The Oaxacan Cuisine at Achiutla during the Early Colonial Period: A Story of Resilience

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Using paleoethnobotany, this paper examines the Mixtecs’ reaction to the arrival of Spanish at Achiutla, located in the Mixteca Alta. Faced with many challenges during the Early Colonial Period (1521–1600 AD), we examine how Mixtecs’ inhabitants of Achiutla negotiated the arrival of new, introduced foods in the region. To do so, we compare the plant consumption at two residential terraces occupied during the Postclassic (900–1521 AD) and Early Colonial periods. The plants were identified following an analysis of macrobotanical samples (carbonized seeds) collected from soil samples and microbotanical samples (phytoliths and starch grains) obtained from unwashed artifacts. Although Spanish colonialism fostered considerable upheaval in many aspects of daily practice, our data indicate few if any changes in indigenous foodways at Achiutla immediately following the conquest. This pattern is particularly striking given that evidence shows that Mixtec families here adopted many other items of foreign material culture, suggesting that practices related to food consumption might have been some of the most enduring or resilient aspects of domestic life, perhaps reinforcing ideas of cultural identity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23652