Abstract

MELEDEZ GUADARRAMA, Lucero  and  HIROSE LOPEZ, Javier. Culinary patterns associated with the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and the cassava (Manihot esculenta) among yucatec maya, ch'ol, and huastec. Estud. cult. maya [online]. 2018, vol.52, pp.193-226. ISSN 0185-2574.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.ecm.2018.52.941.

The objective of this paper is describing the culinary patterns associated to the tubers Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato) and Manihot esculenta (cassava) among the Huastec, Ch'oles and Yucatec Maya (all members of the Mayan linguistic family), as well as their medical uses and ritual implications. We will analyze the cultural importance that comes from its use in Mayan cuisine from pre-Hispanic times to the present day, since they function as complementary food of the daily diet but also work as reserve crops in times of drought. The comparative analysis exhibit continuities among the three groups compared related with the way they consume these tubers, but they also present linguistic peculiarities and cuisine tendencies individually developed. We follow a multidisciplinary perspective that combines linguistics, anthropology of food and ethnobotany, since all contribute to understand the cultural relevance of these crops among the Maya.

Keywords : Mayan linguistics; diet; culinary patterns; sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas); cassava (Manihot esculenta).