Cameron L. McNeil
|
New models of research and analysis, as well as
breakthroughs in deciphering Mesoamerican writing, have
recently produced a watershed of information on the
regional use and importance of cacao, or chocolate as it
is commonly called today. McNeil brings together
scholars in the fields of archaeology, history, art
history, linguistics, epigraphy, botany, chemistry, and
cultural anthropology to explore the domestication,
preparation, representation, and significance of cacao
in ancient and modern communities of the Americas, with
a concentration on its use in Mesoamerica.
Cacao was used by many cultures in the
pre-Columbian Americas as an important part of rituals
associated with birth, coming of age, marriage, and
death, and was strongly linked with concepts of power
and rulership. While Europeans have for hundreds of
years claimed that they introduced “chocolate” as a
sauce for foods, evidence from ancient royal tombs
indicates cacao was used in a range of foods as well as
beverages in ancient times. In addition, the volume’s
authors present information that supports a greater
importance for cacao in pre-Columbian South America,
where ancient vessels depicting cacao pods have recently
been identified.
From the botanical structure and chemical
makeup of Theobroma cacao and methods of
identifying it in the archaeological record, to the
importance of cacao during the Classic period in
Mesoamerica, to the impact of European arrival on the
production and use of cacao, to contemporary uses in the
Americas, this volume provides a richly informed account
of the history and cultural significance of chocolate.
|