Ancient Mayan Food and Feasting
Agriculture was very important among the Maya, as may be judged from the study of their religion. Maize and cacao constituted the most important of the crops, but beans, yams…
From Mexican Archaeology by Thomas Athol Joyce, 1914.
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Agriculture was very important among the Maya, as may be judged from the study of their religion. Maize and cacao constituted the most important of the crops, but beans, yams and other food-plants were also grown.
Co-operative labour was employed in the preparation of the fields, for weeding and for sowing, and the burnt weeds were the only manure. Sowing took place at the commencement of the rainy season; the sowers were furnished with a bag containing the grain and a pointed stick with which they made holes in the ground for the reception of the seed. The right-hand figure in the upper portion of Fig. 59 is probably engaged in this occupation.
The crop was stored in specially constructed granaries. Maize was set to steep over night in water mixed with lime, and was then pounded on stones and made up into cakes, which lasted a long time and were soaked in water before a meal when they became hard. Various kinds of bread were made, most of which were eaten hot, as they were indigestible when cold. Maize-meal was mixed with water to make a beverage, for water was not usually drunk plain; a drink was also prepared from the roast grain pounded and mixed with cacao and pepper. Much chocolate, prepared as described on p. 155, was consumed, and mead was prepared from honey to which an infusion of a certain root was added.
For grinding maize a flat stone, called in Mexico metatl, was used together with an elongated stone rubber, circular or square in section, and often with a marked flattening on the side which was most constantly in use. At the present day the rubbers used in Mexico and in northern Guatemala are heavy, and the ends project beyond the edges of the metatl, so that they can be grasped by the user; in Peten, Alta Vera Paz and south-eastern Guatemala, they are lighter, and shorter than the breadth of the metatl. Rubbers of the first type, however, dating from an early period, have been found in ruins in Alta Vera Paz.
Flesh food was not much eaten on ordinary occasions, but was reserved for feasts. The Maya were good hunters, and organized communal drives besides manufacturing various forms of traps, principally springes and deadfalls (Fig. 62). The deer was the principal quarry, but various animals were domesticated, including turkeys, geese and bees, and fish was considered a great delicacy. For fishing, canoes were employed, of the dug-out variety, and the inhabitants of the lower Usumacinta led a semi-aquatic life. Between Yucatan and Tabasco is a large lagoon, with many small islands, teeming with fish and bird-life; here the navigation is very confusing, but the natives made their way from point to point by the aid of signs which they placed in the trees.
Large canoes were constructed for use on the sea, propelled by oars and sails, and one is mentioned as being seen in the neighbourhood of Cape Cotoche large enough for a crew of forty men. In hunting and fishing, when practised in common, a portion of the catch was reserved for the lord and the rest was divided.
One principal meal was taken during the day, about an hour before sunset, and the hands and mouth were washed afterwards; the women ate apart from the men.
Most ceremonial occasions were marked by a feast, and the Maya were rather given to debauchery. The nobles frequently gave banquets, and the invited guests were supposed to be under the obligation of returning the compliment on some future occasion. Indeed, the debt was considered so binding, that it became transferred to their heirs in the case of their death. On such occasions the wine was handed by women, who turned their backs while the guest drank, and at the end of the festivities each of those present received a mantle as a gift, together with the cup from which he had drunk. Invitations to a wedding-feast, or to a banquet held in commemoration of some ancestor, involved no return invitation.
Tobacco-smoking seems to have been practised, since pipes have been found in Guatemala, though only one is known to have been discovered in Honduras. It would seem as if some form of dramatic performance was occasionally given on festive occasions, since Landa speaks of "comedians who gave representations with much grace," but the principal form of amusement was the dance, of which there were many varieties.
A number of musical instruments are shown in the manuscripts (Fig. 63) and mentioned in the early accounts. These include hollow gongs of wood, sounded with rubber-headed beaters, which could be heard over a distance of two leagues, drums of two types, gongs formed of tortoise-carapaces, beaten with the hand, and rattles and rattle-staves similar to the Mexican chicauaztli. Wind-instruments comprised conches, several forms of trumpet, often with bell-mouths formed of calabashes, bone and reed flutes and whistles. Small bells or rattles of the "hawk-bell" pattern were often worn as ornaments.
Joyce, Thomas Athol. Mexican Archaeology: an introduction to the archaeology of the Mexican and Mayan civilizations of pre-Spanish America, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1914.
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