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Food anthropologist...that is what she was....if I could re-live my life,
that is exactly what I would have been!!! It has been said that food is one of
the last vestiges of a culture to totally disappear when there is a dominant
cultural take-over (wars, conquerors, etc). I am so jealous Arturo.....I
would have loved to heard her lecture. I have often wondered how tamales were
made before the introduction of lard...which is definitely European....and yet
I've read that it is one of the oldest recipes in Mexico!
My husband's diet sounds very much like your father's...but it is out of
choice...he was raised in a small village where meat was/is not readily
available. (Most of the homes of the poorer people did not have electricity until a
few years ago!). Me, on the other hand, grew up in a household where a meal
was not complete unless there was meat and some sort of pasta/rice dish.
Beans were not served often...but I so enjoy them...and they enjoy messing with
me (smile).
Esperanza
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History
Arturo,
I probably didn't fully explain myself. I have always preferred to associate myself with the native population of Mexico and have often times decried the cruelty of the Spanish Conquistadores and may at times be blind to the realities of the native population and it's cruel rituals.
Yes I know very well of the cruelty and injustice of the inquisition and I consider myself a Catholic and to this date I decry the inustices in the name of religion, any religion.
I guess what I was trying to say is that one can't glorify any one culture or religion over another, they each have their evils and one of the greatest evils of the Aztecs was the practice of sacrificing humans not only spaniards but Aztecs and other indians to feed to their gods.
When I read about the food consumption of cats and dogs it brought to mind what I had read about the Aztecs not liking the spanish flesh because it was too bitter.
Alicia
----- Original Message ----
From: arturoramos
To: general@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 8:51:42 PM
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Mexican Food History
The lecturer was Sophie Coe who was the wife of our professor Michael Coe. She is a prominent food historian who has authored several books on Mexican food including:
The True History of Chocolate and
America's First Cuisines
As far as Mexicans eating Spaniards, it must be put in the context of the ceremonies and wars that were ongoing at the time. If we only had similar texts from Jews tortured in the inquisition or from the Chichimecs so brutally murdered by the Spaniards in their conquest, they would likely not be much different.
Peter Gerhard writes:
[Nuno de] Guzmán's strategy throughout was to terrorize the natives with often unprovoked killing, torture, and enslavement… The army left a path of corpses and destroyed houses and crops, impressing surviving males into service and leaving women and children to starve
History
Great read....http://www.cambridge.org/us/books/kiple/mexico.htm
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