Food, Gender and Cultural Hegemony - Kennesaw State University

CUALLI 2013
Food, Gender and Cultural Hegemony:
Miscegenation and the Culinary Basis for National
Cuisines in Latin America
Elizabeth Anne Kuznesof
University of Kansas
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Abstract: The importance of food as an aspect of the cultural hegemony achieved after the Spanish
conquest has been little emphasized in the literature. Anthropologists are increasingly seeing food
as having an independent impact on the social and cultural identity of people. This question takes
on special importance when related to two independent well-defined society in the context of
conquest. In this paper the foodways of the Spanish and of the Nahua are examined for their
characteristics and symbolic importance. It is posited that the gradual cultural hybridity that takes
place can be likened to the process of language acculturation. The process of change incorporates
the main symbolic foods of each culture and creates new foods which are ultimately seen as
“national” because they retain important dimensions of the foodways of the dominant Spanish
group. At the same time this is feasible and acceptable to indigenous and mestizo groups because
of the strong similarities in types of food, social hierarchies, and the symbolic importance of food
for the culture.
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The Spanish conquest of New World territories (as described in historiographical
literature) resulted in the political and economic control of territories and the transfer
of treasure and profits of New World plantation agriculture to Spain. Less commented
on are the conscious efforts of crown and church in the sixteenth century toward
Spanish cultural hegemony, and the almost invisible incorporation of indigenous and
hybrid cultural influences into the accepted definition of "Spanish society" in the New
World colonies. This "cultural conquest" was nevertheless of extreme importance for
the permanence and stability of those other conquests (Kellogg 27-46; Gramsci 12;
Williams 108-110). It was an effort that involved particular policies of race, gender,
language, evangelization, education and the construction of a hybrid colonial culture
which still featured Spanish domination. An important aspect of that cultural conquest
and hegemony was the area of food and food politics. These policies took shape in the
context of the socialization, education and coming of age of the first two generations
of mestizos in Spanish America, and involved ideologies of race and gender.
The centrality of food to culture in Latin America is undisputed. Rigoberta
Menchu in her testimonial book stated:
[The child] is told that he will eat maize and that, naturally, he is
already made of maize because his mother ate it while he was forming
in her stomach. He must respect the maize; even the grain of maize
which has been thrown away, he must pick up….To reach [God] the
child must love beans, maize, the earth," (Burgos-Debray 13).
However, while food is often seen as an aspect of identity, the
important role of food in cultural hegemony has not been emphasized
or analyzed in the literature. In addition the role of food in migration
and conquest is important in looking at the process by which a new
hybrid culture is developed. I will use the relationship of food and
culture to approach the issue of miscegenation and the influence of
indigenous culture on the dominant "Spanish" creole culture in colonial
Latin America (Kuznesof, 1995). 1 How did the evolving creole cuisine
retain its "Spanish-ness"? To what extent was it indigenized and how
was gender an important part of that process? I will also consider the
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role of food and cuisine in the creation of creole identity and a
“national cuisine”. (Pilcher ix)
I. Food, Conquest and Culture
The relationship of cuisine and shared meals to social organization has been
noted by anthropologists as far back as Ernest Crawley (1869-1924). W. Robertson
Smith (1846-94) emphasized the community bonds created through the sharing of
food (discovered originally through analysis of the sacrificial meal). He argued that
"the act of eating and drinking together is the solemn and stated expression of the fact
that all those who share the meal are brethren, and that all the duties of friendship and
brotherhood are implicitly acknowledged in their common act" (Robertson Smith 247-
48). A. R. Radcliffe-Brown saw the "getting of food" as a social activity, and
underlined the social function of food in socialization and maintenance of the social
system. Taking this further Audrey Richards wrote about "the way a transaction in
food acted as an indicator of social relations. For example, "the preparation of
porridge…is the woman's most usual way of expressing the correct kinship sentiment
towards her different male relatives," (Richards 127; Goody 13).
Claude Levi-Strauss and Mary Douglas looked at food and how it was
processed or cooked to discern meaning and a kind of language about social relations.
Levi-Strauss argued that the ritual role of fire in the transformation of food made it a
"human" endeavor. Douglas viewed the meal as a ritual act that includes elements of
all other rituals and constitutes a social language about identity and connection (Levi-
Strauss 1970; Douglas 1971).
“The autonomy of the cultural” is the core of a debate among anthropologists
about whether human cultures are formulated out of practical needs and environmental
availability or if they are created through “symbolic, meaningful or cultural reasons
which structure utility,” (Goody 32; Magagna 65). Carole Counihan recently defined
food as a “part of culture that is central, connected to many kinds of behavior, and
infinitely meaningful. Food is a prism that absorbs a host of assorted cultural
phenomena and unites them into one coherent domain while simultaneously speaking
through that domain about everything that is important,” (Counihan 1513). “An
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examination of food ways in all cultures reveals much about power relations, the
shaping of community and personality, the construction of the family, systems of
meaning and communication, and conceptions of sex, sexuality and gender. The study
of food ways has contributed to the understanding of personhood across cultures and
historical periods,” (Counihan 1513).
When considering this question of food ways in the context of the conquest, it
is obvious that much in the preferences and taboos in both the European culture and
that of American indigenous cultures make no practical sense in terms of food. The
primary food preferences of the Spanish and Portuguese and the indigenous
Americans were most significantly tied to religion. In each case the primary food
consumed by elites and the popular classes was sacralized: seen as being of sacred
origin and importance. This was true for wheat and it was true for corn.
The importance of corn to many of the food systems of the precontact New
World is not news. Initially, however, anthropologists saw corn and the beginning of
agriculture as related and therefore that the worship of corn had a material basis.
However, anthropologists now argue that corn was for hundreds of years a minor crop
before it rose to dietary, cultural and religious prominence. In addition, Christine
Hastorf and Sissel Johannessen argue that maize (corn) was “an agent in the
transformation of social and cultural identity” of these cultural systems (Hastorf and
Johannessen 427-443). They argue that maize has had extraordinary cultural
significance wherever it is grown, and that much of this significance is because it is a
domesticated plant that does not exist in the wild and has not since about 3500 BC
(Long-Solis and Vargas 4). Corn cannot exist without the continued cultivation of
man and therefore is essentially “human.” They also argue that it was not the most
economically advantageous or productive crop, and in some cases was quite
precarious.
Corn figured and figures prominently in the cosmology of many Native
American groups and every detail about the way in which corn is planted, harvested
and treated in cultural life was determined by ritual (Johannessen & Hastorf 396;
Bohrer 469-499; Sahagun). The versatility of corn was significant to its cultural
importance. Corn was used as a drink, porridge, and the most important ingredient in
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many foods. Before corn became the basis for the common meal and the tortilla it was
already the basis for chicha (the sacred maize beer in the Chavin culture). Corn was
also a crop that required intensive labor, both in cultivation and in processing.
Women were intimately associated with the enormous labor of grinding the corn and
producing tortillas and tamales. A good housewife was defined as a woman who fed
her family well. Newborn girls were told at birth: “Thou wilt become fatigued, thou
wilt become tired; thou art to provide water, to grind maize, to drudge,” (Sahagun
6:172; 10:12). Another indication of the high symbolic importance of maize is that
corn ears are often found in burial mounds (Hastorf and Johannessen 427-443; Coe 9;
Soustelle 145).
Bread made from wheat had a similar level of cultural salience in Europe.
Bread and wheat also had that dimension of versatility or ambiguity that came to
signify sufficiency or prosperity. It stood for the idea of the just price and its
availability was seen as a basis for the moral economy (Magagna 66). Europeans
expected that bread would be available for a good diet, even that it should be an
entitlement, and if it was not made available by those responsible for the bread supply,
there could be protests and even food riots. Also, similar to corn, bread was the basis
of sacred power. After the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, the official doctrine of
transubstantiation determined that during the Latin Mass “the substance of the bread is
transformed into the actual body of Christ,” (Albala 2). For Victor Magagna this
cultural dimension was intimately related to the fact that wheat was a cereal-based
food culture ubiquitous in Europe that also required milling and processing. This
labor dimension then gave the producing household substantial rights in the chain of
food production and distribution. The government was seen as responsible to fulfill
the moral (indeed sacred) obligation to provide the people with bread.
Jack Goody emphasizes the relationship of food and cooking to “the
distribution of power and authority in the economic sphere, that is, to the system of
class or stratification and to its political ramifications,” (Goody 37). This idea brings
us to the relationship of food to power for the societies involved in the conquest. The
Spanish crown was intensely aware of its moral obligation to provision the Spanish
colonists in the New World. This was extremely obvious in the early years when
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thousands of sacks of wheat flour, along with wine, vinegar and olive oil were
imported at royal expense. John Super describes in great detail the substantial efforts
made and the expense taken by the crown to pass and impose regulations which
ensured the production and distribution of crucial foods, including wheat and wine.
According to Super, “This was seen as part of a broader commitment to an ideal
community that would perpetuate the Spanish way of life,” (Super 40).
Migration accounts of the Nahua people emphasize food, food preparation and
food consumption. These accounts demonstrate the importance of particular foods to
the identity and survival of the Nahua people. The inclusion of food has been
interpreted as an important metaphor of the successful continuity of Nahua culture and
religion (Moran 15-18). The Mexica identity included specific foods and particular
uses of food in ritual. The appearance of food and maize as well as the presence of a
metate or stone grinder in the glyphs of migration indicate stability and security for the
Mexica as they established themselves in Tenochtitlan (Codex Azcatitlan 15).
Elizabeth Moran argues that the Aztecs deliberately acquired territory that would
allow them access to goods of significance to their culture. This was also seen as
important to the economic and political success of the empire.
In 1960 George M. Foster argued in Culture and Conquest that the
development of what he called "conquest culture" involved several interrelated
processes (Foster 227-229). Foster pointed out that Indians and Spaniards alike
experienced the process of cultural change. Both Indians and Spaniards, when
allowed choice, exercised discretion in accepting and rejecting cultural elements
presented to them. Foster argues that time also influenced how the new colonial
culture developed. The New World situation brought together Spaniards from
different regions of Spain who also influenced each other. In the first years Spaniards
came predominantly from Andalusia and Extremadura. For this reason, although the
demographic mix of Spanish emigration was fairly balanced across regions over the
sixteenth century, cultural traits from Southwestern Spain (the type of plow, for
example) were those primarily adopted in the New World. In this first "highly fluid,
formative period…in which the basic answers to new conditions of life had to be
found, and a rapid adaptation to changed conditions on the part of both Indians and
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Spaniards was imperative" Foster argues that colonial culture was "blocked out" and
became "crystallized" (Foster 232-233). 1
This analysis is also pertinent to the incorporation of indigenous cuisine into
the Spanish creole culture, and of Spanish foods into the indigenous diet. According to
Richard N. Adams, "The major change in the diet of Meso-America…is not a result of
a gradual diffusion of European products into the older Meso-American system, but of
a gradual and differential shift of the entire culture to a new tradition," (Adams 8). If
some easily accepted food ways were transferred quickly in those first decades (i.e.
chickens into indigenous culture; turkeys and tomatoes into Spanish culture), other
foods less similar to that of the recipient culture took longer to be accepted.
II. Spain and Mexico: pre-contact period
Food is an important aspect of culture, though it is also unavoidably connected
with climate and place. As Daniel Roche wrote, [eating practice] "is perhaps the
domain in which needs, symbolic forms and class oppositions intersect with the
greatest intensity," (Roche 22). In the early modern period biology (and nutrition) was
seen as intimately related to the capacity for civilized behavior. The common Spanish
idea of blood as a vehicle initially of religious faith and later as a mark of social
condition is probably related to medieval physiological theory according to which the
mother's blood fed the child in the womb and then, transformed into milk, fed the baby
outside the womb as well. A child's substance was provided by the mother's blood.
Hence purity of blood meant descent from Christian women (Bynum 182). The origin
of the idea of "clean blood" dates from the emergence of the issue of religious purity
in the fifteenth century (Kamen 321-56). That was gradually transformed into the
principle of race. Consistent with these views was the belief that certain foods were
appropriate and necessary for Christians and for a civilized life. Roche points out that
"Religious metaphors and the terminology of the Gospels conveyed this cosmic
symbolism: fishing, harvesting, the wine-harvest, the bread and wine of the Lord,"
(Roche 247). Culinary customs related to Christianity were even imposed on the
natives believing that this would allow them to reach salvation (Parasecoli in Kumin
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191). There is a story that one Spanish priest "of more logic than orthodoxy" reached
the conclusion that the absence of grapes and wheat in the New World meant that God
did not intend that the indigenous peoples of America be Christianized (Crosby 71).
The Spanish diet just prior to 1492 consisted of dinner (between 10 and 11 AM
in the morning) and supper (at 6 or 7 PM.) Dinner was the largest meal. Elites would
expect three courses, not counting soups, side dishes, and desserts. Quantity was
emphasized over quality, but wine was a must. Among the popular classes there
might only be one or two courses. Wheat bread and meat were the principal foods.
Beef, pork, mutton, goat, and poultry and wild game were roasted on a spit, boiled or
cut up and stewed. Stews were heavily spiced, reflecting the Moorish influence
(Domingo 17-29). Vinegar, salt, cloves, coriander, saffron, pepper, ginger, cinnamon,
pine nuts, onions and parsley were frequently used spices. Olive oil was indispensable
for cooking and flavor. Eggs and fruit (both fresh and dried) were accompaniments.
Vegetables were few: onions, carrots, turnips, and cabbages were used but not
esteemed. The only beverages were water and wine (Oliveira Marques 16-29). Only
the elite had wine everyday, but all Spaniards regarded it as essential (Domingo 26).
Furniture was scanty in the houses of both the popular classes and the elite
prior to the sixteenth century. Benches were more common than chairs and often
people sat on cushions or carpets to eat. Tables appeared in elite houses in the
medieval period, but were seldom seen in the houses of the popular classes. Often a
table consisted only of a board mounted over trestles, and was frequently carried
from room to room. Round pieces of bread were commonly used as plates even in
elite banquets. Silverware apart from spoons was rare before the eighteenth century.
Most people carried their own knives. Often soup was served in large pots that served
as a common bowl. Large goblets were used for wine. There was a custom of
washing hands before and after eating since the hands were frequently used for eating
(Oliveira Marques 28-30). In spite of the primitive trappings, the banquets of the elite
were highly ceremonial. For example it was the custom to precede each dish, as well
as the wine, with servants bearing torches under the leadership of an usher:
Recipe for rabbit (16 th Century Treatise on Cooking)
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After the rabbit has been roasted, sauté finely minced onion in butter;
once sautéed, season the onion with vinegar and sprinkle in cloves,
saffron, pepper, and ginger. Cut the rabbit into pieces and put it in with
the spice and onion mixture to simmer briefly. Lay some slices of
bread on a plate and top with the rabbit pieces. (23)
With their arrival in the New World the Spanish fervently wanted to reproduce
civilization as they knew it: that is a Spanish society with Spanish cuisine. Food was
symbolically very important and banquets were the most common form of expressing
identity, religious unity, and a sense of victory or celebration. As compared to their
successful efforts to introduce the Spanish language to the colonies, the effort to bring
food culture to the New World faced several challenges. An important early challenge
was the absence of particular plants that were considered essential for a people who
were Christian and civilized. Most important among these were wheat and grapes,
with olives also high on the list of foods necessary for a civilized life. In the early
conquest period Spaniards had little choice but to eat indigenous foods, especially corn
and cassava. In addition, food preparation was universally the province of indigenous
women, even in those instances when Spanish women were present. This factor also
increased the probability that early Spanish households would essentially be
consuming indigenous-style meals, or at least meals with indigenous ingredients,
cooked in ways common to the indigenous people.
The primary foods of Nahua Mexico included maize or corn (the most
important), beans (frijoles), squash, many kinds of chiles, cactus (nopal and maguey),
sweet potatoes, cacao beans, Muscovy ducks, dogs, turkeys, and large quantities of
fish, turtles, salamanders, and algae (Cook and Borah 134-35). The early Mexican
was very frugal and most of the time ate a meager, but nutritious diet that emphasized
simplicity. No breakfast was consumed; atolli, a maize porridge sweetened with
honey was eaten at 10 AM after some hours of work, with a main meal in the middle
of the day. Maize-cakes, beans, pimento or tomato sauce and sometimes tamales were
the common fare. Rarely did any meat accompany the meal. Water was the common
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beverage (Soustelle, 1961, 149). This ethic of frugality is demonstrated in the Codex
Mendoza in which half a tortilla per day is prescribed for a child at three years of age,
increasing to a whole tortilla for a four or five-year-old. From age six to age twelve
one and one-half tortillas per day was appropriate (Codex Mendoza 72-77)
The tortilla, "the culinary soul of Mesoamerica" was prepared with just three
simple utensils: a cazuela (earthenware pot), a metate (grinding stone), and a comal
(griddle) (Pilcher 11). The corn was soaked all night in mineral lime, which loosened
the indigestible husks and added important nutrients. It was then cooked with lime in
the cazuela. When the corn was soft, the cook knelt and laboriously ground the wet
corn on a metate, a three-legged grinding stone. The smooth dough was patted into
thin disks and toasted briefly on the comal. The tortilla could be wrapped around meat
or vegetable fillings to form a taco. It was useful as an eating utensil or a plate. A
family squatted around the hearth on their mats and quickly ate their simple meal.
Most often the man of the house would carry his lunch with him and eat at his work
(Soustelle 149).
Dinner in the houses of the rich was much more elaborate, with many and
varied dishes. More than thirty dishes were prepared daily for Moctezuma. Before
eating, the emperor chose whatever pleased him--turkeys, pheasants, partridges,
crows, wild or tame ducks, deer, wild boars, pigeons, hares, rabbits. He sat down
alone on a low chair and a table was put in front of him, with a white tablecloth and
napkins He was shielded by a screen and ate from black Cholula pottery (Diaz del
Castillo 225-26). For festive banquets tamales were indispensable. Archeological
evidence suggests tamales may have been consumed as early as Teotihuacan between
c.250BC and AD 750. Tamales were made by spreading corn dough inside a husk,
adding chile sauce and some bits of meat or beans, folding the packages up, sealing
them and steaming them in an olla or large pot.
Two beverages were important to Nahua cuisine: pulque and chocolate. The
alcoholic beverage pulque was manufactured by fermenting the sap of the maguey or
agave plant. This drink had an important religious role, as an offering to the gods,
including the gods of drink and drunkenness. But the ancient Mexicans primarily
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showed awareness of the danger of alcoholic intoxication (Sahagun; Soustelle 156-
157). "That drink which is called octli," said the emperor to his people, "is the root
and the origin of all evil and of all perdition; for octli and drunkenness are the
cause of all the discords and of all the dissensions, of all revolt and of all troubles
in cities and in realms." There were terrible punishments for public drunkenness,
even by death. But pulque was not entirely prohibited: old men and women were
allowed to drink, particularly on certain holidays (Soustelle 156-157). And pulque
seems to have been used as a ceremonial means of sealing contracts such as the
sale of land (Lockhart 168-169).
Chocolate was also a beverage of great symbolic and religious significance.
Special pots, cups and spoons were made especially for chocolate and there was a
particular etiquette in its consumption. It was flavored in various ways, most
notably with chiles. It seems to have been developed as a food by the Olmecs, and
was passed to the Nahua by the Mayas (Coe and Coe 35-66). It was imported to
Central Mexico from the Yucatan and Guatemala. Chocolate was symbolically
associated with blood, and was restricted to those of high prestige and warriors.
Those not involved in battle were not permitted chocolate. 1 Duran reports that
ground cacao was made into wafers and issued to every soldier on a campaign,
along with toasted maize, maize ground into flour, toasted tortillas, ground beans,
and bunches of dried chillis (Duran 358). Initially the Europeans were not at all
attracted to this black drink.
Although the early Mexicans left no cookbooks, the Spanish priest
Bernardino de Sahagun compiled a vast list of foods along with their appropriate
condiments. The Nahua prepared turkey with several different sauces, including
yellow, green, and red chiles. Yellow chiles and tomatoes were used to flavor
white fish and fowl. Another red chile formed the proper sauce for shrimp, and
green chiles provided the natural spice for frogs (Sahagun 8:37-40).
Theoretical Framework: Cuisine as Language
Food and related practices include the accepted meals eaten during the day,
the ingredients of each meal, how they are combined, the order in which they are
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eaten, the context in which they are eaten, the utensils and furniture utilized,
etiquette, and the question of who eats together. In addition, the meals of the
popular classes invariably contrast with those of the elite. More elaborate rituals
and manners are generally associated with the elite. Ceremonial occasions
invariably called for more complex and symbolic meals with many more
ingredients. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries eating practices and menus in
Europe became much more sophisticated, so that important cultural change
occurred in Spanish food ways even as Spaniards attempted to bring their food
culture to the New World (Roche 237).
In The Nahuas After the Conquest James Lockhart defined three broad
stages in Mexican cultural evolution after the conquest, based on his analysis of a
body of original Nahua documents over the period 1530 to 1770 (Lockhart 428).
These were most specific with respect to language acculturation among the Nahua.
Stage I included the conquest until 1550 in which there was little or no change in
language. From 1550 to 1640 (Stage II) a variety of Spanish nouns were
incorporated into the Nahua language. Stage III (1640-1770) included a full range
of linguistic adaptation, though some words and certain grammatical uses were
never adopted by the Nahua.
For this paper I propose to view food ways as a kind of language, and
assume that assimilation of food ways underwent a process similar to that of
language. In other words particular foods or main ingredients can be seen as
nouns, cooking methods or combinations of ingredients as verbs, seasonings
(including oil) as prepositions, and a meal might be a sentence or a poem. Spanish
society might be viewed as separate from Indigenous society in terms of food ways
for the first period. However, as time progressed there was a gradual mixing of the
populations, both in residence and through miscegenation. A blending of food
ways also took place.
One of the notable aspects of this “mixing” process was that for both
peoples--the Spanish and the Nahua--there were foods that were viewed as
indispensable to their culture. The most important of these for the Spanish was
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wheat for bread, the staff of life. Grapes (for wine) were also essential for religious
and cultural reasons. Finally, olives for olive oil to develop the savory taste of
Mediterranean foods were of passionate interest. In these three foods we see major
elements of the Spanish diet. First, a major noun, the bread, that was the center of
every meal for all classes of Spaniards. Second, another major noun, wine, the
most desired beverage, which also carried major symbolic value and distinguished
the elite classes. Thirdly, olive oil can be viewed as a kind of seasoning and
blending element for a dish, or following the linguistic analogy, as a syntax that
serves to blend the elements of their diet together. In the case of these elements the
Spanish went to extraordinary lengths to obtain these foods in the New World. On
the other hand the Nahua peoples were adamantly attached to maize (their bread),
beans, and chiles for both religious and cultural reasons. Chocolate and maguey
(for pulque) fit into a special category since they were highly prized foods, but
reserved for particular groups.
The early period (Stage I: 1519-1550) was one in which acceptance of
foreign food occurred primarily when there were no options (i.e. the preferred
Spanish food could not be had), and the foods accepted were usually main
ingredients. In these cases the Spanish would most easily assimilate a food similar
to the one they were used to. For example there are many varieties of beans and
onions, some native to the New World, others to Europe. Thus beans and onions
were somewhat familiar and easily incorporated into the colonial diet (Crosby
172). There was no wine and the Spanish were generally forced to make do with
pulque, made from the maguey cactus for dining and for communion. For
example, what has been called the first Spanish banquet in Mexico took place
about 1524. Pigs were brought in from Cuba and wine as a gift to the triumphant
conquerors. Pork with chile was served in tacos, with hot tortillas. Wheat bread
was not yet available. Still, the banquet (apart from the corn tortillas and some
chiles) was essentially Spanish (Novo 29). At the same time the Nahua did quite
easily adapt poultry and pork to their diet, incorporating them into tacos and
tamales.
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In the next phase (1550-1640) a pattern emerges in which a variety of
foods similar to those common to the other culture were accepted. For example,
peppers, squash, beans, a New World onion, and chiles were incorporated into a
Spanish stew (to substitute cabbage, turnips, and European spices.) By 1600 the
Spaniards had been able to produce wheat and other European vegetables in the
New World so there was a broader range of culinary choices. The Spanish form of
cooking, types of dishes, and seasoning were maintained as much as possible. Poor
Spaniards (of which there were many) tended to consume indigenous foods for
reasons of economy.
In the third period (1640-1770) dishes appear that exhibit more
characteristics of hybridity between the two cultures. The indigenous seasonings
(especially various kinds of chile) became prominent in Spanish Creole cooking.
Tomatoes (originally feared to be poison) began to be accepted. Chocolate was
modified with sugar and vanilla, and served hot, to become a prized dessert drink.
After extraordinary efforts by the Spanish, and repeated failures, grapes and olives
had been successfully introduced to the New World, making a "civilized life" (by
Spanish standards) finally possible (Crosby 71-73).
Another important element of the analysis relates to the question of "high
and low cuisine." Pierre Bourdieu refers to the differences in consumption of the
high and the low as the opposition between "the tastes of luxury (or freedom) and
the tastes of necessity….Thus it is possible to deduce popular tastes for the foods
that are simultaneously most 'filling' and most economical…The idea of taste,
typically bourgeois, since it presupposes absolute freedom of choice, is so closely
associated with the idea of freedom that many people find it hard to grasp the
paradoxes of the taste of necessity….[they fail] to realize that necessity can only
be fulfilled, most of the time, because the agents are inclined to fulfil it, because
they have a taste for what they are anyway condemned to," (Bourdieu 177-78). In
part this reasoning relates to an argument Bourdieu makes earlier that "foods
probably constitute the strongest and most indelible mark of infant learning,"
leading to sustained nostalgia and thus an innate yearning for the food of early
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childhood. Thus class in this case becomes a matter of taste as well as education.
Jack Goody speaks of high cuisine as a level of art that is a product of the
combination of a wide variety of foodstuffs, some imported, and the cooking
traditions of several regions. In his view this really only comes to pass when
literacy makes it possible to collect the food traditions of various areas. According
to Goody, high cuisine is also distinguished (as for Bourdieu) by being desirable
because of the pleasure of consuming food, rather than because of hunger. Thus
for Goody, “the higher cuisine also incorporates and transforms what, from the
national standpoint, is the regional food of peasants and the cooking of exotic
foreigners…Thus the higher cuisine inevitably had to acquire ingredients from
'outside',” (Goody 98-105).
The relevance of this theory about a distinctive elite (or national) cuisine
becomes clear when we remember that both the Nahua and the Spanish were
hierarchical peoples, with fairly rigid social rules. Interestingly enough, it may be
that this similarity of the cultures was important in the development of what was a
recognizable national Mexican cuisine by the end of the eighteenth century.
Over the colonial period the Nahua peoples quickly adopted oranges,
chicken and pork into their diet, but never developed an affinity for wheat or for
wine. The Spanish against their will were forced to engage in wheat farming
because of indigenous resistance to this crop, which was much less productive than
corn or cassava. Corn, beans, squash, and chiles continued as the center of Nahua
food culture. Much of the Nahua aristocracy was eliminated, or, if female, was
incorporated into the class of Spanish conquistadores.
The Spanish improved their diet in the New World through much greater
incorporation of vegetables into their ubiquitous stews. Chiles as well became a
common element, along with corn and squash. Some indigenous foods and spices
were first incorporated into the European diet for their alleged medicinal properties
(Acosta 177-78; 180-182). The fact that both the Nahua and the Spaniard
primarily built their meals around stews and some roasted meats made this gradual
approximation of the two food cultures much easier. The high cuisine of the Nahua
represented by the more complex stews, and the use of chocolate was gradually
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insinuated into Spanish food culture through occasional "inventions" for
ceremonial occasions. By the end of the sixteenth century the day was normally
begun and concluded with hot cups of chocolate, now permitted for all classes.
Corn, beans, squash and chiles were an established part of the creole kitchen. The
presence of indigenous women in Spanish kitchens no doubt helped immeasurably.
Pulque also became generally available, and was gradually commercialized. 1
III. The Story of Mole: Genesis of a National Dish
Turkey mole is commonly claimed as the "National Dish" of Mexico, and
also as an "indigenous food." The origin or provenance of turkey mole is more
than slightly controversial, though it really comes down to which ingredients are
viewed as critical to the essence of the mole. Nahua women made their most
important contribution through the "expert blending of chiles to create subtle
flavors, a skill that Spanish nuns learned from their American sisters. Moreover,
the metate remained the mole-making utensil of choice until the twentieth-century
invention of electric blenders," (Pilcher 26). Its identity as a fiesta or ceremonial
food for many occasions increases the proprietary sense of ethnic and regional
groups about this celebrated food. Scholars disagree, pointing to the broad
spectrum of ingredients that can be included, and the many regional variations in
its preparation (Friedlander 96) 1 . 1 Mole even appears in Europe, in the cookbook
of Pope Pius V by 1570, and became known as an elegant banquet food but not
extremely expensive (Vargas and Casillas 167). In a way it is this disagreement
about origins and essence that permits both Nahua and Spanish to see mole as
essentially theirs, and allows Turkey mole to be seen as a national cuisine.
We know from Sahagun that the Nahua prepared turkey as a kind of stew
with various chile sauces. Some also included various nuts, squash seeds and
vegetables. Such a dish is illustrated in the Codex Mendoza (Codex Mendoza 86).
Also, Spanish cuisine featured stews with a variety of Arabic and East Asian
spices. The existence of these dishes in each culture already gives each culture a
reason to claim the mole as theirs.
The first prominent Mexican story about the origins of the dark Mole
Poblano (which Jeffrey Pilcher refers to as a legend) is that in 1680 the Dominican
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nuns of Puebla invented Mole in honor of Viceroy Tomas Antonio de la Cerda y
Aragon. Possibly the nuns, (influenced by the aristocratic Nahua girls being
schooled in the convent), and in search of a dish that would be appropriately
luxurious and stately for the Viceroy, came up with an elaboration of the most
celebratory food that Nahua culture had to offer: the mole poblana. We know it
was celebratory because it was featured as part of the marriage feast in the Codex
Mendoza. The chocolate as an ingredient made it appropriate for royalty (there is
no clear evidence if chocolate was part of the mole prior to the conquest).
However, the inclusion of European spices such as coriander, cloves,
cinnamon and ginger made the mole familiar to the Spanish Viceroy. Jeffrey
Pilcher remarks: "For mole poblano to have gained social status in colonial
Mexico…it would have been seen as a Creole rather than mestizo dish. And
notwithstanding the New World chiles lurking inside, mole would have seemed
completely appropriate for any medieval banquet," (Pilcher 42-43).
The mole had to appear as a Creole creation, since the "mestizo" was essentially
without social status in the colonial period. The genius of mole was that it had
crucial indigenous characteristics as a cuisine, and was also credible as European
cuisine.
Conclusion
This examination of food and identity in the conquest period in Mexico
suggests that several factors were responsible for the successful creation of a
creole cuisine that incorporated indigenous and Spanish foods. Similarities in
modes of food preparation, an attitude of celebration and reverence toward food,
and a relationship between social hierarchy and appropriate celebratory foods were
all important in the evolution of a hybrid cuisine that would be seen as "national"
by all groups. The influence of miscegenation and specifically the gradual
infiltration of indigenous women through marriage and concubinage into Spanish
society undoubtedly also were significant. The marriage of the tortilla with
chicken and pork, combined with chiles and cheese; the knowledge to blend the
flavors of chiles and spices on the metate; these factors resulted in a most
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felicitous union.
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