Food, Gender and Cultural Hegemony - Kennesaw State University

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Cualli 131 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 [Type text]
Cualli 132 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 [Type text]
Page 1 and 2: CUALLI 2013 Food, Gender and Cultur
Page 3 and 4: Cualli 128 The Spanish conquest of
Page 5: Cualli 130 examination of food ways
Page 9 and 10: Cualli 134 191). There is a story t
Page 11 and 12: Cualli 136 beverage (Soustelle, 196
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

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