Top Ten Maya Foods

1. Top Ten Maya Foods Lost among the laurels heaped upon the Maya is credit for their agricultural wizardry. When the conquering Spanish started carrying Maya food staples back to Europe and to the Caribbean, Asia and Africa, it changed the world's eating habits. We're not talking about the Yucatan's deliciously exotic concoctions, but food you buy every day in Safeway's produce aisles. Just try to get through a day without some of these foods!! #10….. Papaya Though it's more closely associated with Hawaii now, all indications are the papaya originated in the tropics of southern Mexico and Central America. After the Spanish carried seeds to Panama and the Dominican Republic, cultivation spread throughout South and Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Pacific Islands, India and parts of Africa. It has became naturalized in many areas and still grows wild along Mexican roadsides.

2. #9….. Squash Though corn and beans are better-known Mexican natives, squash predates them by several thousand years; Maya people domesticated several varieties of squash as early as 8000 B.C. Oils from these seeds were the main source of dietary fat before the Spanish introduced beef and pork. Though the native plants included cucumber, zucchini, patty pan and butternut squash, great quantities of pumpkin — la calabaza grande — defines the Yucatán diet even today. Toasted, ground pumpkin seeds still appear on menus even more than the flesh. #8….. Sweet Potato Sweet potatoes are native to the tropics from the Yucatán to Venezuela, and the Maya domesticated the plant at least 5,000 years ago. By 2500 B.C., sweet potatoes had spread throughout the Caribbean and South America. #7….. Avocado From its origins in southern Mexico, where it was prized as an aphrodisiac — the Aztecs called it ahuacatl, meaning "testicle," and kept their daughters indoors during harvest season — the avocado spread north to the Rio Grande and south to central Peru before Europeans encountered it. The sexual association carried through the 19th century, when growers who wanted to cultivate avocados commercially first had to mount a campaign to persuade the public that eating avocados did not equate to licentiousness. Mexico is still the world's main source of avocados.

3. #6….. Black Beans Archaeological digs indicate the black bean originated in southern Mexico and Central America more than 7,000 years ago. With their meaty flavor and velvety texture, black beans are still the favorite in and around the Yucatán, where they may turn up in almost any dish. #5….. Tomatoes Even the Italians had to make do without tomato sauce before Columbus set out for the New World. Precursors originated in Peru, but the tomato as we know it came from the Yucatán, where the Maya cultivated it long before Cortés first encountered one in an Aztec market around 1520. Native versions were small, like cherry tomatoes, and probably yellow rather than red. Two years after Cortés brought the tomato back to Spain, it made its way to Naples — then under Spanish rule — where invention of the pizza made tomato sauce a necessity of life. Once believed poisonous because they are related to the deadly nightshade, tomatoes are now a staple of nearly every cuisine in the world. #4….. Chiles Chiles were cultivated in the Americas as long as 7,500 years ago. Blame Christopher Columbus for mistaking them as relatives of black pepper, native to southern Asia, but give him credit for spreading them throughout the world. The release of endorphins, increased heart rate, mental stimulation and euphoria provoked by chiles' capsaicinoids — the ingredient that makes them taste hot —qualifies them as psychoactive plants. Southern Mexico's Capsicum annuum species, with its many cultivars, is crucial to nearly every fiery cuisine in the world.

4. #3….. Corn Every elementary-school kid knows corn was the most important food in the Americas. The PopulVuh, the Maya "bible," attributes humankind's very existence to this domesticated strain of wild grass. In its creation myth, the "Creators and Makers" fashioned man from tender kernels of yellow and white corn after failed attempts with mud and wood. Though corn was a dietary staple in most of Mexico as long as 6,000 years ago, it was the Maya who first cultivated it around 2500 B.C., abandoning their nomadic ways to settle in villages surrounded by cornfields. #2….. Vanilla The elixir from the world's only known edible orchid, probably first cultivated by the Totonaca in neighboring Veracruz state, had become a common flavoring for the Maya's chocolate drinks by the 1500s. Vanilla, too, was adopted by the Aztecs, who introduced it to Cortés. Spanish and Portuguese explorers who brought it to Africa and Asia in the 16th century named it vainilla, or "little pod." Southern Mexico's jungle is still the only place the Vanilla planifolia orchid grows wild, pollinated by native, non-stinging bees that produce Maya honey.

5. #1….. Chocolate Legions of chocoholics would argue that the Maya's "food of the gods," made from the toasted, fermented seeds of the cacao tree, is the New World's greatest gift to civilization. Though Cortés learned of chocolate from the Aztecs, they had acquired it through trade with the Maya, who first cultivated it about 3,000 years ago. Maya and Aztec aficionados drank their chocolate bitter and spicy; sugar was unknown before the conquest. Even today, chocolate in the Yucatán may be flavored with paprika, annatto or even pepper. But it was more than a drink to the Maya, who believed it came from the gods and formed a bridge between heaven and earth. Cacao seeds were an early form of money, and archaeologists have uncovered counterfeit seeds made of clay. To the Mayas, cocoa pods symbolized life and fertility... nothing could be more important! Stones from their palaces and temples revealed many carved pictures of cocoa pods. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/mexico/mexicomix/article/10-Maya-foods-that-changed-the-world-s-eating-2477935.php#ixzz2H4Har98G

6. The Land of the Maya Mayan Empire CENTRAL America In between North and South America 5 countries: Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador

7. Yucatan Peninsula

8. Southern Lowlands Covered by a rainforest about 150 ft. Contained: scattered savannas and swamps, or bajos Northern Lowlands Also comprised of forests – much drier, mainly grew small thorny trees Highlands v. Lowlands

9. Highlands Climate: Much cooler and drier; fertile soil Volcanic Highlands: Source of obsidian, jade, and other precious metals used to develop a trade Subject to tsunamis, volcanoes, and earthquakes Lowlands Produced crops used for their own personal consumption (ex. Maize) Played an important role in transportation route Rivers (Usumacinta andGrijalva) created from the 160 in. of rainfall per year were vital to civilization as a form of transportation for both people and materials. Geography Cont. – Highlands vs. Lowlands

10. Dry Season • February – May • Characterized by intensely hot and uncomfortable air • Fields had recently been cut and had to be burned in accordance with their slash and burn for of agriculture

11. Geography Cont. – The Rivers • Series of rivers originate in the mountains and flows towards the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. • Serve as passageways for canoes to travel from city to city • In the Classic Period: Rivers provided water for human consumption and access to trade routes • Northern Yucatan lowlands • NO MAJOR RIVERS

12. Geography Cont. –The Rain Forest • Covers the majority of Mesoamerica • Provides warmth, sunlight and water producing a variety of plants • Soil: thin and poor • For survival, plants develop highly efficient root systems that absorb nutrients from dead plants • Lowlands – stretches from northwestern Honduras through the Peten region of Guatemala and into Belize and the Chiapas

13. Geography Cont. –The Soil • Best soils found in southern highland valleys where volcanic eruptions have enriched the earth • Spring-like climate and fertile valleys have made southern highlands a popular place to settle, despite volcanic threats

14. Geography (end) • The geographical dispersion of the Mayan peoples across the region resulted in the evolution of numerous languages which are related but distinctive and prevent different Maya groups today from understanding each other • Because of the damp climate, the Mayans were unable to store their crops from year to year.

15. he two most important things needed to sustain any human population are food and water. In the case of the ancient Maya the procurement of food is probably less of a mystery than the way in which the Maya secured water. Consider the fact that a number of large Maya urban centers, Tikal and Caracol for example, are situated on the landscape in a most inconvenient place to obtain the quantities of water needed to sustain populations in excess of 75,000. At the Classic period site of Tikal in Guatemala there are no natural springs, cenotes (naturally occurring wells) or rivers nearby. Lake Peten Itza, a fresh water source over 300 feet deep is located over twenty miles away. When the University of Pennsylvania carried out archeological research at Tikal in the 1950,s attempts to drill for potable water were abandoned at depths of over 7000 feet. To this day all water used by the hotels at Tikal is brought in by tank-trucks every day

16. Mayan Agriculture • Permanent raised fields • Terracing • Forest Gardens • Managed Fallows • Shifting Cultivation • Wild Harvesting

17. The Maya had many farming techniques, including Terrace Farming, where the sides of hills were cultivated like giant steps. They did not practice farming with ‘Chinampas’ however. (use this to answer questions # 11 & # 12)

18. Mayan Agriculture Cont. • Mayans use slash and burn method to clear land for farming • Main food source is from farming: Mayans plant corn (maize), cacao, maguey, bananas, squash, beans, and cotton for weaving. • Used bees for honey and wax; made fermented drinks from corn, maguey and honey. • Meat was rarely eaten because it is expensive and/or hard to find. • Dogs and turkeys were the main animals kept as pets and/or food.

19. Mayan Agriculture Cont. • Underground caves called cenotes (se-NO-tes) were a vital supply of water. • Mayans learned to build underground reservoirs (chultuns) to store rainwater in places where there were no natural cenotes. • Mayans used this technique on the tropical rainforests where there was not enough ground water.