A Hearth Library collection
Food and Farming in the Americas
Maize, cassava, cacao and chili, and the people who grew them, about 1500 to 1700
How the peoples of the Americas grew, stored, cooked, traded and offered their food, from Maya almanacs and Mexica rations to cassava bread in the Caribbean, Inca storehouses and the cornfields of New England. Many of these foods crossed the ocean after 1492.
Sources
Manuscript painting
Offerings for the Rain God (Dresden Codex, Pages 33 and 35)
Dresden Codex, painted in Yucatán, probably in the century before the Spanish conquest, Yucatán
Epigraphic MayanEarly version
MesoamericaIndigenous American beliefsCalendars and keeping time
Literature
The People Made of Maize
Popol Vuh, a creation story; written down in Latin letters probably in the 1500s; the surviving copy made about 1700–1715, K’iche’ kingdom, highland Guatemala
K’iche’Early version
MesoamericaMyths, sagas and epicsIndigenous American beliefs
Natural history
Maize and Cassava Bread
Oviedo, printed 1526, Hispaniola (La Española)
SpanishChecked
Food, farming and hungerCooking and recipesPlants and animals
Description
Tenochtitlan, Its Food, Drink and Market
The Anonymous Conqueror, written in Spanish some years after 1521 (original lost); printed in Italian at Venice, 1556, Mexico-Tenochtitlan
ItalianEarly version
MesoamericaFood, farming and hungerCooking and recipes
Manuscript painting
Raising Children, Ages Three to Fourteen (Codex Mendoza)
Codex Mendoza, painted in Mexico City, probably about 1541; the customs are those before the Spanish conquest of 1521, Mexico City (Mexico-Tenochtitlan)
SpanishEarly version
MesoamericaFamily and lossFood, farming and hunger
History
Moctezuma's Table and the Market of Tlatelolco
Bernal Díaz, written in Guatemala, finished in a fair copy in 1568, Mexico-Tenochtitlan
SpanishEarly version
MesoamericaTrade, markets and moneyFood, farming and hunger
Description
Maize, Markets and Books in Yucatán
Landa, written in the mid-1560s, Yucatán
SpanishChecked
MesoamericaWriting and scriptsFood, farming and hunger
Travel account
Making Manioc Flour in a Tupinambá Village
Léry, printed 1578, revised 1580, Guanabara Bay
FrenchEarly version
Amazon and OrinocoCooking and recipesFood, farming and hunger
History
Inca Storehouses and the Palaces of Tumebamba
Cieza de León, printed at Seville, 1553, Tumebamba
SpanishEarly version
AndesFood, farming and hungerRulers and courts
Natural history
Cacao, Chili and Maize
Hernández, written in New Spain about 1571–1577; Recchi's selection printed at Rome, 1651, New Spain
LatinEarly version
MesoamericaPlants and animalsFood, farming and hunger
Government report
Teotihuacan Answers the King
Teotihuacan elders, March 1, 1580, San Juan Teotihuacan
SpanishEarly version
MesoamericaFood, farming and hungerHomes, towns and building
History
The Bison Plains and the People Who Follow the Herds
Castañeda, written in the 1560s, more than twenty years after the events; surviving copy dated 1596, The Llano Estacado and the southern plains
SpanishChecked
Southern Plains and prairie farmersSouthwest and PueblosFirst contact in the Americas
Report
Food from the Great River, 1639
Acuña, printed 1641, The Amazon River
SpanishEarly version
Amazon and OrinocoFood, farming and hungerHomes, towns and building
Dictionary
Corn, Land, and the Women's Fields
Williams, printed London 1643, from Williams's years among the Narragansett from the early 1630s, Narragansett country
EnglishChecked
Northeast WoodlandsDictionaries and grammarsTranslation and interpreters
Travel
How Chocolate Is Made and Drunk
Gage, printed at London, 1648, Chiapa and Guatemala
Early Modern EnglishEarly version
MesoamericaFood, farming and hungerCooking and recipes
No sources match all of these filters.