No subject

American Anthropologist, Dec 2001 v103 i4 p935(19)
Like water for chocolate: feasting and political ritual among the late
classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize. (Abstract) Lisa J. LeCount.

Author's Abstract: COPYRIGHT 2001 American Anthropological Association

Subtle differences in the context of feasting and manners of food
consumption can point to underlying levels of civil and social competition
in state-level societies. Haute cuisine and high styles of dining are
characteristic of societies with fully developed civil and social
hierarchies such as Renaissance Europe and the Postclassic Aztec.
Competitive yet socially circumscribed political and social organizations
such as the Classic lowland Maya may have prepared elaborate diacritical
meals that marked status, but the nature of feasting remained essentially
patriarchal. Ancient Maya feasting is recognizable through
archaeologically discernible pottery vessel forms that were used to serve
festival fare such as tamales and chocolate. Comparison of ceramic
assemblages across civic and household contexts at the site of
Xunantunich, Belize, demonstrates that drinking chocolate, more so than
eating tamales, served as a symbolic cue that established the political
significance of events among the Classic Maya. [feasting, ancient Maya,
pottery analysis, chocolate]


-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
"The lunatic is in my head... There's someone in my head, but it's not me..."