of the Tarascan State, as the Spaniards called it, began undergoing a transformation when conquered in 1530.6 The Spaniards incorporated the area into the Colonial state of Michoacán, roughly the geographic area that is now the Mexican Republic state of Michoacán, including portions of the modern states of Jalisco and Guanajuato.7 In social terms, the focus of this paper is on the clash between indigenous commoners and the noble class of natives with the Spanish conquest serving as a medium for change.
There are a multitude of terms to refer to the many various social groups, ethnic groups and geographical markers in Michoacán. The difficulty in finding a term is due to there being no evidence as to what the people of the area referred to themselves as. While names for particular social classes exist from within the group, a homegrown label for the entirety of the group does not exist. The term Michoacán itself is not of the area, and is instead rooted in Nahuatl. The
Aztecs used the term to refer to their neighbors to the west, who lived amongst many fishing lakes, so the term Michoacán translates to “the place of the people who have fish” or simply
“land of the fishermen.” Historians do not know if the Tarascans ever referred to themselves as
“Michoacános” as there is no evidence of such.
I use the term Tarasco or Tarascan throughout this work to refer to the Empire conquered by the Spaniards. It is the term one most commonly used by both the Spanish conquerors and historians of the region. The Spaniards, in a misunderstanding of the native language, created this label. The indigenous nobles allowed the Spanish conquerors to wed their daughters and thus called the Spanish tarháskua, which, in their language, meant “father-in-law.” The Spanish
6 Martín de Jesús de la Coruña, The Chronicles of Michoacán, trans. Eugene R. Craine and Reginald C. Reindrop (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970) xv-xvi. 7 R. A. M. Van Zantwijk, Servants of the Saints. The Social and Cultural Identity of a Tarascan Community in Mexico (Assen: Van Gorcum & Comp, 1967) 34. 7 continued to use this term to refer to the native peoples of the region, even after learning its true meaning. Because of it being an inappropriate term used to identify them, native peoples of all social rankings took the use of the term as derogatory and embarrassing. The widespread use of the word “Tarascan” in Spanish sources, however, has led to it becoming the primary demonym when referring to the people of Michoacán.
In labeling the common people of the Tarascan Empire, it is appropriate to use the word
Purepécha. The word Purepécha is also the glossonym of the language spoken by the people of the Tarascan world. The language marked political boundaries between the Tarascan Empire and the people of the neighboring Aztec Empire, who spoke Nahuatl.8 According to dictionaries compiled by Spaniards following the conquest, the word purepécha means “maceguales la gente comun,” relating the word to the maceguales, the common people of the Aztec Empire.9 The term stems from the word purepechaenstani, which means, “to become cowed or intimidated,” further reflecting its association with the lower or common class of citizens.10 In some instances, because of its association with the language of the area, outsiders have used the term purepécha to label all citizens of the Tarascan Empire. Because of its common class associations, however, this word is inappropriate to use to refer to the noble natives and will be reserved only for referencing commoners in Michoacán. This term continues to be a label for modern indigenous peoples in Michoacán, demonstrating the lasting effect of the indigenous peoples of the area.11
This work begins with a focus on the role of food within the social structure of pre- conquest Michoacán. The Tarascan government contained a complex political culture and a
8 Angélica Jimena Afanador-Pujol, The Relación De Michoacán (1539-1541) and the Politics of Representation in Colonial Mexico, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015) 2. 9 Vocabulario en Lengua de Mechuacan, 47, Chronicles of Michoacán, 30. 10 Castro Gutiérrez et al. 2015, 134. 11 Castro Gutiérrez et al. 2015, 134. 8 number of native nobility continued to thrive after the conquest. At the time of conquest and for two hundred years prior, the Tarascan Empire was under the rule of the Uacusecha, a noble family that had established the capital at Tzintzunstan. Ancestral lineage formed the basis of the indigenous political structure, with each administrative position assigned to an heir of the previous holder, overseen by the Cazonci, the highest ranking figure in the Tarascan government.12 In the early days of colonization, much of this structure survived as the Tarascan leaders did not resist the Spanish conquest as forcefully as the Aztecs.13 The Spanish eliminated the role of the Cazonci, however, having him persecuted and killed in 1530 in order to establish
Spanish control.14
In an effort to maintain control over their noble identities and their power, the noble population tried to maintain their identity through their diet. A vegetarian diet, that consisting mainly of maize, beans and chiles, formed the foundation of the indigenous diet. The lower class, however, lacked much variation in their diets, and were limited to what foods were not collected in tribute. Through the tribute system, the nobility limited the lower class’s access to animal proteins, along with other foods deemed of religious or noble significance. While Michoacán had multiple points of access for fish and a large population of anglers, most all fish caught were reserved for consumption by the gods or noble Indians.15
This changed when the Spaniards came, as much of the tribute structure was altered or many Spanish animals, such as chickens or cattle, were introduced into the native diet. In both the pre-colonial and early colonial period, indigenous tenant farmers, known as terrazgueros,
12 The Chronicles of Michoacán, 11. 13 J. Benedict Warren, The Conquest of Michoacán: The Spanish Domination of the Tarascan Kingdom in Western Mexico, 1521-1530, (Norman: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1985) 36. 14 James Krippner-Martinez, Rereading the Conquest: Power, Politics and the History of Early Colonial Michoacán, Mexico, 1521-1565 (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001) 6. 15 The Chronicles of Michoacán, 12-13, 114-115. 9 who paid tribute to their noble leaders, kept these animals and crops.16 When these lower class natives were able to consume foods that were once only paid in tribute, social barriers began to break down, much to the unrest of the noble population. As the tribute system broke down throughout the 16th century, commoners consumed foods that once held noble and religious significance. In addition, there was access to foods from the Spaniards, introducing new proteins into the common diet, such as pork and chicken. Spanish crops also became commonplace on the Michoacán countryside and were incorporated into the native diet. When these social boundaries in food disintegrated, native leaders made assertions that increased food consumption amongst the commoners had damaged their health.17 It becomes clear through research, however, that these observations were merely futile attempts to maintain power in a hierarchy that was clearly dissolving.
Review of Literature
Regarding the conditions and history of the Pre-conquest era and the time immediately following conquest, my research comes mainly from the Chronicle of Michoacán. Originally compiled by Fr. Martín de Jesús de la Coruña between 1539 and 1541, this source has proved to be one of the most valuable to scholars studying colonial and pre-colonial Michoacán.18 The
Chronicle of Michoacán provides a comprehensive study with sections concerning many aspects of life in Michoacán. Along with providing a history of the origins of the native peoples of the area and a history of the succeeding conquest, the Chronicle covers information regarding diet,
16 Castro Gutiérrez et al. 2015, 138. 17 Barry L. Isaac, "Witnesses to Demographic Catastrophe: Indigenous Testimony in the Relaciones Geograficas of 1577-86 for Central Mexico," Ethnohistory 62, no. 2 (2015): 315. 18 Martín de Jesús de la Coruña, The Chronicles of Michoacán, trans. Eugene R. Craine and Reginald C. Reindrop (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970). 10 agriculture, native livelihood and many other details of life in Michoacán. The work of Jeffrey
Pilcher in his Que Vivan Los Tamales helps form the idea of indigenous identity through food and shows how it developed and interacted with the new foodstuffs brought by the Spaniards.
Pilcher clearly marks the development of a food identity through racial mixture and assertions of class and status.19
Helen Perlstein Pollard’s works provide valuable information on Tarascans before the conquest. Through decades of archaeological work, geographical studies and understanding of primary source material of Michoacán, Pollard provides a complete picture of Tarascan society before the conquest. While she has compiled much information on the subject, her Taríacuri’s
Legacy proves to be her finest work on the indigenous peoples of Michoacán.20 I use this work to present a better understanding of Tarascan society, but take a different path by highlighting the importance of food within that society. I also try to expand on her work by looking at the changes that took place in Michoacán following the conquest.
Deborah Lupton’s Food, the Body and the Self and Elspeth Probyn’s Carnal Appetites demonstrate how food can be used to construct identity. Lupton suggests that when a body takes in and accepts new foods, that body is elevated to the status that is associated with that food.21
This aligns with my study in the noble natives’ awareness of the perceived rising status of commoners through their food consumption. Probyn argues a similar point, stating that consumption leads to incorporation, not only of the food itself, but the identity that has been associated with it.22 I incorporate this idea into my own study, arguing alongside it as I argue that
19 Jeffrey M. Pilcher, ¡Que Vivan Los Tamales!: Food and the Making of Mexican Identity, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998). 20 Helen Perlstein Pollard, Taríacuri’s Legacy: The Prehispanic Tarascan State, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993). 21 Lupton et al. 1996, 17. 22 Elspeth Probyn, Carnal Appetites: Foodsexidentities, (London: Routledge, 2000) 23. 11 the common people were aware of the higher status they may attain through consumption of foods that were once reserved for the ruling class. My thesis uses the work of Claude Fischler to understand incorporation and the selection of foods that pertain to certain diets.23 I also focus on how food helps construct social stratification, with ideas stemming from the works of Wm. Alex
McIntosh and Peter Garnsey.24
Many of the essays included in the edited work Negotiation within Domination illustrate how the native populations interacted and reacted to the colonizing Spaniards. Essays by Susan
Kellogg, R. Jovita Baber, Ethelia Ruiz Medrano, Edward W. Osowski and María de los Ángeles
Romero Frizzi demonstrate that the native populations adapted and worked within the constraints set by the Spaniards to assert their identity and negotiate their rights. I pay particular attention to the essay of R. Jovita Baber, where she argues that native Indians of Tlaxcala used their status and past allegiance to the Spaniards in order to elevate the status of their city.25 This sort of noble power is similar to the powers available to noble Indians in Michoacán, so my study shares a parallel in how the noble population was able to maintain power. While Baber does not elaborate on the contributions of food in her work, I use Baber’s ideas in order to show the motivation for noble natives to fear the consumption habits of commoners in Michoacán.
Further topics covered in the collection include the construction of and noble resistance of a homogenous Indian identity, such as in María de los Ángeles Romero Frizzi’s essay.26
23 Claude Fischler, "Food, Self and Identity," Social Science Information 27 (1988): 275-93. 24 Wm. Alex McIntosh, Sociologies of Food and Nutrition, (New York: Plenum Press, 1996) Peter Garnsey, Food and Society in Classical Antiquity, Key Themes in Ancient History, ed. P. A. Cartledge and P. D. A. Garnsey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). 25 R. Jovita Baber, "Fighting Destiny: Nahua Nobles and Friars in the Sixteenth-Century Revolt of the Encomenderos against the King" in Negotiation within Domination: New Spain's Indian Pueblos Confront the Spanish State, edited by Ethelia Ruiz Medrano and Susan Kellogg, 45-78, (Boulder: The University Press of Colorado, 2010). 26 María de los Ángeles Romero Frizzi, "The Power of the Law: The Construction of Colonial Power in an Indigenous Region" in Negotiation within Domination: New Spain's Indian Pueblos Confront the Spanish State, 12 Nobles enjoyed great benefits sitting atop the indigenous population, even though they themselves were under the Spaniards in the social ladder. Most importantly, the high status ensured that noble families would not be granted as an encomienda, which was a royal grant of authority over a native population. While nobles maintained much of their power during the early period of colonization, there were increased attempts by the Spaniards to diminish their influence and incorporate the nobles into the rest of the indigenous population. My study displays the role of food in this construction of an Indian identity in the late 16th century.
James Krippner-Martinez looks at the clashes of power within colonial society in
Michoacán in his work, Rereading the Conquest. While much of his focus is on the Spanish using their power to establish control over the native populations and their nobles, he examines the disruptions that occurred within native society during the early conquest.27 Using the
Chronicles of Michoacán as his guiding source, Krippner-Martinez examines the internal class struggle within the native population and the effects of Spanish conquest. He pays particular attention to how the indigenous nobles asserted their right to power and separated themselves from the common class of natives through establishment of lineage. Krippner-Martinez pays little attention to the influence of food in the class struggle between nobles and commoners, so my study aims to elaborate on the influence of food in deconstructing class formations.
Many of the concepts regarding the construction of identities between the colonizers and the colonized stem from Rebecca Earle’s work, The Body of the Conquistador. Earle argues that the Spaniards believed that in order to retain the European composition of their bodies, they
edited by Ethelia Ruiz Medrano and Susan Kellogg, 107-136, (Boulder: The University Press of Colorado, 2010). 27James Krippner-Martinez, Rereading the Conquest: Power, Politics and the History of Early Colonial Michoacán, Mexico, 1521-1565, (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001). 13 needed to continue to eat European foods or else face a transformation into an Indian body.28 The contribution of the Spanish to the diet of the New World is integral to this project as their foods influenced the new foodways of the indigenous. While Earle focuses mainly on the maintenance and construction of Spanish identity in the New World, I look into how their constructions were formed alongside the indigenous food identities of the colonial time period.
Chapter Breakdown
In the first chapter, I examine how food formed an integral part of identity for the indigenous people of Michoacán before the Spanish conquest. Noble Indians maintained social stratification and strong identity with foods through implementation of a tribute system. It is in this chapter that I will investigate various theories regarding food and the body and how people identify themselves through what they eat. Associations with food, however, are not simply biological, as the people appropriated cultural meanings with their foods. While eating is necessary for survival, it is the symbolism and response that the natives applied to particular foods that shape cultural identity.29 Rather than just looking at food and its integration into the body in a physical and biological sense, this first chapter examines how native peoples associated themselves with particular foods in their diets.30 This means that native peoples did not just identify themselves with what they ate, but chose particular foods because they consciously felt that these foods constituted themselves, their communities, their social standing and their general sense of group identity. Through an analysis of the tribute system and the food
28 Rebecca Earle, The Body of the Conquistador: Food, Race and the Colonial Experience in Spanish America, 1492-1700 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012). 29 Deborah Lupton, Food, the Body and the Self (London: Sage Publishing, 1996) 1. 30 Elspeth Probyn. Carnal Appetites: Foodsexidentities, (London: Routledge, 2000) 20. 14 patterns of the native peoples, I investigate how food was integral to the construction of social stratification in pre-conquest Michoacán.
Chapter 2 begins with a brief history on the conquest of Michoacán and the transition into colonial society. Following this, I analyze the introduction of new plants and animals to
Michoacán, along with the reasons for importation. These crops and domesticated animals had profound effects on the agricultural process in Michoacán, which would later affect the availability of foods. Looking at the chain of production to distribution, I examine the Tarascan marketplace, as this is where most of the indigenous people would have had access to foodstuffs.
This is where observable changes in availability would have been most apparent and where new foodstuffs would have been introduced to most of the native population. Changes in diet occurred not only for the common indigenous peoples, but also for the continually existing nobility. It is through these dietary changes that symbolism once associated with food in pre- conquest Michoacán would have been altered.
The third chapter looks at the noble reaction to changes in Tarascan diets and food’s contribution to the disintegration of native class structures. While much of the structure imposed onto the native population by the Spaniards was in accordance with markers of language and geographic location, this chapter looks at the contributions that food had in blurring the social structures of pre-conquest Michoacán. Eventually, the indigenous nobility lost their higher social ranking and the Spanish categorized their families along with commoners. The nobility made connections between the pestilence of Colonial Michoacán and changes in diet for commoners.
The nobility saw the diet change as a cause of the widespread death and disease. Not only will this chapter look at how food contributed to the changing social structure that accompanied these colonial policies, I investigate how these new class determinations determined and influenced
15 their diet.
Methodology
I conducted my research at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection on the
University of Texas at Austin campus. Much of my research draws from the Relaciones
Geograficas, a questionnaire that the Spanish Royal Court distributed throughout the New World in order to gain information regarding the geography, history, culture and conditions of the New
World from 1578 to 1585.31 A project of Alonso de Santa Cruz and Juan López de Velasco and compiled on order of King Phillip II, the Relaciones included fifty questions that were able to be applied to most any community that existed in the new world, covering a wide variety of subjects. My study mainly focuses on the results of the questionnaires from Michoacán, with particular attention paid to questions 4, 5, 14, 15, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 33. These are the questions that refer to subjects like culture of the indigenous, food, agriculture, animals, tribute, health and modes of life. While the whole document is considered, these questions in particular have provided the most vital pieces of information towards this project.
Through extensive research and studying the wording of the Relaciones themselves, it is clear that there was an extraordinary amount of native participation in the testimonies depicted in the Relaciones. As uninformed Spanish administrators were unable to answer many of the questions regarding the culture and livelihood of the native peoples, they needed to turn to natives in order to find information. These native interpreters and informants were almost always of the native ruling class as the nobles were commonly the only natives that the Spaniards
31 Howard F. Cline, "The Relaciones Geograficas of the Spanish Indies, 1577-1856," The Hispanic American Historical Review 44, no. 3 (1964) 341. 16 interacted.
It is clear from testimonies depicted in the Relaciones Geograficas that the native ruling class was displeased with the Purepécha consuming foods that were once reserved only for the nobility. This new atmosphere of abundance that occurred in the colonial world provided increased access to a variety of new foodstuffs to the lower class, many of which were not available to them in the Pre-Columbian era. The Relaciones are remarkably thorough in their depiction of food, detailing the wide range of foods available to the natives and to the Spaniards, but there was clear separation in diet. There is unrest felt by the noble natives in their depictions of the lower class consuming foods like fish and fear for the livelihoods of commoners.
17 CHAPTER I
TARASCOS Y TAMALES: Food and Identity in Pre-Conquest Michoacán
When Spanish conquistadors arrived in Michoacán in February of 1521, they encountered a vibrant society that rivaled that of the Aztecs in culture, size, and wealth. The Tarascan Empire was the second largest in Mesoamerica.32 The Uacusecha, the ruling noble dynasty of the
Tarascan people, had been in power for two centuries prior to Spanish arrival. This ruling family was relatively new to Tarascan culture, as the Tarascans had a deep cultural tradition with societal values that had developed in the Pátzcuaro Basin over the course of two millennia.33
These nobles expressed their wealth and power through the accumulation of material goods in tribute including foodstuffs such as maize and wild game. In this chapter, I argue that the
Tarascan nobility developed a system of social stratification that was reinforced by the culture of food production and tribute collection. The Tarascan formulation of foodstuffs as a social marker depended upon a number of interlocking parts. First, they employed a tribute system that brought different foods from different parts of the empire to the major settlements. Second, they selected foods to be exclusively consumed “by the gods” and nobility. Finally, they incorporated these foods into a ceremonial culture, thereby utilizing them to enhance noble status further.
This chapter examines how the Tarascans framed their identity through food during their pre-Hispanic history. First, I examine the Tarascan construct of identity in terms of their ethnic and political backgrounds to understand the formation of society. Then, I describe how food
32 Helen Perlstein Pollard, “The Prehispanic Heritage of the Tarascans (Purépecha),” in From Tribute to Communal Sovereignty: The Tarascan and Caxcan Territories in Transition, ed. Andrew Roth-Seneff, Robert V. Kemper and Julie Adkins (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2015) 33 Cynthia L. Stone, In Place of Gods and Kings: Authorship and Identity in the Relación de Michoacán (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004) 115. 18 constructs identity for people throughout time. I examine the Tarascan construct of identity in terms of their ethnic and political backgrounds to understand the formation of society. I then examine how food held symbolic meaning in Tarascan society. I break down the symbolism that was associated with particular foodstuffs, highlighting the disconnection between noble and common diets. I describe the tribute structure that brought foods from the villages and surrounding areas of Michoacán to the cities where the nobility resided. This tribute system was a critical component for the nobility to enhance and maintain their social standing and enforce social stratification. Finally, I look at the lasting effects of the Tarascan tribute system and its effects on social stratification. By studying the social dynamic of food consumption among commoners and the nobility, I can compare the foods that they ate and the importance that they placed on particular food items.
This chapter serves as a foundation for chapters 2 and 3. I explain the conditions of life in pre-conquest Michoacán by providing descriptions of geography, social hierarchy, lifestyle and diet within the Tarascan lands. Accompanying this is information regarding historical and sociological framework that I continue to use throughout the thesis, providing a necessary understanding for the following chapters. This chapter looks at the condition of Tarascan life before the Spanish conquest, while the following chapters look at life in Michoacán following the conquest.
Much of this first chapter focuses on the formation of identity through food before the conquest. No sources exist from before Spanish contact in 1521; much of the information contained therein comes from the Relación de Michoacán, a primary source compiled by Friar
19 Martín de Jesús de la Coruña between 1539 and 1541.34 Obviously completed post conquest, this source is vital in providing an accurate history for the pre-conquest period. It provides information on the tribute system, diet and way of life of the Tarascans. Primary and secondary
Aztec sources contribute to fill in gaps in the historic record. While the Tarascans and Aztecs were different societies in many ways, they shared a legacy of lifeways, political structure, and diet.
Tarascan Identity and Social Hierarchy
Social status was most evident in the cities as this was where the nobility resided. The key cities in the region were the capital city, Tzinzuntzan, Pátzcuaro, Tancitaro, Tiripitio,
Queretaro and Zacatula. Three distinct social classes appear in the Relación: nobility, commoners, and slaves. 35 There are almost no sources available on slaves, but their diet was probably very similar to the common people. These classes were clearly stratified with little movement among them. The Tarascans constructed cities in a way to further separate social groups, with people geographically distributed according to status. The nobility lived within the core of the city along with the centers of religious worship. Surrounding this central core were the residencies of the common people. In between were middle areas of residencies where nobility of slightly lower status lived.36
The Uacúsecha were the ruling nobility at the time of Spanish contact, having taken control of the region some two centuries before Spanish contact. Ancestral lineage dictated status
34 Martín de Jesús de la Coruña, The Chronicles of Michoacán, trans. Eugene R. Craine and Reginald C. Reindrop (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970). 35 Helen Perlstein Pollard, Taríacuri’s Legacy: The Prehispanic Tarascan State, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993) 60 36 Ibid., 34-40. 20 within the Tarascan Empire, which was common throughout the pre-Hispanic societies of
Mesoamerica. These nobles had several significant lines of succession for the variety of roles required of the Tarascan ruling class. Many of these ruling class members belonged to the group known as the Axamiecha, the priestly group that participated in the sacrifice of humans and goods to the gods. Some of these roles were strictly religious, such as those of the Petamiti, who ruled over all the priests, while other members of the lineage had multiple roles. Some positions included responsibilities in both governmental and religious roles.37 One such member of the nobility was the Cazonci, who served as King of the Tarascan Empire. At the time of Spanish contact, Tzintzicha Tangaxoan held the position of Cazonci. This position, as with other noble positions, passed through family lineage from the first Cazonci, known as Tariacuri.38 The
Cazonci ruled from the capital city of Tzintzuntzan, established as the capital city by either
Tangaxoan’s father, Zuangua, or his grandfather, Tzitzispandácuare.39
The Cazonci served as a human representative for the god Curicaveri. The Tarascans called Curicaveri “the great fire” and considered him the origin of all of the deities of Tarascan society.40 The Tarascans often depicted Curicaveri with a human form covered in black soot, so the Cazonci and his priests adopted a similar look during religious rituals.41 In order to keep “the great fire” burning, wood served as the basis for the tribute system, and was the most important tribute item collected. This collection of firewood formed the centerpiece of the religious tribute
37 Relación de Michoacán, 17. 38 Ibid., xv. 39 J. Benedict Warren, The Conquest of Michoacán: The Spanish Domination of the Tarascan Kingdom in Western Mexico, 1521-1530, (Norman: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1985) 5-6. 40 Hector V. Morel and Jose Dali Moral, Diccionario Mitológico Americano: Dioses, Razas, Leyendas, (Santa Fe: Kier, 1987) 43. The Tarascan religion did not share many parallels with other Mesoamerican belief systems. Curicaveri and the Tarascan family of deities had multiple roles and did not correlate with similar gods in other religions, such as Quetzalcoatl or Tlaloc in the Nahua system of worship, Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia, 2001, 702. 41 Yolotl González Torres, Diccionario de mitología y religió n de Mesoamé rica, (Madrid: Larousse, 1991) 54-55. 21 system that was also used to collect foodstuffs. These food items were then offered to the gods, with the nobility consuming what was left over.42 This tribute system will be investigated further later in this chapter.
Eres Lo Que Comes
Food consumption is very important in reflecting an identity, be it social or individual.
Consumption of foods and liquids is necessary for life, but humans are unique for the symbolism imparted to their food, along with their appreciation for taste and palatability. People have developed tastes and preferences for foods and applied meanings to particular foods, valuing some foodstuffs over others. With such variance in cultures throughout the world, different foods can mean different things in different societies, but there are certainly common threads.43 In order to understand how the people of Michoacán applied meaning to their foods, it is necessary to understand the sociology of how people have applied meaning to what they consume.
In pre-conquest Michoacán, consumption of food held deep connections with status, and particular foodstuffs have been symbols of status. Deborah Lupton suggests that when a body takes in and accepts new foods, that body is elevated to the status that is associated with that food.44 People put thought into food consumption and food becomes a symbol through the way that they obtain and consume it. If a food item is a rarity, exotic, or eaten in a particular style, it adopts a symbolic nature of high status.45 Tarascan nobility could consume rare or exotic foods that were out of reach from commoners’ appetites to display their high status. Elspeth Probyn
42 Relación de Michoacán, 12. 43 Adrienne Lehrer, “As American as Apple Pie-and Sushi and Bagels: The Semiotics of Food and Drink,” Recent Developments in Theory and History The Semiotic Web (1990) 389. 44 Deborah Lupton, Food, the Body and the Self (London: Sage Publishing, 1996) 17. 45 Lehrer, 1991, 390. 22 argues a similar point, stating that consumption leads to incorporation, not only of the food itself, but the identity that has been associated with it.46 Indigenous peoples were very much aware of the status that was associated with the foods that they consumed, and it was necessary to reinforce their status and the status of their food.
In the Tarascan world, collection of food helped create the division between different social classes’ diets. When food is collected in tribute, the tribute system designates foods that are more valuable as they represent something that the powerful nobility want.47 The reasoning for their desires is unimportant; it could be a multitude of reasons, including rarity and preference of taste. Foodstuffs that the Tarascans designated for the gods carried even more weight, and all social classes valued the gods and their wants. When food is designated for religious use, it carries more symbolic weight as it is an important tool in maintaining the cosmic balance.48 Pre-conquest societies in Mexico believed it necessary to please the gods with foods that they liked.
Food continues to hold a strong connection to social stratification as societies develop.
Foodstuffs can be a significant marker of social standing and can serve to differentiate between social classes. Different societies, however, hold different foods to different standards and apply different symbolism and status to their foods. In many cases for different societies, rarer foods are held in higher regard as these foods are obviously more difficult to attain. The Tarascan nobility had a strong preference for foods with a high protein content, such as game animals, fish and birds. A diet that is higher in protein helps contribute to good health. Wealth and health are
46 Elspeth Probyn, Carnal Appetites: Foodsexidentities, (London: Routledge, 2000) 23. 47 Inga Clendinnen, Aztecs: An Interpretation, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) 26. 48 Jeffrey Pilcher, ¡Que Vivan Los Tamales!: Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998) 19. 23 directly related in social stratification as wealth and power lead to greater access to healthy and more wholesome foods, along with increased access to medical care.49
Maize and Men – The Tarascan Diet
The primary diet for the common people of Pre-colonial Michoacán was consistent with that of other common peoples throughout Mesoamerica. Throughout most of the year, barring celebrations and feasts, the diet was largely vegetarian with most dishes consisting of maize, beans, and chili. Thomas Gage, an Englishman who spent considerable time exploring Mexico, observed the diet of Indians as consisting of dry maize cakes, bean puddings, chile or “biting pepper,” and maybe some cold meat if they were able to come into possession of it.50 Meat protein was likely often unavailable in their diet. In Michoacán, many of these staples were grown on small seed plots in and around the city. These crops included maize, amaranth, beans, chile, capulin, gourds, maguey, nopal, chayote, tomatoes, zapote blanco and yucca.51 These foods were essential to the diets of Tarascans, both nobility and common citizen.
The nobility had a more lucrative diet than that of the commoners, made up of a larger variety of foods. Many seedbeds, managed by the common people, grew foods reserved for consumption only by nobility, such as the Cazonci:
Assigned to overseers are many people who make seedbeds for peppers, kidney beans, and corn, both early and irrigated, and who bring fruit call[ed] acipecha-all for the Cazonci.52
49 Wm. Alex McIntosh, Sociologies of Food and Nutrition, (New York: Plenum Press, 1996) 98. 50 Thomas Gage, Thomas Gage’s Travels in the New World (Westpot, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981) 216. 51 Pollard, 1993, 54. 52 Relación de Michoacán, 19. The Acipecha were the common people in charge of farming for the Cazonci, Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America, ed. Susan Toby Evans and David L. Webster (London: Routledge, 2001) 701. 24 This shows us that the nobility consumed many of the same staples as the common people. The main difference between the diets of commoners and the nobility was the amount of animal protein on their plates. Bernal Diaz describes some of the lavish dishes that he was served at
Moctezuma II’s feast in Tenochtitlan:
They daily cooked fowls, turkeys, pheasants, native partridges, quail, tame and wild ducks, venison, wild boar, reed birds, pigeons, hares and rabbits, and many sorts of birds and other things. 53
All of these food items would have been found on the plates of the nobility in Michoacán, with the important addition of fish. As seen here, proteins are a dominating part of the noble menu, while they hardly appear on the plates of the common people. Proteins are the keys to class distinction, being the main separating factor between the plates of nobility and commoners.
As with many post-classical societies, the process of growing and preparing food was very time consuming, such as the long preparation time of making fresh tortillas.54 A woman cooking for a large family could take around six hours to make the tortillas, as it required a long process of boiling the maize with lime, grinding it into dough, forming the shape and cooking them on the metate.55 With so much work necessary to produce even simple meals, there was a narrow range of meals that were prepared in Mesoamerica. When coupled with lack of a variety of ingredients, Mesoamerican women characteristically created simple dishes. Dishes in pre- conquest Mesoamerica are noted for few ingredients and simplicity. This simplicity served to
53 Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico. Trans. A. P. Maudslay, (New York: Straus and Giroux) 209. 54 B. W. Higman, How Food Made History, (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2011) 146. 55 Pilcher, 1998, 101. The metate is a large stone on which grains such as maize kernels are ground. 25 identify the origin of dishes following the conquest as recipes became more subjectto fusion.
Simple recipes were ascribed to Mesoamerican origins, while more complicated and elaborate dishes, such as mole, are believed to be inspired by Spanish cooking.56
Maize was the core staple of diets throughout Mesoamerica for natives of all social classes. For the Tarascans, Aztecs, Mayans and Incas, maize served as the lifeblood, with various gods devoted to production and consumption of the crop. By the height of the Empire of
Teotihuacan in the 5th and 6th century, maize had been bred to withstand a wide variety of climates and could support large populations. When cooked in lime and water, a process known as nixtamalization, the maize can be formed into a dough that was used for tortillas among other things. This process also caused the kernels to release niacin, allowing the large populations to rely so heavily on a single crop. This process did not originally travel to Europe along with the crop during the Columbian Exchange, resulting in serious vitamin deficiencies when the
Europeans tried to subsist mainly on maize.57 Maize was no less important in Michoacán, where it is estimated that consumption of maize, coupled with aramanth, made up approximately 80 percent of the total calories for the common population.58 Beans often made up the rest of the diet, and when coupled with maize could provide an adequate amount of all vitamins necessary for human survival.59
Maize carried significant symbolic weight even when not consumed. Mesoamericans felt a very intimate interdependence with maize, relying on the rain so that the maize crop should
56 Pilcher, 1998, 26. 57 Kenneth F. Kiple, A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) 110. 58 Pollard 1993, 110. 59 Pilcher 1998, 95. 26 flourish, providing for the large populations of the area. Rain gods were often given tribute in order to perpetuate the growth of maize. With its religious associations, Mesoamerican indigenous peoples personified maize and they responded appropriately to care for the crop.
Mesoamerican women had great respect for the maize, breathing on the kernels with warm breath before cooking them to give them courage for the fire. Maize was also to be “rested” every eight years and be cooked without condiments. This gave the maize a break and revived it with new life for future years.60 Motolinía described how idols made of corn dough were used to treat severe illnesses.61 In Michoacán, Maize was used for its supernatural purposes for rituals to settle disputes, like determining who a man should marry if he has two women. Local doctors, known as the Xurimecha, performed this ceremony:
They take a gourd dish of water and place two grains of corn in the water; if those grains sink together and unite on the bottom of the gourd dish, it is a sign that the married couple are to be together; if one of those grains separates, it is a sign that the man should be joined with the other woman.62
Acts like this demonstrated the close relationship that the Tarascans and other Mesoamericans shared with maize, a crop integral to maintaining life and society.
Tarascans made tamales for ceremonial or celebratory purposes, similar to those present in Aztec diets. The Relación de Michoacán depicts a wedding feast, describing the consumption of “wedding bread, which consists of some very large tamales stuffed with ground pinto
60 Clendinnen, 1991, 52. 61 Toribio de Benavente Motolinía. History of the Indians of New Spain, trans. Francis Borgia Steck. (Berkeley: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1951) 147. Motolinía described that if a person was ill with severe fever, the remedy was to make a biscuit from corn flour in the shape of a dog, place it on a leaf of maguey and lay it on the road. The first person to walk past it would pick up the evil attached to it with their heel. 62 Relación de Michoacán, 43. 27 beans.”63 The process of making tamales was difficult but the cornhusk wrapped masa was immensely popular and continues to be so today, having become a core part of modern Mexican culinary identity.64 Both lower classes and the nobility enjoyed tamales, but the filling was certainly different depending on the celebration and the ingredients available, along with differences in access to foods within the social hierarchy. The nobility almost certainly put some meat like turkey or fish in their tamales, if available, while the lower class might eat a simpler tamale, composed only of the masa dough, beans and maybe some chili. While not explicitly mentioned in the Relación that tamales were made for the gods, tamales clearly had a special place in Tarascan ceremonies and were almost certainly created for offerings as well.
Fish were held in high esteem by Tarascans, but were not a rarity and there was much reason for the Aztecs referring to Michoacán as “the land of the fishermen.” Fish were the most common source of animal protein for the people of Michoacán and served as valuable tribute items. Much of the population knew how to fish and were very knowledgeable in the various kinds of fish that were available in the lakes of Michoacán. The common people consumed only fish caught in small batches, however. Net-fishermen were required to bring all fish that they caught to the Cazonci and other nobility. The nobility had a strong preference for fish, with the
Relación de Michoacán stating “[the nobles] ate nothing but fish.”65 The nobility also used white fish bones as jewelry, often accompanying turquoise stones, feathers and gold.66 Today,
Michoacán is still known for its fish dishes. Fish were also a primary trade item, as the massive quantity of fish collected by local fishermen was an incredibly valuable resources to those
63 Relación de Michoacán, 39. 64 Pilcher, 1998, 1. 65 Relación de Michoacán, 13. 66 Relación de Michoacán, 45. 28 outside of the Pátzcuaro Basin.
Alcohol was present in pre-conquest Michoacán in the form of pulque, a drink made from the fermented sap of the maguey plant. In addition to pulque, Tarascans also fermented wine from maize and corn stalks, but pulque was the most commonly consumed.67 Consumption of these beverages was limited to only the nobility and the very elderly, so commoners had very restricted access to alcohol. These drinks had a low alcohol content by today’s standards (around
4% alcohol), but had intoxicating effects when drunk in excess. Public drunkenness was condemned in pre-conquest Michoacán and could incur the death penalty. Pulque was not necessarily restricted to the nobility, but was considered too sacred of a drink to be consumed by the lower class population. Alcohol was thus a very distinct marker of social status, with its availability limited to the nobility.68
Trade and Tribute
The Tarascan lands covered an area of almost 29,000 square miles, spanning from the
Rio Lerma-Santiago in the north to the Rio Balsas in the south.69 This territory was comprised of three areas, with a sub-humid zone in the north, forestland dotted with lakes through the middle and an inhospitable desert in the south known as the Rio Balsas Depression. Most of the
Tarascan peoples resided in the moist forestland, with the major, administrative cities of
Pátzcuaro and Tzinzuntzan located centrally in the Pátzcuaro Basin on the shores of Lake
Pátzcuaro.70 The Basin is known to have contained ninety-one settlements, ranging from large,
67 Henry J. Bruman, Alcohol in Ancient Mexico, (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2000) 37, 57. 68 William B. Taylor, Drinking, Homicide, and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979) 32-34. 69 Pollard 1993, 24. 70 Vincent H. Malmstrom, "Geographical Origins of the Tarascans." Geographical Review 85, no. 1 (1995) 33. 29 urban centers to small villages.71
Although the Pátzcuaro Basin contained a wide variety of foodstuffs, food might not have been as readily available and plentiful as it appears. The amount of agricultural land available in the Pátzcuaro Basin was not sufficient for the large population that resided there. The population of the Basin, estimated to be somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000, could not have been properly supported by their land, which had a carrying capacity of about 40,000 to 50,000.72 This suggests that there was an adaptation of the population to the limited amount of agricultural goods. This provided a need for a tribute system that brought in foodstuffs and other goods from surrounding regions. Cities, such as Tzintzuntzan, required this complex tribute network in order to flourish and grow their population. The rulers found it necessary that the cities be fully integrated into an administrative and economic framework within the network of cities and villages within and outside the Pátzcuaro Basin in order to prosper.
Providing for the large population involved much trade with the surrounding communities, but many resources were limited. It is estimated that between 25 and 55 percent of the maize consumed by the general population in Michoacán was imported.73 Because of great access to fisheries on the various lakes of the region, fish was the only foodstuff of which the
Tarascans were able to independently produce a surplus. Much of this harvestable foodstuff was then exported in trade with the surrounding regions. Fish as a plentiful good was the way in which Tarascans were able to import enough maize to feed such a large population, along with other important, non-tribute goods, such as salt, obsidian, chert and lime. Common citizens
71 Pollard, 1993, 79. 72 Ibid., 111-112, Helen Perlstein Pollard, “Central Places and Cities: A Consideration of the Protohistoric Tarascan State,” American Antiquity 45, no. 4 (1980) 694. 73 Pollard 1993, 112-113. 30 obtained these traded goods through the local marketplace, while the nobility relied on tribute goods and their claim over lands of resource production. While some tribute items may have found their way into the marketplace, food items obtained through the tribute system were reserved only for the nobility.74 The core of the Tarascan administration and population was thriving, but could only do so with massive amounts of tribute and trade goods.
The tribute system was a very organized resource of the Tarascan political structure, with many bureaucratic resources devoted to its collection. On the local level, the Carachacapachas were assigned by the Cazonci to be the chiefs of the individual provinces within the Empire.75
The Spaniards referred to these members of the nobility as Caciques, a label they used to mark all of those in a position of local chiefdom throughout Mesoamerica. For the sake of convenience, I will use the word Cacique to refer to these local chiefs in lieu of the, albeit more proper term, Carachacapacha.76 The Cazonci granted the Caciques noble status so that they might exercise noble control in their own regions.77 With the assistance of other local nobility, the Caciques collected tribute from their towns. Supervisors within Tzinzuntzan, known as the
Ocambecha, collected much of this tribute from the Caciques while some of it would stay within the local towns. Even though they did not keep all they collected, the ability to collect tribute provided the Caciques with the status that allowed them to exercise their authority over commoners in their respective regions. Items collected included ducks, quail, fish, beans, seeds, corn, honey, maguey wine along with many non-foodstuff items, including wood, silver, gold
74 Pollard, 1993, 121. 75 Relación de Michoacán, 11. 76 Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, 2nd ed., ed. Jay Kinsbruner and Erick D. Langer (Detroit: Gale, 2008) s. vv. “Cacique, Caciquismo.” 77 Pollard 1993, 129. The Cazonci gave the Caciques lip plugs to mark their noble status. 31 and many crafted goods like canoes and shields.78 The common people were required to furnish these goods to the nobility, so access to these goods was limited for commoners. When access was limited for the lower class, this allowed these tribute goods to become associated with the upper class and create a stratification of goods.
For the nobility, the tribute system was one of the most important functions of the state. It was a very political institution, with goods flowing through many cities and networks before reaching the storehouses of Tzinzuntzan. Tribute was collected regularly, approximately every
80 days, and required a large amount of participation in organizing and collecting the goods.79
This tribute system involved the collection of many foodstuffs and resources that were offered to a wide variety of gods, serving to benefit society. As with many other Mesoamerican peoples, the Tarascans believed that good fortunes could only be secured through pleasing the gods through tribute. While at times this tribute involved human sacrifice, more often was tribute paid in resources, like wood, valuable stones and metals, and foodstuffs. Foodstuffs that were part of this tribute system were assigned higher value as better foods went to the gods. After tribute was paid to the gods, the Cazonci and other nobles ate what was left over.80
Tribute was not a one-way service, as the nobility gave back to those from whom they collected. The nobility administered the government of Michoacán, ruling over the complex network of villages effectively. They also operated the religious ceremonies, paying in offerings to the gods and managing the religious calendar. The Uacusecha also ruled over a powerful military that could be used to either protect or control the Tarascan people. This military would
78 Relación de Michoacán, 12-14. 79 Pollard 1993, 116. 80 Relación de Michoacán, 12. 32 have provided peace to their lives, protecting them from the threats of the Aztecs or other outside threats. On the other end, villages certainly feared the retaliation of the army if they ever refused tribute; the Cazonci and his forces were easily capable of destroying entire villages.81 In all, the nobility of Michoacán were effective leaders who endured minimal resistance from the common people.
Social Stratification
Social stratification is the basic idea of social organization in a society that finds its roots in food and surplus. The surplus production of food provides the basis for social stratification, organizing society into a hierarchy. When food production and agriculture change, a class emerges that is dedicated to producing food, creating a surplus. Surplus is a result of overproduction, with those producing the food consciously producing more than they can subsist on. When there is surplus food and resource production, it enables people to consume foods produced by others, rather than having to create their own subsistence.82 This allows these consumers to pursue other roles in society, creating goods, providing services or establishing dominion as leaders. This basic structure is one way in which social classes are formed. While food is not the only material good that drives the creation of social stratification, it is certainly one of the most important in regards to pre-classical concerns.
While social class is typically the dominant theme in the study of social stratification, health is a major factor in differentiating between higher and lower classes. Increased access to food for the nobility helped them maintain a healthy lifestyle. Scholars refer to these divisions in
81 Relación de Michoacán, 23-28. 82 Frank Cancian, "Social Stratification." Annual Review of Anthropology 5 (1976): 227. 33 health amongst social classes to as socioeconomic inequalities, or health inequalities, as these health variances occur when there are differences in access to care, supplies and good foods.83
Height is a long-term signifier of good health and prosperity among Tarascan peoples, as it means that the individuals received a proper amount of food and protein during developmental periods through adulthood.84 A person’s socioeconomic standing within society can ensure whether or not that person will receive adequate care and, in this case, food to ensure good health.85
Throughout Mesoamerica, the nobility were on average 10 cm taller than common citizens.86 This can be attributed to both a wider access to foodstuffs and a higher protein diet though consumption of tribute meats. A higher protein diet for indigenous peoples usually resulted in greater height and strength, especially when consumed throughout development.87
The Tarascan nobility’s strict adherence to lineage suggested that the nobles fed their children plenty so that they might grow tall like their ancestors. Nobility that is taller than the common population is consistent throughout Mesoamerica.88 While oftentimes overconsumption of lucrative diets like that of the Tarascan nobility can lead to obesity, there is no evidence that suggests that the nobility was in poor health. It is very clear that stature in the social hierarchy helped contribute to a taller and stronger physical stature for the individual.
Height amongst nobles in cities is contrary to the common trend of city dwellers as
83 Eero Lahelma, “Health and Social Stratification,” in The New Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology, ed. William C. Cockerham (Hoboken: Wiley, 2010) 71. 84 McIntosh, 1996, 102. 85 Lahelma, 2010, 79 86 Pilcher, 1998, 13. 87 Lahelma, 2010, 71. 88 W. A. Haviland, Stature at Tikal Guatemala, (Boston: South End Press, 1967) 321. 34 shorter than the rural population. Infectious diseases combined with lesser access to fresh foodstuffs resulted in a shorter stature for city dwellers as opposed to those that lived in parts that are more rural. Romans looked for tall stature when enlisting soldiers and were able to find men in better physical condition residing on farmland. The minimum height of 5’5” was on the upper range of average heights of the rural population, while the city population was generally shorter.89 Clearly, the Tarascan nobility set themselves apart from the rest of city dwellers in both diet and in physical space to achieve better health and higher physical stature.
One of the clearest signs of noble’s diet maintenance was the nobility’s exclusive right to forestlands. Ownership of lands gave the Caciques noble status as possession of land implied relation to the Uacusecha lineage, whether or not it was actually by blood.90 The royal dynasty regulated all land within the Basin, allowing access to precious forests strictly for noble usage.
These large landholdings were mostly within the southeast portion of the Pátzcuaro Basin with much access to forestlands and small lakes. There were few forests intact surrounding the settlements of the Pátzcuaro Basin, so the nobility laid claim to these areas and any resources that could be acquired from them. This included the right to tribute and food items available, such as wild game and fish. For this, the nobility employed royal duck hunters and royal anglers, respectively, to supply their needs.91
The nobility also used knowledge as a clear marker of social standing. Concerning food,
89 Peter Garnsey, Food and Society in Classical Antiquity, Key Themes in Ancient History, ed. P. A. Cartledge and P. D. A. Garnsey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999) 59. 90 Felipe Castro Gutiérrez, "Identity and Ethnicity in Colonial Michoacán: Corporatism, Social Contract, and Individualism among the Tarascans," in From Tribute to Communal Sovereignty: The Tarascan and Caxcan Territories in Transition, ed. Robert V. Kemper, Julie Adkins and Andrew Roth Seneff (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2015) 137. 91 Relación de Michoacán, 12-13. 35 knowledge is demonstrated through skills in preparing and cooking of foods. Those of a higher status generally held this type of knowledge, or their servants did, while actual growing and producing of foodstuffs was a job for commoners. Separation between high and low foods did not only exist in consumption, but also in methods of preparation. A notable episode in the
Relación depicts messengers who encounter a man who has killed a deer. While the man was able to skin the deer, he did not have the skills to butcher the meat.92 Foods that were primarily cooked and eaten by the common class of citizens were generally simple and devoid of special techniques. Scant meat consumption led to an inability or necessity to butcher animals, reserving this skill for noble citizens. Hunting, however, was held as a valuable skill for Tarascan commoners, but with the need for these animals in tribute, it appears as if any animals captured were turned over in tribute.
Conclusion
Food had close ties to the fabric of life throughout Mesoamerica; many of the values held by the Tarascan community mirrored neighboring societies throughout Mesoamerica. Food consumption and production formed an integral part of society and patterns in food consumption and tribute collection reinforced social identity, enhancing a strong, ruling hierarchy that remained in some fashion through the early days of colonization. Although diets among the different hierarchical tiers varied greatly, food was a strong symbol of identity and status. Protein served as the key marker of class distinction, appearing on the plates of nobility and mostly absent from those of the common people. Diets had much greater variance at the top of the social hierarchy than at the lower ranks of society; access to a more diverse diet appeared as a marker
92 Relación de Michoacán, 106-107. 36 of elite status.
Michoacán was filled with a vast variety of foodstuffs, but many of these food items had special significance for ceremonial, religious and social reasons. It is clear that Tarascans had developed strong connections to their foodstuffs and social class. There were clear differences in diet between social classes and these differences were achieved through implementation of an elaborate tribute system. This well managed tribute system assisted the nobility in maintaining their social status and served to draw the line between the lifestyles of nobles and commoners.
The people of Mesoamerica, through a tribute system creating separate diets for nobles and commoners, created deep associations with food that were significant in constructing social identity.
37 CHAPTER II
CONQUISTA Y CARNE: Spanish Influence on Tarascan Diet and Lifestyle
In 1521, the Spanish conquistadors entered Michoacán with little opposition from the native population. Spanish forces had demonstrated their military strength by conquering
Tenochtitlan, discouraging Tarascan resistance.93 As with the Aztecs, interactions between the
Conquistadors and Tarascan nobility began peacefully. Within a decade, however, the Spanish established their authority by executing the Cazonci in 1530.94 The Spanish established themselves as the ruling authority in Michoacán, but ruled through the existing indigenous nobility without destroying their ranks. Although this nobility had limited authority, they managed to maintain their high status.
With the Spanish conquest came about a transformation in Tarascan society, including major shifts in authoritative structure, population, and lifestyle. In addition, there were changes in the types of crops and animals that became available for consumption. By importing many new plants and animals, Spanish authority upended the diet with what Tarascans were familiar.
This included new crops like wheat and rice along with domesticated animals, such as cattle, pigs and chickens.95 In the preceding chapter, I investigated how food helped shape identity and social structure in pre-colonial Michoacán. In this chapter, I argue that the Spanish conquest had dramatic effects on the diet in Michoacán, radically altering the role of food in Tarascan society.
93 J. Benedict Warren, The Conquest of Michoacán: The Spanish Domination of the Tarascan Kingdom in Western Mexico, 1521-1530, (Norman: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1985) 36. 94 James Krippner-Martinez, Rereading the Conquest: Power, Politics and the History of Early Colonial Michoacán, Mexico, 1521-1565, (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001) 9. 95 Alfred Crosby, The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492, (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972). 38 This chapter begins with a brief history of the conquest of Michoacán and its transition into a colonial society. An important part of this history is the introduction of new plants and animals to Michoacán. With this, I examine why Spaniards felt it was necessary to import these foods and cultivate them in the New World. These crops and domesticated animals had profound effects on agriculture in Michoacán, which would later affect the availability of particular foodstuffs. Following the movement of goods from producer to consumer, I examine the
Tarascan marketplace. This is where observable changes in availability would have been most apparent and where Spaniards and native producers would have introduced new foodstuffs to most of the native population. These changes in diet affected all indigenous peoples, commoners and nobility alike. It is through these dietary changes that symbolism once associated with food in pre-conquest Michoacán altered. This chapter examines some of the important ways in which change in the diet for commoners affected the nobility in the years following conquest.
Conquest and Food Consumption
The Tarascans first heard of the Spanish presence in October of 1519 from Aztec messengers, presumably sent by Moctezuma II. The Cazonci at the time, Zuangua, had very little trust in the Aztecs and turned them away. This distrust was once again on display the following year, when more Aztec messengers arrived in the Tarascan capital of Tzintuntzan. The Cazonci had these messengers killed, sending word to Moctezuma to keep his affairs separate from those of the Tarascans. Historians believe that these messengers brought smallpox to his palace, leading to Zuangua’s death and the installation of his son, Tangaxoan, as Cazonci. The first actual contact between Tarascans and Spanish occurred about five months later when a Spaniard arrived on a white horse during the feast of Purecoraqua, investigating the area for two days
39 before returning to Tenochtitlan. Soon after, on August 13, 1521, the Aztec Empire fell to
Cortes.96
Cortes’s men, led by Antonio Caicedo, visited the Tarascan capital in November, three months following the Spanish victory over the Aztecs. During this visit, members of Cortes’s army put on a military show, impressing the Tarascan lords with their guns and cannons.
Unnerved by this display of massive destructive capabilities, the Cazonci called upon his own army to perform drills to demonstrate his people’s loyalty to him. It was clear to the Cazonci that it was necessary to accept the Spanish in a peaceful and ceremonial manner or face annihilation.
The Spanish tried to intimidate the Tarascans further by taking their ambassadors on a tour of the ruined Tenochtitlan, alerting the Tarascans of the destructive capabilities of the Spanish.
Although the Cazonci strengthened his forces following this episode, he chose, like Moctezuma early on, to not resist but rather be friendly to the Spanish in order to maintain his Empire. The
Cazonci submitted himself to Cortes in August of 1522, complying with the Spaniard’s warning that he would face consequences if he were to threaten them.97
That the Tarascans accepted the Spanish peacefully is the primary factor as to why the
Tarascan government and nobility were able to maintain power following Spanish conquest.
Although a Spanish colony was not established in Michoacán for another few years after initial contact, the gracious welcome of Spanish forces helped ensure the Tarascan nobility’s safety of power. Having been somewhat subservient to the Aztecs before the conquest, the Tarascan nobility had experience in diplomacy. This experience allowed them to maintain some of their
96 Warren, 1985. 97 Krippner Martinez, 2001. 40 sovereignty when the Spaniards arrived.98 Much of the Tarascan nobility maintained control of the Tarascan Empire during Spanish colonization, but Spanish authority would slowly exert its total authority.
Nobles and Power
The indigenous nobility in Tzinzuntzan retained their status throughout early days of colonization, but this would change in 1530. By this time, the area of Michoacán was under the governorship of the conquistador Nuño de Guzmán. In an effort to seize total Spanish authority, the Governor had the Cazonci tried and executed in 1530.99 Following this, Spanish authority slowly wiped out much of the other higher ruling nobility located in the seat of government. The
Spanish allowed much of the local nobility to keep their titles, but actual authority was clearly limited. These members of the local nobility were known as Caciques, and were kept in place by the Spanish to help operate villages, exercising great authority in the early days of colonization.
It was very common for the Spanish colonizers to leave local nobility in place, leaving them with an administrative framework of which to rule over. For the Caciques, at least early on, colonization was very beneficial for their power.
Following conquest and the death of the Cazonci, it became clear to the Caciques that their status must be actively established, or else fear loss of their titles and be incorporated into the common population. The new availability of foodstuffs to the Purepécha was one of many factors that posed serious threats to the lifestyle of the indigenous nobility. Spanish authority
98 R. Jovita Baber, "Fighting Destiny: Nahua Nobles and Friars in the Sixteenth-Century Revolt of the Encomenderos against the King" in Negotiation within Domination: New Spain's Indian Pueblos Confront the Spanish State, edited by Ethelia Ruiz Medrano and Susan Kellogg, 45-78, (Boulder: The University Press of Colorado, 2010) 22. 99 Krippner-Martínez, 2001, 13, 41. 41 banned the strict tribute system that the nobility had maintained before the conquest, along with other religious activities. This tribute system was one of the most effective forms of maintaining social stratification, and without it, the nobility felt their status slipping away.
As investigated in the last chapter, the local nobility derived much of their status from the ability to collect tribute from the citizens they governed. Although banned, the nobility attempted to keep their tribute system in place. Maintaining the old tribute system was an attempt to retain the nobility’s right to their exclusive diet that had been so well constructed in pre-Conquest time.
Keeping with the traditions established before Spanish control was a clear attempt at maintaining noble position within the indigenous society. The tribute system of the Tarascans shared structural similarity with the Spanish Administration, although they had different reasons for their tribute systems. The Tarascans tribute system established rights to power and status, while the Spanish collected tribute to establish rights to territory and control of property.100
While the Caciques of Michoacán began to lose their authoritative power, they retained the rights to their lands that they held in royal possession before the conquest. These land rights gave them exclusive control and ownership over any crops or animal raised on it. The Caciques used their land in colonial times to cultivate fields of indigenous crops, raise cattle and operate mills and refineries. Indigenous tenant farmers, known as terrazgueros, worked these lands for their noble lords and paid tribute to them, even after the Spanish authorities banned the tribute system.101 With the ownership of land, the Caciques were able to maintain their class standing
100 Andrew Roth-Seneff, “Ethnic Landscapes: Territoriality, Time Immemorial and the Twenty-First Century,” in From Tribute to Communal Sovereignty: The Tarascan and Caxcan Territories in Transition, ed. Robert V. Kemper, Julie Adkins and Andrew Roth Seneff (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2015) 14. 101 Felipe Castro Gutiérrez, "Identity and Ethnicity in Colonial Michoacán: Corporatism, Social Contract, and Individualism among the Tarascans," in From Tribute to Communal Sovereignty: The Tarascan and Caxcan Territories in Transition, ed. Robert V. Kemper, Julie Adkins and Andrew Roth Seneff (Tucson: The University of 42 and status above the common population. However, as more foodstuffs were introduced to the region, much of the symbolic nature of food created by the tribute system began to change.
Comida y Comodidad
The Tarascan commoners noticed differences in food consumption amongst the Spanish almost immediately. Upon arrival of the Spaniards, the common Indians “marveled at such strange people who did not eat the same kind of food or get drunk as the Indians did.”102 The natives even recognized horses (alien creatures to them) for their connection with food, calling them tuycen, as they resembled little dolls made from amaranth bread that the natives constructed for feasts.103 The natives also believed that their god, Cueravaperi, had given the
Spaniards the means to produce their food in the form of wheat, seeds and wine. Cueravaperi, the mother god who represents the moon, was a provider for the hungry.104
The merging of the Tarascans and the Spanish cultures resulted in the sharing of foodstuffs. Many members of this community, Spanish and Tarascan alike, did not initially accept many new foodstuffs into their diet. Incorporation is a risk for the consumer when encountering foodstuffs alien to them, and Spaniards and Tarascans were both taking risks when eating the foods of one another.105 Pasi Falk describes the concept of the “open body” and the
“closed body.” The open body involves the sharing of food and a willingness to partake in another’s cultural traditions.106 Characteristic of pre-modern societies, this ingestion is ritualistic,
Arizona Press, 2015) 138. 102 Martín de Jesús de la Coruña, The Chronicles of Michoacán, trans. Eugene R. Craine and Reginald C. Reindrop (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970) 87. 103 Ibid, 87. 104 Yolotl González Torres, Diccionario de mitología y religió n de Mesoamé rica, (Madrid: Larousse, 1991) 53. 105 Deborah Lupton, Food, the Body and the Self (London: Sage Publishing, 1996) 17. 106 Pasi Falk, The Consuming Body, (London: Sage Publications, 1994) 20. 43 placing the consumer in the community while defining their place within it. In consuming new foods, the individual “eats into one’s body/self” and is “eaten into the community.”107 Falk describes a closed body as one that has strict control over what enters the body, closing itself like a door to the outside world. When an individual refuses to try new foods, they are refusing to enter themselves into the food culture of another and assert their cultural identity. Individuals maintain their personal identity that they are accustomed to in this way.
The Cazonci refused Spanish foodstuffs when offered as gifts of live animals. In a particularly animated scene in the Chronicle of Michoacán, the Spanish gave the Cazonci a gift of ten pigs and a dog, the pigs for consumption and the dog for protection. Although graciously accepting the gift and exchanging with gifts of his own, the Cazonci ordered the pigs and dog killed and left in a field to rot.108 Although the swine were not prepared as food, this episode demonstrates the indigenous leader’s fear of creatures he saw as alien. As the highest-ranking member of nobility, the Cazonci would have rarely seen his meat in the form of a live animal.
His refusal of the gift does suggest, however, a closed body, unwilling to take in the cultural traditions of another society through their gifts of food.109 Although he welcomed the Spaniards in his company, embracing their food was a different matter. Perhaps the Cazonci would have gladly received the gift if it had been prepared and put on a plate.
Spaniards were initially welcoming of Indian foodstuffs and partook in sampling many of the wares of the new world. The Spaniards had encountered a wide variety of new foods before they had reached Michoacán. Bernal Diaz Del Castillo describes the lavish feast that Moctezuma
107 Falk, 1994, 20. 108 Relación de Michoacán, 69. 109 Falk, 1994, 21. 44 II had prepared for the Spaniards. This feast included a wide variety of game birds, fish, rabbits, cacao, breads, fruits and vegetables, all native to Mexico.110 The Spanish took very kindly to cacao, and enjoyed many fruits of the Americas, especially pineapples and avocados. The
Spanish ate raw avocados sprinkled with sugar and attempted to import the pineapple back to
Europe.111 It was difficult, however, as the cultivation of the plant required the fruit to stay intact on the voyage. Because of its rarity in Europe, pineapples were often associated with high status and sophistication in Europe, and were even incorporated into decorative designs.112
Spanish conquistadors took kindly to many of the foodstuffs of the Amerindians that were similar to foodstuffs available in Europe. Europeans were familiar with beans, making them more willing to try beans that were native to the Americas without fear. They were also familiar with edible tree nuts, making use of the wild peanuts that grew in the Americas. The indigenous peoples of Michoacán had not made use of peanuts before the conquest, labeling them as “earth cacao” and declaring them much less appetizing than cacao beans.113 The Spanish were also familiar with squash, although they preferred the seeds as opposed to the fleshy part of the fruit, declaring it as poor people’s food.114 Because of their initial willingness to enjoy these new foodstuffs, the Spanish demonstrated an “open body,” able to accept new foods into their diet, although often with great caution. Tomatoes, because of fears of poisonous, relative plants, went untouched by early Conquistadors.115
110 Castillo, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, trans. A. P. Maudslay, (New York: Straus and Giroux, 1973, 1552) 208-212 111 Sophie Coe, America’s First Cuisines, (Austin: University of Texas Press) 28. 112 Kenneth F. Kiple, A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) 120-121, David DeWitt, Precious Cargo: How Foods From the Americas Changed The World (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2014) 189. 113 Coe, 1994, 34-35. 114 Ibid, 28. 115 Ibid, 29. 45 Introduction of Old World Food
Although the Spaniards initially accepted the foodstuffs of the new World, they still felt that they required their traditional diet. The Spanish deemed wheat bread, olive oil, wine, lamb and red wine as essential to upholding their health and wellbeing, along with asserting their identity as Spaniards.116 It was important for the Spanish to feel familiarity with their diet to feel at home while adjusting to life in Michoacán. Without a large amount of European foods being cultivated in the new world, it was be difficult to convince others to make the journey from Spain to areas like Michoacán.117 Not only were these types of foods important symbols of European identity, they were also necessary in the practice of Christianity. From the Middle Ages onward, only a Eucharist made from wheat flour and wine from the grape could serve as the body and blood of Christ when taking communion.118
Humoral pathology formed the basis of European medicine in the Sixteenth Century. A person’s ‘complexion’ was thought to be maintained by four humors, those being blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm, representing air, fire, earth, and water, respectively.119 Health therefore depended on upkeep of fluid balance and temperature, constantly in danger from outside forces.120 These outside forces were generally the temperature and humidity of the surrounding climate, focusing on the qualities of wetness, dryness, hot and cold. Origins of one’s individual complexion depended on place of birth and the climate in which they grew up.
According to Bartolome de Las Casas, Peninsulares, because of their birth and upbringing in
116 Rebecca Earle, The Body of the Conquistador: Food, Race and the Colonial Experience in Spanish America, 1492-1700 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012) 55. 117 Crosby, 1972, 106-107. 118 Earle 2012, 151. 119 Ibid, 27. 120 George M. Foster, “On the Origin of Humoral Medicine in Latin America,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 1, no. 4 (1987): 355-93. 46 Europe, were fierce and choleric. Amerindians, more accustomed to the humidity in the New
World, were full of phlegmatic humors.121
Maintenance of the humors could involve medical treatments such as bloodletting, a change of climate and positioning, or change in food consumption patterns.122 Food was one of the most effective tools to maintain one’s complexion, affecting the warmth and moisture of the consumer. Spaniards believed that if they consumed the same foods that the indigenous peoples ate, then they would, over generations, have their complexions transformed to that of an Indian.
They also believed that the initial high death tolls of Spaniards in Mesoamerica were a side effect of a diet of New World foods. Spaniards thought tortillas caused fevers, pimply rash, and swellings.123 It was determined, then, that in order to maintain their complexion, Spaniards needed to continue to consume a diet composed of foods of which they were familiar with. As explained in the first chapter, people are a product of their dietary choices, both in a physical sense and in their sense of identity.
Early attempts in the Caribbean at growing Spanish crops, like wheat, proved unsuccessful. In order to maintain their diet, early colonizers imported mass quantities of foods that they were familiar with into the Americas. Question twenty-five of the Relaciones
Geograficas deals directly with the cultivation of Spanish crops in the New World, and a wide variety of imported plants thrived.124 Wheat was a prominent food in the Spanish diet, being a
121 Earle, 2012, 19. 122 Ibid, 26-27. 123 Ibid, 49. 124 Cline, 1964, 368, The Relaciones Geograficas were questionnaires given out to Spanish administrators in the New World so that the Spanish court may learn more about its new holdings. I will further explain these sources in Chapter 3. Question 25 asks the administrators to “state what plants have been introduced [in the area] from Spain and whether wheat, barley, wines and the olive flourish.” 47 staple crop as bread and carrying religious significance as communion. Wheat was expensive to import from Spain, but Spanish colonizers were able to import mass quantities of foodstuffs that did not expire on trans-Atlantic voyages, such as wine. Importation of all of this food proved to be very expensive, with some colonizers complaining that wine “cost the very eyes from your face.” 125 While wheat flour was imported in mass quantities, its condition was inconsistent and unreliable, as oftentimes the flour would spoil.126 For reasons like this, it was necessary to produce a crop.
After some time, the Spanish were able to cultivate many of their familiar crops on the mainland. Wheat was soon widespread, growing throughout Mexico. Michoacán was home to a major producing region for wheat in Valladolid, known in present day as Morelia.127 Wheat was a very successful crop throughout Michoacán, growing well in the wet basins of Pátzcuaro and the temperate zone of Queretaro.128 Where wheat did not prosper, such as the hot desert near
Apazingan, Spaniards deemed unlivable for themselves, declaring that it would upset their constitution:
Hay grandes pedazos de tierras baldías, que no sirven a nadie para estancias de ganados, y caballerías de tierra. Y, para poner huertas de cacao, algodonales, y para sembrar mucha cantidad de maíz, hay tierras de riego, que se podrá sacar fácilmente el agua de los arroyos; aunque los naturales, en algunas partes, la tienen sacada. No se da en esta tierra trigo, por ser, como es, caliente; ni es tierra habitable para españoles, sino son para aquellos naturales que habitan en ella.129
Grape vines, although they did not prosper in Mexico, soon became widespread in areas like
125 Earle, 2012, 73. At one point, Spaniards were importing 100,000 arrobas of wine a year from Europe. An arroba is about 25 pounds of wine, and is determined to be the approximate weight that a donkey can carry. 126 Pilcher 1998, 35. 127 Ibid., 35. 128 Relaciones Geográficas del Pátzcuaro Question 25, Relaciones Geográficas del Queretaro Question 25. 129 Relaciones Geográficas del Tancitaro, Relaciones Geográficas del Apazingan. 48 Argentina, Chile and Peru. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, in his Natural History of the
West Indies, remarked that many crops of Spain grew better in the New World than they had in
Spain.130 Bananas grew in abundance in Michoacán, especially in Apatzingan, near Tancitaro.131
Spanish colonizers not only brought European crops to the New World, but also brought many animals to Michoacán. In pre-conquest Michoacán, turkeys and fish were a common source of protein but, as examined in the last chapter, were mainly reserved for consumption by nobles and used in religious ceremonies in Michoacán. The arrival of chickens in the indigenous community allowed natives to produce meat for themselves. Chickens were popular among common citizens in Michoacán and throughout Mesoamerica as they could be kept in small places, even inside of small homes.132 Cattle, pigs and sheep all ran rampant throughout
Michoacán, causing massive changes to the landscape. Europe was a densely packed landscape compared to Michoacán, where there were large, unclaimed, and unused portions of land. Pigs multiplied into astounding numbers following their introduction to Michoacán. Pigs are fantastic reproducers, with a gestation period of only 4 months, producing up to ten piglets that can increase their weight by 5,000%, taking only six months to fully mature.133 Pigs were easily able to make an almost immediate impact on the landscape.
Indigenous farmers and Spaniards raised cattle and sheep in massive numbers along with pigs. Grazing cattle caused considerable damage to crops by both eating them and trampling them. Many indigenous farmers did not have the expertise to properly herd cattle and massive
130 Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Natural History of the West Indies, 1478-1557, trans. Sterling A. Stoudemire (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959) 10. 131 Relaciones Geográficas del Tancitaro. 132 Earle, 2012, 164. 133 Kiple, 2007, 17 49 herds caused overgrazing and soil erosion because of trampling. Oftentimes, herds under poor supervision could run away and develop into massive, wild herds, causing damage to not only the topsoil for crops but also the natural, undeveloped landscape.134 Issues with cattle became so much of a concern that the crown instituted a policy that attempted to replace cattle with sheep in high population density areas, such as the Pátzcuaro Basin. Although there were attempts to shift the types of animals raised, the raising of cattle persisted, along with complaints about such.
Sheep also caused major problems, especially when too many were kept in small areas.135
New Foodstuffs and New Lifestyles While there were certainly negative effects from imported domesticated animals, the quantity of animals introduced a market that was oversupplied with meat like never before in
Mesoamerica. Because of the massive amounts of livestock that were able to prosper in the new world, meat was incredibly cheap and affordable. While commoners kept chickens in the home, meat such as beef and pork were available at market for very little. This too contrasted with
Europe, where meat was very expensive to raise because of less land area, making meat more of a rare delicacy in Europe. In Michoacán, even the poorest of indigenous commoner could afford some meat, challenging the Tarascan social order that existed before the conquest.
As it was necessary for the indigenous peoples to embrace Christianity, it was equally important that they adopt a European diet. By consuming foods of European origin, it signified an embrace of European culture and signified a step towards embracing Christianity, the primary
134 William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples, (New York: Doubleday, 1977) 209. 135 Helen Perlstein Pollard, “From Imperial Core to Colonial Periphery,” in The Postclassic to Spanish-era Transition in Mesoamerica: Archaeological Perspectives, ed. Susan Kepecs and Rani T. Alexander (Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 2005) 75. One case involved 4,000 sheep kept on a single hill in Erongarícuaro, causing massive soil erosion and destruction of crops downslope. 50 aim of Spanish friars and administrators. Many of these friars, like Bernardino de Sahagún, had deemed much indigenous food inedible and believed that these people would be much healthier if they consumed foods of Castile.136 In addition, religious leaders found some food customs as sacrilegious to the Christian faith. Food had obvious religious significance to both the indigenous and Catholic faiths, and oftentimes these customs clashed.
The Spanish tried to institute many changes in the diet of Mesoamericans following conquest. Amaranth, or pigweed, was a primary staple as bread in Michoacán. Amaranth had been part of the Mesoamerican diet for some 5,000 years, commonly consumed throughout the region in a variety of forms by both the nobility and commoners.137 In many ceremonies,
Mesoamericans would shape little representations of their gods out of amaranth dough. This idol would then be broken up and consumed, in what the Spaniards considered a parody of communion. Insulted by such, Friars tried to outlaw consumption of amaranth as it threatened the legitimacy of the Christianization of the indigenous. Unfortunately, for the Spaniards, this ban was largely unsuccessful as the crop continued to flourish in the wild, even without cultivation.138
Spanish conquest eased pre-conquest restrictions on alcohol consumption, allowing pulque to become readily available to the common person. Although the development of this new drinking culture amongst the indigenous is difficult to chart, it was apparent to early colonial chroniclers. The Spanish did not indulge much in producing and consuming pulque, preferring their grape wine, but encouraged its production and consumption by the indigenes.
136 Earle, 2012, 165. 137 Relación de Michoacán, 13, 39, 130. 138 Pilcher, 1998, 35. 51 The government taxed the liquor trade and pulque became a major revenue source for public works in Michoacán.139 Drunkenness became common amongst many indigenous poor who had low tolerances to alcohol. While pulque was a low percentage alcohol, it was accompanied by the importation of Spanish wine. The Spaniards sold wine to indigenous to produce a quick profit and the practice became so lucrative that it was eventually banned under laws in 1594, 1637, and
1640.140
Marketplace & Taverns Three major marketplaces had existed before the conquest and continued to function after. The largest market was in the Tarascan capital of Tzinzuntzan, with others in Parea and
Asajo, the last of which was outside of the Basin proper. Historians know little about the smaller markets, but the market of Tzinzuntzan appeared to have operated every day, with few exceptions, and catered to a very large proportion of the population. As expressed in the last chapter, common citizens obtained most of their goods through the marketplace, while the nobility received most of their goods through tribute and ownership of resource producing territories.
Unfortunately, there is little more information about markets in Michoacán; so much of our information on post-conquest organization of markets comes from studies of the Aztec market. While the market of Tenochtitlan, and later Mexico City, would have been significantly larger than that of Tzinzuntzan, the Spanish influence on market operations would have been similar. The Spanish seemed to have little interest in understanding the market system and left it
139 William B. Taylor, Drinking, Homicide, and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979) 36. 140 Ibid, 1979, 38. 52 alone throughout the early days of colonization.141 The Spanish would eventually have some influence on the marketplace, but still, sources on activity within the markets after conquest are limited. There are records on the goods that vendors sold there, however, and there is evidence of goods native to Spain sold in the marketplaces.
Early on in colonization, marketplaces were very much unchanged, being an arena in which indigenous peoples could sell their wares as they always had to mainly an indigenous clientele. As time passed, however, Spanish found themselves acquiring much of their foodstuffs from these traditionally indigenous markets, though personal shopping or by sending an Indian employee. This resulted in the rise of vendors specializing in Spanish goods such as meat and vegetables of European descent.142 As the non-native population continued to grow, so did the number of vendors specializing in foodstuffs of European origins. With vendors like this in the marketplace, food items such as wheat, Spanish produce, and, most importantly, meat were now accessible to the Tarascan people. Once a rarity reserved only for the upper class, meat was now available to common citizens and they incorporated it into their traditional Tarascan diet of maize, beans and chile.
Interestingly, there ae no records of pulque vendors at the marketplaces.143 The lifting of limitations on pulque consumption led to the establishment of many taverns and inns throughout the cities, but mainly located in the countryside. Food and alcohol were still held in separate spheres of consumption even in colonial times. Early on, laws limited the amount of pulque that
141 Frances Mary Frei Berdan, “Trade, Tribute and Market in the Aztec Empire” (doctoral dissertation, The University of Texas, Austin, 1975), 124. 142 James Lockhart, The Nahuas After the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992) 191. 143 Ibid, 186. 53 could be sold within cities, but many pulque distributors found ways around the laws and established illegal taverns. It was a very profitable business for indigenous sellers, but it appeared to have disastrous effects on the wellbeing of its consumers. The lasting effects of this new culture of alcohol consumption will be examined in the forthcoming chapter.
Conclusion
As the lands were transformed under colonial authority, so were indigenous peoples’ diets and lifestyle. The importation of goods and foodstuffs radically altered the dietary landscape of Michoacán. The resulting cultivation of crops and animals from Europe brought about more change to the landscape and marketplace, radically altering what indigenous people had access. This clearly threatened the lifestyle and stature of the nobility, who were quickly losing their traditional means of authoritative control. The influx of new foodstuffs had an almost immediate impact on the lifestyles of the people who resided in Michoacán. Following this chapter, this work goes on to examine the further consequences brought about by Spanish colonization, the Columbian exchange and its impact on diet, noble stature, and the rest of the indigenous population.
54 CHAPTER III
PULQUE Y PESTILENCIA: Disease and Diet in Late 16th Century Michoacán
As the 16th century progressed, radical changes would continue to occur in Michoacán.
Spanish Authorities incorporated what was the Tarascan Empire into the Kingdom of Mexico, installing its own seat of government in Pátzcuaro. As time passed through the 16th century, disease ravaged the indigenous peoples, along with forced labor through encomiendas.144 The
Spanish Colonies managed to grow in size with non-natives, but the indigenous population diminished.145 The Spanish did not subject the local nobility to labor conditions like those of the commoners, but disease took its toll on them as well. Although the colonial administration left the nobles and Caciques with some authority, the loss of their right to collect tribute from their traditional lands diminished their social standing. Tarascan nobles found it more important than ever to assert their right to status in the region. Reinforcement of noble status was necessary in order to set them apart from the lower classes of Indians. Access to certain luxury foodstuffs had set nobles and Caciques apart from the common population in pre-conquest times.
The changes in diet and lifestyle due to colonialism came about at the same time as the diseases that devastated the noble populations, so indigenous observers often tied the two events together. Both the Spanish and Indigenous leaders struggled to fit the epidemics into their understanding of medicine and disease. In observing the widespread deaths of common citizens,
Indigenous nobility found an opportunity to reinforce claims to their noble heritage and status.
From 1577 to 1585, the Spanish Crown attempted to collect information about the Americas
144 François Chevalier, Land and Society in Colonial Mexico: The Great Hacienda, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963) 118. 145 W. George Lovell and Christopher H. Lutz, “The Historical Demography of Colonial Central America,” Yearbook (Conference of Latin American Geographers) 17/18 (1990) 130-133. 55 through geographical questionnaires known as the Relaciones Geograficas. Spanish authorities often called upon the Caciques and other local nobility to answer questions on indigenous lifestyles and history. By acting as informants for the Relaciones, the indigenous nobility used these documents as a platform to voice their concerns about Spanish colonization and the transformation of Tarascan society. In the last chapter, I explained how colonization brought about changes in diet and lifestyle for the Michoacán’s indigenous people. In this chapter, I argue that the indigenous nobility used their testimonies in the Relaciones Geograficas to elaborate on their right to noble status by pointing to diet and lifestyle changes as a primary cause of disease.
In this chapter, I begin with a detailed description of the Relaciones Geograficas, the primary sources used for this chapter. These questionnaires provide valuable information on colonial life in Michoacán, for both indigenous and colonizers. It is in this section that I examine how indigenous nobles were able to use these records as a platform to project their voice to
Spanish authorities. Next, I examine the increased consumption of sumptuary foods by commoners in Michoacán and the lifestyle changes caused by colonization. This section then focuses on the epidemics that came with colonization. Disease, medicine, and diet were closely tied during the 16th century in both Tarascan and Spanish culture. Following this, I use the
Relaciones to interpret the nobles and Cacique’s reactions to the conditions caused by colonization, including these changes in diet and increase in death by disease. I look at how the
Caciques and other existing indigenous leaders continued to use diet as a distinguishing marker of change and as an explanation for disease.
56 Relaciones Geograficas
Before looking at what we learn about the indigenous experience from the Relaciones
Geograficas, we first examine their history. Having inherited the throne from his father, Charles
V (r. 1517-1556), Philip II wanted to gain further understanding of the territories held in the
Americas. He wished to make these territories visible through maps and information, consistent with a fascination with spatial understanding that existed in Spain.146 There was also the issue of policy regarding encomiendas in the Spanish territories. As disputes often arose, it was necessary for the crown to have accurate information regarding the conditions of these territories. Accurate map data, along with information on climate, resources, culture, population and other topics was necessary to rule effectively over the colonies.147 It came under the authority of the newly appointed Visitor to the Council of Indies, Juan de Ovando y Godoy, to survey the overseas possessions of Spain. In order to help him execute this task of mapping the new world, Ovando created the position of Principal Royal Chronicler-Cosmographer for Juan López de Velasco in
1571. In the years to come, Velasco sent a variety of questionnaires to the Indies, compiling a large amount of information about the New World. Having produced quality work for the crown, the Crown gave Velasco a bonus, allowing him to execute his two grandest projects: scientific questionnaires about the moon’s cycles and the Relaciones Geograficas.
The basis of the Relaciones was a request for a map of a city and surrounding area, usually illustrated by a native artist. While these were integral to the understanding of the landscape of the new world, my work focuses on the second part: a 50-question questionnaire
146 Barbara E. Mundy, The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geograficas, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000) 1-2. 147 Howard F. Cline, "The Relaciones Geograficas of the Spanish Indies, 1577-1856," The Hispanic American Historical Review 44, no. 3 (1964): 344. 57 that covered a wide variety of topics. There were few aspects of colonial life untouched in these questions, covering landscape, names of cities and towns, administrative structures, natural resources, indigenous history and, most importantly for this project, foodstuffs produced and consumption patterns.148 While I used the Relaciones for information on the food in my previous chapter, I use the sources differently now, analyzing the way in which they were written to provide information on changing attitudes and hierarchy in colonial Michoacán.
Spanish administrators compiled the Relaciones Geograficas with the help of indigenous native interpreters. Spanish authorities were well suited to answer many of the questions asked in the Relaciones, but there were areas of colonial life in which they knew little. Many questions regarded the lifestyles and conditions of the native peoples, so many of the Spanish turned to natives for this information. Most all of these native informers were nobles or elders, as Spanish authorities had little contact with lower class citizens.149 These higher-class citizens also knew information that many commoners did not, such as descriptions of the pre-conquest conditions of the area and functioning of the indigenous government. It is important to note that many Spanish officials had little time to compile these reports, often only having ten days in which to gather and write up their answers.150 This required heavy participation from the indigenous peoples, who used these testimonies to provide their point of view of colonialism. In most cases, these answers would be put through a European filter before being inscribed. It is through these
148 Refer to Cline, 1964, 365-371 for a full list and transcription of the questions asked in the Relaciones Geograficas. 149 Barry L. Isaac, "Witnesses to Demographic Catastrophe: Indigenous Testimony in the Relaciones Geograficas of 1577-86 for Central Mexico," Ethnohistory 62, no. 2 (2015): 310. 150 Xóchitl de Guadalupe Medina González, "The Relaciones Geográficas of the Sixteenth Century : Historical Background, Administrative Framework, and the Role of the Indigenous Informants" (Master's Thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1995) 72-74. While observing the primary sources themselves, it was clear that many of the authors were rushed. In most of the documents I personally read, the documents began with very neat handwriting that eventually devolved into sloppy, hurried handwriting. 58 answers that historians can gain an understanding of the points of view from native leaders, along with information regarding the indigenous condition during the early colonial period.
Unfortunately, because of the time in which the Relaciones Geograficas were compiled, they give little reliable information on pre-conquest and early colonization. At the time, the indigenous informants were two generations removed from their ancestors who were conquered.
This allows little comparative study possible from the Relaciones. What is evident, however, is that these informants felt the same adherence to their traditional level of status. There was a clear attempt at perpetuation of their higher social status, although they were far removed from any real authority. 151
Food in the Late 16th Century
By 1580, indigenous peoples had fully embraced the new elements of their diet, adding them to their own traditional diet. The Relacion from Tiripitio in 1580 provides one of the most comprehensive descriptions of what native peoples ate by this time, including traditional staples and a wide variety of meats, both native and European in origin:
Su comida ordinaria era pan de maíz, tortillas y tamales...Comían frijoles, que son como habas, y chile, que en España llamamos “pimienta de las Indias”. Las carnes que comían eran venados y gallipavos, gallinas de la tierra, conejos, codornices, patos de agua, gallinas y gallipavos monteses, que son como los mansos, que de todo hay gran cantidad.152
This section goes on to mention that the King (of Spain) had lifted limitations on fishing in the region, allowing the native peoples to openly access the fish in Lake Pátzcuaro:
Comían de muchos pescados, porque tienen cerca la laguna de Pátzcuaro, y aun tenían facultad del rey para pescar en cierta ensenada de ella que cae cerca de los
151 William B. Taylor, Drinking, Homicide, and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979) 29. 152 Relaciones Geográficas del Tiripitio, Question 15. 59 términos dista jurisdicción, donde se saca gran cantidad de pescado blanco, como albures, o mejor, y otros, como barbos, y otro que se dice CHEGUA, chiquito y que siempre huele mal, aunque, por esta razón, lo comen muy bien y es el más ordinario.153
Cacao had become much more prominent in the late 16th century, a massive change from the pre-conquest landscape where it hardly appeared in any sources. The Aztecs had exposed the
Spanish and they found it to be very enjoyable. By the 1570s, cacao fields were prominent throughout Michoacán, in regions like Zacatula, Cuiseo and Tancitaro, all known for their wetter climates.154 Cacao became a favorite for colonizers, a prominent ingredient in some signature
Spanish colonial dishes, such as mole.155 As Spanish desire had created a new marketplace for
European goods in the new world, indigenous crops that were favorable to the Spanish also flourished.
Alcohol was much more accessible to the common population as restrictions had been lifted by the Spaniards. As investigated in the last chapter, the Spanish were importing mass quantities of wine before cultivating vines in the new world. However, the indigenous peoples still preferred pulque, the alcohol of the pre-conquest period. Realizing that there was much to gain in profit from indigenous peoples, they began to control the production and distribution of pulque, overseeing the construction of pulque taverns known as pulquerias.156
Herds of animals continued to grow and meat was incorporated into more dishes. Meat became a common ingredient of tamales and lard was fundamental to many dishes for both
153 Relaciones Geográficas del Tiripitio, Question 15. 154 Relaciones Geográficas del Zacatula, Relaciones Geográficas del Cuiseo de la Laguna, Relaciones Geográficas del Tancitaro. 155 Jeffrey Pilcher, ¡Que Vivan Los Tamales!: Food and the Making of Mexican Identity (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998) 25-27. 156 John E. Kicza, “The Pulque Trade of Late Colonial Mexico City,” The Americas 37, no. 2 (1980) 194. 60 indigenous peoples and Spaniards.157 Conquest’s initial effects on the foodways of Michoacán had exploded, fully permeating the diets and cultures of all residents, both new and old. As these new foods continued to take hold, so did disease, resulting in periodic epidemics and widespread fatalities. Food played an integral part of how the people looked at these periods of great death and disease.
Pestilencia
Disease and pestilence remained rampant in Michoacán and Mesoamerica throughout the
16th century, decimating the indigenous population. Made clear through this work and countless others, plants and animals were not the only thing brought over to the New World from Europe.
Before the conquest, Helen Pollard estimates that the population of the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin was approximately 60,000 – 100,000. A major plague in 1545 left the Basin with a population of
40,000 – 75,000 by 1550. In 1568, the population had dropped even more to 19,000 – 35,000.158
The distribution of the Relaciones Geograficas lined up with the devastating second plague epidemic from 1576 to 1577, providing a very stark picture on life in Michoacán.159 In
Nochistlán, for example, up to two thirds of the indigenous population were wiped out by this plague.160 The indigenous population of the Basin had dropped down to 14,000-25,000 by 1580, leaving only around 25% of the pre-conquest population intact.161
There are many theories attributed to these epidemics, but many medical historians
157 Pilcher, 1998, 31. 158 Helen Perlstein Pollard, “From Imperial Core to Colonial Periphery,” in The Postclassic to Spanish-era Transition in Mesoamerica: Archaeological Perspectives, (Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 2005) 73. 159 Relaciones Geográficas del Acambaro Question 5 160 René Acuña, Relaciones Geográficas del siglo XVI: Nueva Galicia, (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1988) 167. 161 Pollard, 2005, 73. 61 believe that it was a reemergence of plague, similar to the Black Death of 14th century Europe.162
Alfred Crosby attributes the massive losses not only to indigenous people’s lack of immunity to
European diseases, but also to physical weakness exploited by overwork and a general loss of will to live after decimation of their culture.163 Before Spanish contact, indigenous peoples had had very little exposure to disease. This was surprising, as the sedentary settlements of
Mesoamerica had massive, dense populations before conquest, reaching far beyond the threshold of which disease could survive human-to-human contact easily.
In the case of the epidemic of 1576, the cause is debatable. The common symptom reported by natives was bleeding from the mouth and nose, commonly followed by hemorrhaging of the ears, eyes, and vagina, accompanied by bloody diarrhea.164 In secondary literature, historians generally agree that this was an epidemic of typhus.165 Other historians try to attribute the outbreak to a type of plague, citing that the symptoms of bleeding do not fit with the present definition of typhus.166 In any case, the presence of Spaniards accompanied by the new lack of proper hygiene and animals residing within cities were the primary causes of this and previous outbreaks of disease. Rats in the cities, which had existed in Michoacán before the conquest, spread disease further. New animals, brought over with the Spaniards, continued to have devastating effects of their own.
One of the often-overlooked contributors to disease was one of the animals brought from
Europe to Mexico: Pigs. Pigs are able to act as an intermediate between flu viruses in birds and
162 Hanns J. Prem, “Disease Outbreaks in Central Mexico during the Sixteenth Century” in Secret Judgments of God: Old World Disease in Colonial Spanish America, ed. Noble David Cook and W. George Lovell (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001) 40. 163 Alfred Crosby, The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492, (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972) 45. 164 Prem, 2001, 39. 165 William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples, (New York: Doubleday, 1977) 217 166 Prem, 2001, 40. 62 viruses in people, as they are able to become infected with both types of viruses. When a pig is infected with a virus with a human subtype and a virus with a bird subtype, oftentimes there is the opportunity for the diseases to be rearranged. Waterfowl is known to be the origin of all influenzas, and there was no shortage of waterfowl on the lakes of the Pátzcuaro Basin.167 As explained in the second chapter, the Spanish conquest brought many herds of pigs to the Basin that often encountered these waterfowl. As these new herds became very large, the possibility of disease forming among them and being transferred to humans is very likely. These herd infections were something very new to the indigenous peoples of Michoacán, leaving their bodies defenseless against these new strains of flu.168
In addition to dietary changes mentioned in the previous chapter, Spanish conquest brought about changes in the cleanliness of the indigenous peoples. Before the arrival of the
Spanish, bathing was an important ritual for Mesoamerican peoples, with all peoples encouraged to bathe daily. However, once the Spanish arrived and people started dying, the Spanish attributed it to over bathing.169 The Spanish also made correlations between Mesoamerican bathing and Muslim traditions, which resonated with those who had participated in or remembered the Reconquista.170 Bathing was also related to the maintenance of the four humors, as Spaniards believed that exposing the body and pores to too much water left it susceptible to evil spirits and disease.171
167 David. Quammen, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012) 113. 168 McNeill, 1977, 210. 169 Sharon Bailey Glasco, Constructing Mexico City: Colonial Conflicts over Culture, Space and Authority, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) 91. 170 The Reconquista refers to the period of history in which the Christian Kingdom of Castile retook much of the Iberian Peninsula from the Islamic Moors. This period stretched from the Islamic conquest of Hispania in 711 to the fall of the last Islamic state in Granada in 1492. Strong, anti-Muslim sentiment developed this time that persisted throughout the colonial era. 171 Glasco, 2010, 91. 63 Reaction
The testimonies that appear to come from indigenous interpreters are selective in their topics, focusing on issues that were relevant to what the nobility noticed readily. For example, they ignore the effects of activities like forced labor on depopulation, hardly mentioning those activities in the countryside. They were much more inclined to attribute the death and disease of the times to problems that were present in the cities where they themselves resided. These issues were more visible to them and could have ties to themselves and their status. Food consumption served as a primary topic of focus for the indigenous nobility. Not only was it ever present in the cities, but it was something that everyone encountered every day.
Accounts of mass death and disease are often difficult to interpret, as those reporting on it often have very little medical expertise.172 Disease is a very important subject in the Relaciones, as Question 17 asks the reporter to:
State whether the town is situated in a healthful or unhealthful place and if unhealthful, the cause for this if it can be learned; note the kinds of illness that are prevalent and the remedies employed for curing them.173
Note the language used in the question, referring to the healthfulness of the region, which certainly harkens back to the idea of humoral pathology discussed in the last chapter. Oftentimes, however, the healthfulness of the region does not mean that there is no disease. As one observer wrote in the Relacion de Tiripitio that the land was healthful, but indigenous people were unable to escape the general pestilence of the land, while the Spanish did not fall victim:
Fuera de esta general pestilencia, que, en ella, pocos han escapado. También, se ha de entender que esta pestilencia no da ni se pega a los españoles, así en este pueblo como [en] todos los demás de la Nueva España. Dios sabe la causa por
172 Prem, 2001, 23. 173 Cline, 1964, 367. 64 que no.174 Usually, the testimonies show that even the Spaniards had very little knowledge of what disease was most prevalent, indicating it may have been measles, smallpox or other various diseases, usually referring to it as a “general pestilence.”175
Alcohol consumption by indigenous peoples had grown to be of major public concern by the latter half of the 16th century. Much of the pulque production that was held to the countryside in the earlier days of colonization moved to the cities where their business could be more profitable. Alcoholism in Michoacán was itself a sickness that spread fast and uncontrollably.
Overdrinking until death was common, as the previous restrictions left no tradition of responsible drinking for the indigenous commoners. Drunkenness led to violence in taverns and abuse against women, often ending in death. Drunkenness often led to suicide as well, as in this passage from the Relacion de Tancitaro:
La gente de esta provincia de Michoacán, ansi hombres como mujeres, es gente crecida y robusta, más que le mexicana, y feroz y soberbia en el hablar, y amigos de salir con las cosas que ponen por obra. No son belicosos, ni amigos de tener rencillas ni pasiones, si no es cuando se toman el vino, que esto lo usan casi todos. Y, estando así, son crueles, que se matan, y así hacen a las mujeres, y luego dicen que estaban borrachos.176
Lack of restrictions and the ability for poor to acquire alcohol completely reversed the symbolic nature of alcohol held before conquest. Once a beverage reserved only for the elites and the elderly now became associated with the urban poor. Alcohol had once carried great religious significance but was now associated with criminal activity, violence, abuse, and suicide. 177 This
174 Relaciones Geográficas del Tiripitio, Question 17 175 Relaciones Geográficas del Tiripitio, Question 17, Relaciones Geográficas del Zapotlan, Question 5. 176 Relaciones Geográficas del Tancitaro 177 Michael C. Scardaville, “Alcohol Abuse and Tavern Reform in Late Colonial Mexico City,” The Hispanic American Historical Review 60, no. 4 (1980) 644-645. 65 image would persist throughout the colonial era, and much of society continued to look down upon pulque consumers, even through the period of indigenismo in the 20th century.
To the indigenous nobility, the cause of death and disease of the common population seemed clear: they had simply gotten too comfortable in their new lifestyle and were more susceptible to sickness because of it.178 The nobility felt that these drastic changes in diet, having taken place over only a few decades, were wreaking havoc on the common people’s abilities to resist disease.179 The nobles point out that without some sort of regulation, the commoners tend to lower their productivity and make themselves susceptible to disease. The social order had been seriously disturbed and perhaps restoration of the pre-conquest restrictions could reduce the numbers of disease stricken natives.
Encomiendas and Noble Status
Asserting that social upheaval of the dietary restrictions was a clear attempt to retain some sense of the Cacique’s former status. The Caciques found it increasingly important to assert their noble lineage and status later in the colonial period. While they were able to maintain some of their tribute system in the initial years following the conquest, the situation differed in the latter half of the 16th century. By this time, the nobility had little more than their titles and residencies, having lost what little political authority they had left following the conquest. While this authority was a great loss for the nobility, they believed they could still maintain their status.
It was integral for the nobility to maintain their titles so that they were not incorporated into an encomienda. An encomienda was a royal grant to a Spaniard of Indians of a particular
178 Isaac, 2015, 315. 179 Ibid., 316. 66 area. This provided the receiver of the grant, or the encomendero, with the right to collect tribute from these Indians in return for protection and religious instruction.180 Land grants often accompanied the encomienda, but were not included. The major encomendero in Michoacán was
Juan Infante, who originated in Seville. Infante had resided in Mexico City before being granted the rights to Tzinzuntzan in 1528 by Governor Alonso de Estrada. Over the next twenty-five years, Infante continued to acquire more territories from the surrounding area and eventually acquired a title.181 Other notable encomenderos in Michoacán include Domingo de Medina in
Tancitaro and Antonio de Luna in Periván.182 Many encomenderos in Michoacán, like Infante, paid tribute to the crown themselves. Reorganization of communities slowly followed to better serve the interests of the encomenderos. As more indigenes paid tribute to the encomenderos the nobility received less tribute, which essentially phased out much of their authority.
By the latter half of the 16th century, the encomienda had successfully replaced the indigenous system as the primary tribute system. In this time, the nobility did not legally receive tribute in any way and any illegal tribute collection was probably very minimal and is not present in any records. This was detrimental to the indigenous nobility’s status and authority as tribute collection was a clear assertion of power and control. As the Purepécha now consumed a similar diet as the indigenous nobility and no longer paid tribute directly to them, the commoners lost much of their former respect for the elite Indians.183 The prevalence of meat, cacao and alcohol in the common diet demonstrated a disintegration of noble rights to tribute and their pre-colonial diet.
180 Robert Himmerich y Valencia, The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521-1555, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991) 4. Often times these services were never actually provided to indigenous peoples. 181 Ibid., 177. 182 Relaciones Geográficas del Tancitaro, Relaciones Geográficas del Periván, Question 33. 183 Medina Gonzalez, 1995, 162. 67
Conclusion
The disintegration of the tribute system, the introduction of European foods and the disease that came with it all contributed to the nobility’s feelings about losing their identity.
Commoner’s access to foodstuffs once held in high regard reduced the standing of those foods, seemingly reducing the standing of the nobility. As the nobility and Caciques identified with their food, so they identified that the loss of exclusive access to these foods damaged the picture of identity that they had constructed in pre-conquest times. Their lavish lifestyle and diet was now much more accessible and seen as common, rather than unique. Their distaste with this was manifested in the Relaciones Geograficas, where they suggested a reasoning for the disease and pestilence that accompanied conquest. The comfortable lifestyle that was only to be enjoyed by the nobility was now enjoyed by commoners, which made them soft and susceptible to a variety of factors.
Meat, alcohol and cacao were the key factors of change in diet during the latter part of the
16th century. These food items were limited to consumption by only the nobility and Caciques before the conquest, but now these foodstuffs had become more available to the common population. This fundamentally changed the lifestyle of the common population, introducing them to a life of supposed comfort in their diet. At the same time, the common people died in droves from disease and pestilence. As there was a breakdown in social order, the nobles looked to some of the obvious changes brought about by conquest to explain that breakdown, such as access to food and drink.
68 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the Tarascan diet was radically altered by the arrival and cultivation of many crops and animals from Europe. The Tarascan people had held strong connections with their food before the conquest and the nobility had successfully made a distinguished diet for themselves through tribute and subjugation of the masses. However, this changed when the
Spaniards arrived, bringing foodstuffs and animals of Europe with them. The influx of new food items made some sumptuous foods, once reserved only for the indigenous nobility, available to the general population. These changes affected social hierarchy as the nobility lost the right to their diet as a key of higher social standing. To Nobles, however, saw the disease that accompanied conquest and attributed these to changes in diet and lifestyle. Although they attempted to point out these issues in the Relaciones Geograficas, their efforts were to no avail and their right to their diet was no longer recognized.
The conquest of Michoacán was not just a clash of two civilizations but an encounter that proposed and executed changes in diet and lifestyle. Historians have studied how the Spanish were put in a new dietary realm by being introduced to new foods, but have often overlooked the indigenous reaction to these changes. In this thesis, I have looked at how native diet has changed over time from the period before the conquest to near the end of the 16th century. It is suggested here that food had close ties to the social structure and hierarchy in Michoacán that was changed along with the diet. Food was not the only driver of change in colonial Michoacán, but it was certainly a major contributor. These changes were not independent of each other and instead were interrelated.
By studying food and its history, historians can uncover new factors in social change.
Food has had profound impacts on society and its influence permeates throughout many levels of
69 social hierarchy. As in 16th century Michoacán, there is much to be discovered through the study of food and its relation to society. John Super writes that:
Food is the ideal cultural symbol that allows the historian to uncover hidden levels of meaning in social relationships and arrive at new understandings of the human experience.184
Future studies may continue to look at the effects of the Columbian Exchange on social hierarchies throughout the world. New foodstuffs from Europe would have made different impacts on the distinct areas of Colonial New Spain. Historians could also examine the reverse, as foodstuffs from the Americas would have had a significant impact on the lifestyles of
Europeans. These American foodstuffs would find their way into an existing social hierarchy that could hold different foods to different standards. Perhaps foodstuffs highly revered in Europe were commonplace in the Americas and the opposite could be true.
Work could continue to be done on food and its relation to changes in the new world. As demonstrated in this thesis, food had profound changes on the lifestyle and social structure of
Michoacán, but more can be done. Not only can historians look at other regions, but also perhaps other topics involving food. This would include food changes and its effect on agricultural practices, religion, crime, law and a number of other topics. While many of these subjects were touched on in this thesis, there is still room for further study on food and the conquest and the effects that would follow.
This thesis provides an investigation into the effects that changes in diet had on the social structure of the Tarascan people. The methods used here can be used to further the study of the relationship between food and social structure and how changes in either can affect the other.
184 John C. Super, “Food and History,” Journal of Social History 36, no. 1 (2002) 165. 70 Colonial Michoacán is an interesting region that warrants more study, and food is just one avenue in which the change in social relations can be studied. Looking at the region through the lens of food, however, lends an insight into something in which every person comes into contact with every day. This topic shows us that what they had on their plates affected much more than their hunger and cravings, but had radical changes on the ways in which they lived and interacted.
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