Abstract

HERRERA FLORES, David Alejandro  and  GOTZ, Christopher Markus. The Power of the Ancient Maya of the Yucatan Peninsula: Considerations on Identity and Cuisine in Prehispanic Times. Estud. cult. maya [online]. 2014, vol.43, pp.71-98. ISSN 0185-2574.

Through the results of zooarchaeological analysis of several samples of vertebrate archaeofauna recovered at inland and coastal sites of the Yucatan Peninsula, this study proposes to determine the diet and cuisine of the prehispanic Maya of the Late and Terminal Classic periods. The main goal resides in a proposal to determine the culinary pattern, understanding it as the result of the different forms in which food is selected, obtained and prepared, at the site of Isla Cerritos, compared to that of inland and coastal settlements, and in relation to its temporality and surrounding environment. The elections that result from this process, and determine the cuisine of a group, can constitute a distinctive cultural trait that reflects the preferences that define what taxon and individual animal is hunted and how each one, or parts thereof, are prepared for the food consumption. Considering, through these arguments, that culinary patterns may reflect a "cultural identity", we relate the results of a taxonomic and taphonomic study with ethnographic and historical information in an attempt to reveal culinary patterns typical for the peninsular Maya region, highlighting the possibility of continuity, from prehispanic times to our days, of culinary practices as the Píib.

Keywords : zooarchaeology; food; diet; cuisine; identity.