Cacao Production, Tribute, and Wealth in Sixteenth-century Izalcos, El Salvador

Fowler, William R.

doi:10.5744/florida/9780813029535.003.0015

Cited by 6 publications

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“…Ethnohistoric and archaeological research there is significant for the study of European-indigenous interaction and the transformations in native economic and political life. Recent research has explored indigenous sites, Spanish churches, and urban and rural residences (Fowler 2006a). Regional surveys, settlement excavations, and a diachronic approach examine the Spanish conquest and the long-term effects of the growing global economy in western El Salvador (Sampeck 2007).…”

Section: Regional Settlements and Economics At Izalco El Salvadormentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Archaeology of Indigenous Culture Change in Mesoamerica

Palka¹

2009

J Archaeol Res

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This essay outlines recent archaeological research on post-Columbian (c. A.D. 1500-1925) indigenous sites in Mexico and Central America. Historical archaeology is a growing field in Mesoamerica, and over the last 20 years investigations of native culture change have increased, especially in rural areas. Contemporary research contributes new insights on indigenous responses to Spanish colonization over a long period. This work also is reassessing chronologies and examining the diversity of indigenous behavior from late preconquest to historic times. Indigenous adaptations to culture contact and social change are characterized by three general stages: conquest, colonization, and independence. Although I do draw on other regions, the focus of the article is the Maya area and Central America, where more investigations have taken place.

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Section: Regional Settlements and Economics At Izalco El Salvadormentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Archaeology of Indigenous Culture Change in Mesoamerica

Palka¹

2009

J Archaeol Res

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“…The use of cacao as a wealth item for Europeans continued well into the eighteenth century, with cacao, solid chocolate, and chocolate-related serving vessels recorded in eighteenth-century colonial British Williamsburg probate records, for example. Relative amounts of Spanish tribute quotas leave no doubt where the homeland of the special recipe of chocolate was: the Izalcos region of today's western El Salvador (Ciudad Real 1973;Fowler 1987Fowler , 1989Fowler , 2006García de Palacio 1985[1576-1587). From the mid-sixteenth to the early seventeenth century, about 1.2 billion cacao beans per year were exported from Acajutla, the port of the Izalcos, and tribute levels from this region were at least triple those of other cacao-producing zones (Escalante 1992(1):56).…”

Section: Labouring In the Fields Of The (Cacao) Lordmentioning

confidence: 99%

The bitter and sweet of chocolate in Europe

Martin¹,

Sampeck²

2015

Socio.hu

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This paper examines the changing role of chocolate in European society, especially in light of the food movement turn to slow, small batch, craft chocolate, as a way to critically analyze relationships of labor and race, gender, and class inequality. The changing culture of chocolate consumption over centuries, from its pre-Columbian origins to the ways European colonists culturally and economically adopted chocolate shows a trajectory of increasing permeation of European foods (more foods contain chocolate) and regionalization of tastes in chocolate recipes, most recently by small batch chocolate makers whose work crafts local identity through branding of a tropical product. Europe is the world's biggest importer and processor of cacao as well as the largest per capita consumer of chocolate. Industrial chocolate is higher in sugar and less complex in taste compared to the variety of local chocolate makers, so chocolate occupies an uneasy place in European diets, especially in light of growing rates of obesity and recent "junk food taxes" that target sugary foods. The historical context and analysis of labor in cacao farming and chocolate production shows a critical reliance on coerced labor. While the legacy of the past has been the decoupling of horrific coerced labor in cacao production from the consciousness of everyday chocolate consumers, the growing vitality of small batch chocolate makers refocuses attention on the country of origin--the conditions of production--as well as local, European tastes--the conditions of consumption.The authors employ interdisciplinary methodologies of close readings of primary sources that include historical recipes, critical analysis of representation in historic and contemporary images and media, and descriptive economic data of export and consumption levels. This systematic study of taste in chocolate and its social, economic, political, and cultural implications is carried out in an analytical framework of the historical contingency of the social construction of realms of value, and that such construction takes place within global and local political economic forces that tend to propagate inequality as a solution to greater economic efficiency. Examining food access and food justice in the light of ways people produce and consume chocolate can challenge assumptions about social inequalities, race, health, and identity and offer insights into long-term sustainability. The critical analysis of these social factors suggests directions for future education, investment, and action by the fine and craft chocolate industry in Europe that can promote mutual benefits for producers and consumers.

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“…The ethnic group in El Salvador immediately before the arrival of the Spanish was the Pipil (Fowler 1995;Verhagen 1997), whose language was related to the Nahuatl of Mexico who migrated from there between 700 to 1350 AD (Fowler 1985;Verhagen 1997). Pre-Columbian Pipil society was organized into wards, calpolli, and altepetl, in which the altepetl was the larger unit, and each usually contained between four and eight calpolli (Fowler, 2006;Lockhart 1992;MacLeod, 2008;Verhagen 1997). The calpolli were comprised of wards, which contained from 20 to 100 households (Fowler 2006;Lockhart 1992).…”

Section: The Setting: Geography and People Of El Salvadormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pre-Columbian Pipil society was organized into wards, calpolli, and altepetl, in which the altepetl was the larger unit, and each usually contained between four and eight calpolli (Fowler, 2006;Lockhart 1992;MacLeod, 2008;Verhagen 1997). The calpolli were comprised of wards, which contained from 20 to 100 households (Fowler 2006;Lockhart 1992). Each ward had a leader who managed land allocation, tax and tribute collection, and other responsibilities (Fowler 2006;Lockhart 1992).…”

Section: The Setting: Geography and People Of El Salvadormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The calpolli were comprised of wards, which contained from 20 to 100 households (Fowler 2006;Lockhart 1992). Each ward had a leader who managed land allocation, tax and tribute collection, and other responsibilities (Fowler 2006;Lockhart 1992). Each calpolli had its own central urban centers, but the calpolli were not thought of as separate cities; they were all a part of the altepetl system (Fowler 2006;Lockhart 1992).…”

Section: The Setting: Geography and People Of El Salvadormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Resistance, the Church, and a Comparison of Ceramics from Sixteenth-Century Caluco, El Salvador

Hodges¹

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IMPACTS OF SPANISH INVASION Changes the Spanish brought include a reorganization of society (policía), with all natives lumped together as "Indian," and all the Indians beneath all Spanish (although there were different categories of Spanish-conquerors and descendants, then the middle class, followed by the poor) (Wolf 1982). There were commoners, nobility, and slaves in pre-Columbian society, but with the Spanish, the Indians became the slaves (Fowler 2006; Verhagen 1997). Colonial society in Central America was not stable: the different levels of Spanish society were often antagonistic towards each other (Wolf 1982), and the introduction of new diseases to the area wiped out large numbers of the indigenous population (MacLeod 2008; Wolf 1982). The Spanish unknowingly spread diseases throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America, with smallpox, measles, and malaria being some of the most prevalent (Wolf 1982). The population of Caluco was reduced from 700 tributaries to 60 by 1584 (MacLeod 1984: 92). During this time, 14 epidemics (and 17 in the Andes) spread throughout Mesoamerica (Wolf 1982). The restructuring of the Indians into labor forces for the Spanish made these diseases spread easier in some areas, Izalcos being one of the hardest hit regions because of the strength of its cacao production (MacLeod 2008). Cacao was a tribute item in pre-Columbian society (Fowler 2006; Sampeck 2007). Cacao was a luxury, and evidence of cacao beverages has been found throughout Mesoamerica (Fowler 2006; Sampeck 2007). The Izalcos region of El Salvador was particularly proficient at cacao production, and cacao itself was used as money, so large numbers of Spanish encomenderos, priests, and officials were drawn to the area (Fowler 2006: 310). The wealth cacao provided led to the construction of impressive churches, but the diseases that hit El Salvador between 1520 and 1577 reduced the population so much that the residents of Izalcos could not keep up with tribute demands (Fowler 2006; Wolf 1982). Another policy that had a large effect of the region was encomienda. Encomiendas were granted to Spaniards to reward them for their role in the conquest (Lockhart 1992). In the encomienda system, Indians were forced to work on plantations for little pay (MacLeod 2008). This was a practice taken directly from Spain (Verhagen 1997), where adelantados, or military leaders, rewarded themselves with land and slave labor after claiming land (Gasco 2005; Gosden 2004; Wolf 1982). Besides pay, it differed from slavery in that the workers were not uprooted from their homes and fewer died as a result (MacLeod 2008). The idea of encomienda came about because privately-owned lands were becoming more prevalent in Spain at this time (MacLeod 2008). The best encomiendas were taken by the conquistadors, and they gave the others to their friends, families, or allies (MacLeod 2008). When a small tract of land was purchased, the Spaniards many times would fence off more land than they had purchased (Fowler 1993). The crown did not approve o...

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Cacao Production, Tribute, and Wealth in Sixteenth-century Izalcos, El Salvador

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Historical Archaeology of Indigenous Culture Change in Mesoamerica

Historical Archaeology of Indigenous Culture Change in Mesoamerica

The bitter and sweet of chocolate in Europe

Resistance, the Church, and a Comparison of Ceramics from Sixteenth-Century Caluco, El Salvador

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