Two Recently-Discovered Early Historic Examples of Chili (Capsicum annuum) from Arizona

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Specimens of chili (Capsicum annuum) are absent from prehistoric sites in the southwestern United States, but they are common in Spanish Colonial contexts. Building on a relatively recent review of northern Mexican prehistoric chili cultivation by Paul Minnis and Michael Whalen, we examine two recent chili finds in Arizona. The two finds may provide hints of the way chili use was transmitted from colonizing Spaniards to indigenous cooks, resulting in the emergence of a new aesthetic of cooking. By the mid-nineteenth century, an emergent "southwestern" style of food preparation involving the combination chilis with Iberian foods and native North American foods is evident.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24319