Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T04:16:53.022Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

HUMAN SACRIFICE AND DIVINE NOURISHMENT IN MESOAMERICA: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF CACAO ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF GUATEMALA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2016

Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos
Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Yale University, 10 Sachem Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06525
*
E-mail correspondence to: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores the sacrificial symbolism of cacao (Theobroma sp.) on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, manifest in the iconography of ceramic objects and stone sculptures from the Classic period, in textual references from the colonial period, and in contemporary ethnographic data from the southern highlands. The iconographic and textual metaphors contained in these sources linked cacao pods with dead warriors, captives, and sacrificial victims. As interpreted in this article, the harvest of cacao was equated with the acquisition of sacrificial victims, and both were conceived as precious sources of nourishment for the gods. Changes in artistic representations are discernible from Early Classic Teotihuacan-style censers to Early Postclassic Plumbate ceramic effigies. Cacao and other fruits from the Pacific coastal piedmont are still related to the symbolism of war and sacrifice in contemporary rituals from the Tz'utujil town of Santiago Atitlán. Data from southern Guatemala may be relevant to understand the sacrificial symbolism of cacao throughout Mesoamerica.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , Fall 2016 , pp. 361 - 375
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barrera Vásquez, Alfredo 1991 Diccionario Maya. Maya-Español. Español-Maya. Segunda edición. Editorial Porrúa, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Bergmann, John F. 1969 The Distribution of Cacao Cultivation in Pre-columbian America. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 59:85–96.Google Scholar
Berlo, Janet C. 1983 The Warrior and the Butterfly: Central Mexican Ideologies of Sacred Warfare and Teotihuacan Iconography. In Text and Image in Pre-Columbian Art, edited by Berlo, Janet Catherine, pp. 79–117. BAR International Series 180. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Berlo, Janet C. 1984 Teotihuacan Art Abroad: A study of metropolitan style and provincial transformation in incensario workshops. 2 vols. BAR International Series 199. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Boone, Elizabeth Hill 2007 Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican Books of Fate. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Boot, Erik 2004 Vocabulary in the Ch'olti’ Language. A Transcription of the ‘Bocabulario Grande’ by Fray Francisco Morán (1695). Electronic document, www.famsi.org/mayawriting/dictionary/boot/cholti_moran1695_revised.pdf, accessed August 27, 2016.Google Scholar
Bove, Frederick J. and Medrano, Sonia 2003 Teotihuacan, Militarism, and Pacific Guatemala. In The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction, edited by Braswell, Geoffrey, pp. 45–79. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Bove, Frederick J., Medrano, Sonia B., Lou, Brenda P., and Arroyo, Bárbara L. (editors) 1993 The Balberta Project: The Terminal Formative-Early Classic Transition on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. University of Pittsburgh Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology, Vol. 6. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, and Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Carlsen, Robert S. 2011 The War for the Heart and Soul of a Highland Maya Town. Revised edition. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Carlsen, Robert S., and Prechtel, Martin 1991 The Flowering of the Dead: An Interpretation of Highland Maya Culture. Man 26:23–42.Google Scholar
Carrasco, Davíd 1995 Cosmic Jaws: We Eat the Gods and the Gods Eat Us. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 63:429–463.Google Scholar
Castillo Aguilar, Víctor Jesús 2008 Las figurillas moldeadas antropomorfas del período Clásico Tardío de la Costa Sur de Guatemala. Unpublished Licenciatura thesis, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo 1996 Las Esculturas de Pantaleón, Escuintla. U Tz'ib 1(10):1–23. Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo 1998 Pipiles y Cakchiqueles en Cotzumalguapa: La Evidencia Etnohistórica y Arqueológica. Anales de la Academia de Geografía e Historia de Guatemala 73:143–184.Google Scholar
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo 2006 El Jaguar Iguana. Arqueología Mexicana 81:82–85.Google Scholar
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo 2008 El Monumento 21 de Bilbao, Cotzumalguapa. In XXI Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, edited by Laporte, Juan Pedro, Arroyo, Bárbara, and Mejía, Héctor E.., pp. 989–1006. Instituto de Antropología e Historia and Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo 2011a Calzadas, acrópolis y plazas: Forma y función de los espacios públicos en Cotzumalguapa y Los Cerritos Norte, Escuintla. In Representaciones y espacios públicos en el Área Maya: Un estudio interdisciplinario, edited by Stuardo, Rodrigo Liendo and Rock, Francisca Zalaquett, pp. 37–76. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo 2011b The Flowering Glyphs: Animation in Cotzumalhuapa Writing. In Their Way of Writing: Scripts, Signs and Notational Systems in Pre-Columbian America, edited by Boone, Elizabeth and Urton, Gary, pp. 43–75. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo 2012a Cotzumalguapa: La ciudad arqueológica. El Baúl, Bilbao, El Castillo. F&G Editores, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo 2012b Sonidos en piedra: El canto, la música y el baile en el monumento 21 de Cotzumalguapa, Guatemala. In Flower World: Music Archaeology of the Americas. Mundo Florido: Arqueomusicología de las Américas, Vol. 1, edited by Stöckli, Matthias and Both, Arnd Adje, pp. 109–125. Ekho Verlag, Berlin Google Scholar
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo 2013 En Busca del Tiempo Perdido: Arqueología de la Memoria en Cotzumalguapa. In Millenary Maya Societies: Past Crises and Resilience, edited by Arnauld, Marie-Charlotte and Breton, Alain, pp. 199–216. Electronic document, http://www.mesoweb.com/publications/MMS/13_Chinchilla.pdf, accessed August 29, 2016.Google Scholar
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo 2015 Sounds in Stone: Music, Song, and Dance on Monument 21 from Bilbao, Cotzumalguapa, Guatemala. PARI Journal 16:1–12.Google Scholar
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo (editor) 2005 Kakaw: El Chocolate en la Cultura Guatemalteca. Museo Popol Vuh, Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Christenson, Allen J. 2001 Art and Society in a Highland Maya Community: The Altarpiece of Santiago Atitlán. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Christenson, Allen (translator) 2003 Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Maya. O Books, Alresford.Google Scholar
Clark, John E. 1991 The Beginnings of Mesoamerica: Apologia for the Soconusco Early Formative. In The Formation of Complex Society in Southeastern Mesoamerica, edited by Fowler, William R., pp. 13–26. CRC Press, Boca Raton.Google Scholar
Coe, Sophie D. and Coe, Michael D. 1986 The True History of Chocolate. Thames and Hudson, New York Google Scholar
Coto, Thomas de 1983 [Thesavrvs Verborv] Vocabvlario de la Lengua Cakchiquel v[el] Guatemalteca, nueuamente hecho y recopilado con summo estudio, trauajo y erudición. Edited by Acuña, René. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de 1674 Primera parte del tesoro de la lengua castellana o española. Melchor Sánchez, Madrid.Google Scholar
de la Garza, Mercedes (editor) 1985 Libro de Chilam Balam de Chumayel. Translated by Bolio, Antonio Médiz. Secretaría de Educación Pública, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Feldman, Lawrence H. 1998 Pokom Maya and their Colonial Dictionaries. Electronic document, http://www.famsi.org/reports/97022/index.html, accessed August 27, 2016.Google Scholar
Fernández de Oviedo, Gonzalo 1851 Historia General y Natural de las Indias, Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Océano, Vol. 1, edited by de los Ríos, José Amador. Imprenta de la Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid.Google Scholar
Fowler, William R. 1989 The Cultural Evolution of Ancient Nahua Civilizations: The Pipil-Nicarao of Central America. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Gann, Thomas 1939 Glories of the Maya. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.Google Scholar
García de Palacio, Diego 1982 Relación hecha por el Licenciado Palacio al Rey D. Felipe II, en la que describe la Provincia de Guatemala, las costumbres de los indios y otras cosas notables. In Relaciones geográficas del siglo XVI: Guatemala, edited by Acuña, René, pp. 249–287. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Gómez Gonzáles, Erika 2006 Estudio Iconográfico de la Cerámica Tiquisate Moldeada de la Costa Sur de Guatemala. Licenciatura thesis, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Guatemala. Electronic document , http://biblioteca.usac.edu.gt/tesis/14/14_0355.pdf, accessed August 30, 2016.Google Scholar
Graulich, Michel, and Olivier, Guilhem 2004 ¿Deidades Insaciables? La Comida de los Dioses en el México Antiguo. Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl 35:121–155.Google Scholar
Hellmuth, Nicholas 1975 The Escuintla Hoards: Teotihuacan Art in Guatemala. Progress Reports, Vol. 1, No. 2. Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research, St. Louis.Google Scholar
Hellmuth, Nicholas 1978 Teotihuacan Art in the Escuintla, Guatemala, Region. In Middle Classic Mesoamerica: a.d. 400–700, edited by Pasztory, Esther, pp. 71–85. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Henne, Marilyn G. 1977 Quiche Food: Its Cognitive Structure in Chichicastenango, Guatemala. In Cognitive Studies in Southern Mesoamerica, edited by Neuenswander, Helen L. and Arnold, Dean E., pp. 67–92. Summer Institute of Linguistics, Dallas.Google Scholar
Hill, Jane H. 1992 The Flower World of Old Uto-Aztecan. Journal of Anthropological Research 48:117–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houston, Stephen D. 2010 Living Waters and Wondrous Beasts. In Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea, edited by Finamore, Daniel and Houston, Stephen D., pp. 66–79. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., Stuart, David, and Taube, Karl 2006 The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience among the Classic Maya. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Ichon, Alain, and Cheesman, Rita Grignon 1983 Archéologie de sauvetage 5: Les sites classiques de la vallée moyenne du Chixoy. Centre National de la Récherche Scientifique, Paris, and Editorial Piedra Santa, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary 2000 A Precolumbian Gaze: Male Sexuality among the Ancient Maya. In Archaeologies of Sexuality, edited by Schmidt, Robert A. and Voss, Barbara L., pp. 263–283. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Terrence, and Justeson, John 2003 A Preliminary Mayan Etymological Dictionary. Research Report, Electronic document, http://www.famsi.org/reports/01051/pmed.pdf, accessed March 3, 2015.Google Scholar
Kerr, Justin (editor) 2013 Maya Vase Database. Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies Inc., and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles. Electronic database, http://research.mayavase.com/kerrmaya.html, accessed August 26, 2016.Google Scholar
Kufer, Johanna, and McNeil, Cameron L. 2006 The Jaguar Tree (Theobroma bicolor Bonpl.). In Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao, edited by McNeil, Cameron L., pp. 90–104. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Kufer, Johanna, and Heinrich, Michael 2006 Food for the Rain Gods: Cacao in Ch'orti’ Ritual. In Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao, edited by McNeil, Cameron L., pp. 384–407. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Laughlin, Robert M. 1962 El Símbolo de la Flor en la Religión de Zinacantán. Estudios de Cultura Maya 2:123–139.Google Scholar
Laughlin, Robert M. 1988 The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of Santo Domingo Zinacantán, with Grammatical Analysis and Historical Commentary. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology No. 31. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Lesure, Richard G. 1997 Figurines and Social Identities in Early Sedentary Societies of Coastal Chiapas, Mexico, 1550–800 B.C. In Women in Prehistory: North America and Mesoamerica, edited by Claassen, Cheryl and Joyce, Rosemary A., pp. 227–248. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
López Austin, Alfredo 1994 Tamoanchan y Tlalocan. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico City.Google Scholar
López García, Julián 2002 Restricciones Culinarias en la Alimentación de Mayas-Chortís y Ladinos del Oriente de Guatemala . 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Departmento de Historia Contemporánea, Universidad Complutense, Madrid.Google Scholar
Lowe, Gareth W., Lee, Thomas A., and Espinosa, Eduardo Martínez 1982 Izapa: An Introduction to the Ruins and Monuments. Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation 31. Brigham Young University, Provo.Google Scholar
Martin, Simon 2006 Cacao in Ancient Maya Religion: First Fruit from the Maize Tree and other Tales from the Underworld. In Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao, edited by McNeil, Cameron L., pp. 154–183. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.Google Scholar
McNeil, Cameron L. 2006 Introduction: The Biology, Antiquity, and Modern Uses of the Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao L.). In Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao, edited by McNeil, Cameron L., pp. 1–28. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Mendelson, E. Michael 1965 Los Escándalos de Maximón. Seminario de Integración Social Guatemalteca, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Miller, Mary, and Martin, Simon 2004 Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hudson, New York.Google Scholar
Millon, Rene 1955 When Money Grew on Trees: A Study of Cacao in Ancient Mesoamerica . Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York.Google Scholar
Monaghan, John 2000 Theology and History in the Study of Mesoamerican Religions. In Ethnology, edited by Monaghan, John, pp. 24–49. Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 6. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Neff, Hector 2005 Orígenes y Evolución de las Tradiciones Cerámicas del Periodo Clásico en la Costa del Pacífico de Guatemala. In Iconografía y Escritura Teotihuacana en la Costa Sur de Guatemala y Chiapas, edited by Mazariegos, Oswaldo Chinchilla and Arroyo, Bárbara, pp. 17–34. U Tz'ib, Serie Reportes, Vol. 1, No. 5. Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Nicholson, Henry B. 1971 Religion in Pre-Hispanic Mexico. In Archaeology of Northern Mesoamerica, Part I, edited by Ekhholm, Gordon F. and Bernal, Ignacio, pp. 395–446. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 10, Robert Wauchope, general editor. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Linda Lee 1975 Songs of the Face of the Earth: Ancestor songs of the Tzutuhil-Maya of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala . Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Ethnomusicology, University of California, Los Angeles. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Parsons, Lee A. 1969 Bilbao, Guatemala: An Archaeological Study of the Pacific Coast Cotzumalhuapa Region, Vol. 2. Publications in Anthropology Vol. 12. Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Pasztory, Esther 1988 Large Birds. In Feathered Serpents and Flowering Trees: Reconstructing the Murals of Teotihuacan, edited by Berrin, Kathleen, pp. 163–167. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Paulinyi, Zoltan 1995 El Pajaro Dios Mariposa de Teotihuacán: Análisis Iconográfico a Partir de una Vasija de Tiquisate, Guatemala. Boletín del Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino 6:71–110.Google Scholar
Polo Sifontes, Francis 2009 Título de Alotenango. In Crónicas Mesoamericanas II, edited by Carcache, Horacio Cabezas, pp. 125–141. Universidad Mesoamericana, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Powis, Terry G., Hurst, W. Jeffrey, Rodríguez, María del Carmen, Ortíz C., Ponciano, Blake, Michael, Cheetham, David, Coe, Michael D. and Hodgson, John G. 2007 Oldest Chocolate in the New World. Electronic document, http://antiquity.ac.uk/Projgall/powis, accessed December 2007.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, Raquel, and Crespo, Mario 1957 Calendario Cakchiquel de los Indios de Guatemala, 1685. Antropología e Historia de Guatemala 9(2):17–29.Google Scholar
Rosenswig, Robert M. 2011 An Early Mesoamerican Archipielago of Complexity. In Early Mesoamerican Social Transformations: Archaic and Formative Lifeways in the Soconusco Region, edited by Lesure, Richard G., pp. 242–271. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Sahagún, Bernadino de 1969 Florentine Codex. General History of the Things of New Spain. Book 6: Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy. Edited by Dibble, Charles E. and Anderson, Arthur J. O.. Monographs of the School of American Research, Santa Fe, and University of Utah, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Seler, Eduard 1992 The Religious Songs of the Ancient Mexicans. In Collected Works in Mesoamerican Linguistics and Archaeology, Vol. III, edited by Comparato, Frank, pp. 229–301. Labyrinthos, Culver City.Google Scholar
Shepard, Anna O. 1948 Plumbate: A Mesoamerican Trade Ware. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Shook, Edwin 1975 Archaeological Survey of the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. In Archaeology of Southern Mesoamerica: Part One, edited by Gordon R. Willey, pp. 180–194. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 2, Robert Wauchope, general editor. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Smith, Mary Elizabeth 1973 Picture Writing from Ancient Southern Mexico: Mixtec Place Signs and Maps. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Stanzione, Vincent 2003 Rituals of Sacrifice: Walking the Face of the Earth on the Sacred Path of the Sun. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Tarn, Nathaniel, and Prechtel, Martin 1990 “Comiéndose la fruta”: Metáforas Sexuales e Iniciaciones en Santiago Atitlán. Mesoamérica 19:73–82.Google Scholar
Tarn, Nathaniel, and Prechtel, Martin 1997 Scandals in the House of Birds: Shamans and Priests in Lake Atitlán. Marsilio, New York.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl 1994 The Iconography of Toltec Period Chichen Itza. In Hidden Among the Hills: Maya Archaeology of the Northwest Yucatan Peninsula, edited by Prem, Hanns J., pp. 212–246. Verlag von Fleming, Möckmühl.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl 2000 The Turquoise Hearth: Fire, Self Sacrifice, and the Central Mexican Cult of War. In Mesoamerica's Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, edited by Carrasco, David, Jones, Lindsay, and Sessions, Scott, pp. 269–340. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl 2004 Flower Mountain: Concepts of Life, Beauty, and Paradise among the Classic Maya. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 45:69–98.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl 2005 Representaciones del Paraíso en el Arte Cerámico del Clásico Temprano de Escuintla, Guatemala. In Iconografía y Escritura Teotihuacana en la Costa Sur de Guatemala y Chiapas, edited by Mazariegos, Oswaldo Chinchilla and Arroyo, Bárbara, pp. 35–54. U Tz'ib, Serie Reportes, Vol. 1, No. 5. Asociación Tikal, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Tedlock, Dennis (editor) 1996 Popol Vuh: The Maya Book of the Dawn of Life. Rev. ed. Touchstone Books, New York.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric S. 1948 An Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Cotzumalhuapa Region, Escuintla, Guatemala. Publication 574, Contribution 44. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric S. 1956 Notes on the Use of Cacao in Middle America. Notes on Middle American Archaeology and Ethnology 128. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric S. 1970 Maya History and Religion. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Urcid, Javier 2011 Los Oráculos y la Guerra: El Papel de las Narrativas Pictóricas en el Desarrollo Temprano de Monte Albán (500 a.C.–200 d.C.). In Monte Albán en la Encrucijada Regional y Disciplinaria. Memoria de la Quinta Mesa Redonda de Monte Alban, edited by Garcia, Nelly M. Robles and Guzman, Angel Ivan Rivera, pp. 163–237. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Voorhies, Barbara (editor) 1989 Ancient Trade and Tribute: Economies of the Soconusco Region of Mesoamerica. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Wisdom, Charles 1950 Chorti Dictionary. Transcribed and transliterated by Brian Stross. Microfilm and handwritten notes deposited at the University of Chicago, Chicago.Google Scholar
Zamora Acosta, Elías 1979 El control vertical de diferentes pisos ecológicos: Aplicación del modelo al occidente de Guatemala. In Economía y Sociedad en los Andes y Mesoamérica, edited by Franch, José Alcina, pp. 245–272. Universidad Complutense, Madrid.Google Scholar