Food, Gender and Cultural Hegemony - Kennesaw State University

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Cualli 135 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 [Type text]
Cualli 136 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 [Type text]
Page 1 and 2: CUALLI 2013 Food, Gender and Cultur
Page 3 and 4: Cualli 128 The Spanish conquest of
Page 5 and 6: Cualli 130 examination of food ways
Page 7 and 8: Cualli 132 thousands of sacks of wh
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Page 13 and 14: Cualli 138 eaten, the context in wh
Page 15 and 16: Cualli 140 In the next phase (1550-
Page 17 and 18: Cualli 142 insinuated into Spanish
Page 19 and 20: Cualli 144 felicitous union. Works
Page 21 and 22: Cualli 146 Kellogg, Susan. “Hegem
Page 23 and 24: Cualli 148 Williams, Raymond. Marxi

Food, Gender and Cultural Hegemony - Kennesaw State University

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