Chocolate Origins
Picture Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate#/media/File:Mayan_people_and_chocolate.jpg
Cacao was discovered in Central America thousands of years ago and later domesticated. Cacao was very important to different empires in Mesoamerica. They used cacao as tribute to the Gods, as currency, as well as being an item that could be turned into a drink. Cacao trees are also known as theobroma cacao, named after the Latin word theobroma, meaning “food of the gods.” While the name cacao came from Mesoamerican origins, not one language is credited with coming up with the name due to it appearing in so many different languages. While with the word chocolate no one is really sure where it came from because there are no records of any ancient language having the word. There are all kinds of theories as to where the word came from such as it being based on the Mayan word for hot water as the Mayans drank chocolate as a hot drink, or that the Spaniards came up with the name by using Mayan word “chocol” and combining it with the Nahuatl word “atl.”
In Mesoamerican cultures, cacao was a very important item in life. It was originally thought that only those that were elites and had status had access to cacao but that isn’t true. Cacao may not have been enjoyed as often by the commoners as it was by the elites but they did have access to it when it came to big life events occurring, events such as birth, wedding, and funerals used cacao in some way as well as its important use of being currency due to archaeological evidence left behind. At a burial site found in 1995, cacao beans were found in a small bowl and were thought to be part of a burial offering. These beans led to a journey to discover more about cacao's role in Mesoamerica. And it was found that cacao appeared at big events in people's lives like weddings where cacao was an important part of the wedding for both men and women. Or with funerals where cacao was served as a celebration of life and given as tribute to help the person pass to the afterlife.
We know that cacao was enjoyed mostly through drinking it due to drinking vessels being discovered that had glyphs that literally described the vessel for drinking cacao. We can tell that cacao drinks were enjoyed by everyone in Mayan culture and not just the elites due the different kinds of drinking vessels uncovered. It was the designs on the different vessels that really showed the different status of those who drank cacao. When it came to cacao drinking vessels the more elaborate design and having a name written on it meant that the person had a higher status in society. The more basic design and the lack of personal name denoted the lower status of the person drinking from that vessel. We know that cacao wasn’t only enjoyed by the elites because there have been vessels found that show that they weren’t owned by people of elite status. It was people of elite status that were creating the artwork on these vessels; it was found that they were learning art in “palace schools” that were only open to the elites.
We know that these vessels were used for drinking cacao not because they have glyphs stating that they were for cacao but because of testing. The vessels are able to be tested for theobromine which is found in both cacao and coffee but we know that it’s cacao in these vessels because the time period these vessels were found, coffee was not yet introduced in the area meaning it could be cacao that was once in these vessels.
The fact that cacao was used as currency really shows that cacao wasn’t limited to elites in Mesoamerican society because if everyday Mesoamericans didn’t have access to cacao they had no way to purchase items at markets. Cacao was also important in the fact that it was also a food source and it’s hard to imagine people not having access to something that was not only a food source but used for currency.
Cacao played a big role in the lives of the Mesoamerican, not just the elites like once believed but everyone. We know this to be true due to the discovery of drinking vessels that stated they were cacao drinking vessels, how everyone had access to cacao due to it being present at big life events, and how it was used as currency. We know how the Mesoamericans used cacao but how do Europeans use cacao once they encountered and eventually adapted it?
Bibliography:
Lecture 1
Edgar, Blake. “The Power of Chocolate.” Archaeology 63, no. 6 (2010): 20–25. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41780626.
Orellana, Margarita de, Richard Moszka, Timothy Adès, Valentine Tibère, J.M.
Hoppan, Philippe Nondedeo, Nezahualcóyotl, et al. “Chocolate: Cultivation and Culture in pre-Hispanic Mexico.” Artes de México, no. 103 (2011): 65–80. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24318969
Prufer, Keith M., W. Jeffrey Hurst. “Chocolate in the Underworld Space of Death: Cacao Seeds from an Early Classic Mortuary Cave.” Ethnohistory 54, no. 2 (1 April 2007): 273–301. https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2006-063
Reents-Budet, Dorie. “The Social Context of Kakaw Drinking among the Ancient Maya” In Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao, edited by Cameron L. McNeil, 202–223. University Press of Florida, 2006.