Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao

10. The Social Context of Kakaw Drinking among the Ancient Maya

10 The Social Context of Kakaw Drinking among the Ancient Maya Dorie Reents-Budet The ancient Maya developed a complex society renowned for its monumental architecture, colossal sculptures, and portable carvings that adorned their towns and the bodies of the elite; for scientific and intellectual achievements in mathematics , astronomy, philosophy; and for the only true writing system (that is, the graphic representation of spoken language) in the ancient Americas. During the Classic period apogee (A.D. 250–900) of the Maya culture, artisans created copious objects in a variety of media that were essential components of the sociopolitical and economic systems of the ruling elite (M. D. Coe and J. Kerr 1998). Among these artifacts were decorated pottery vessels for serving food, especially vessels for kakaw (chocolate) beverages (Figures 10.1a, 10.1b) (Reents-Budet 1994a). Unlike their ceramic predecessors of earlier centuries (1200 B.C.–A.D. 150) (Figure 10.2), which were characterized by elegantly simple forms and monochrome or occasionally bichrome slip-painted surfaces, Classic period elite service wares were elaborately embellished with painted, incised, or modeled imagery or various combinations of these. Skilled painters adorned the service wares with renderings of elite life and portraits of powerful rulers. They also portrayed the supernatural beings and religious myths that explained the universe and the place of the Mayas therein, and they sanctioned Maya rulership by way of their special association with deities and supernatural forces (Figure 10.3) (Fields 1989; Fields and Reents-Budet 2005; Freidel and Schele 1988a, 1988b; Freidel, Schele, and Parker 1993; Houston and Stuart 1996). The accompanying hieroglyphic texts are simultaneously explanatory captions and historical documents pertaining to these formidable individuals as well as commentaries on the function of the vessels and visual poetry of the highest creative order (Reents-Budet 1998). Figure 10.1. (Top) a. Late Classic period Maya polychrome vase for serving chocolate beverages and giving as gifts during elite feasts. (Bottom) b. Rollout. The scene portrays a feast inside a palacelike structure with a noble figure seated on a low throne. A large polychrome vase with a conical lid is in front of the noble, and a second person seated on the floor in front of the throne hands another polychrome vase to the seated lord. Collections of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Photographs copyright Justin Kerr (K2800). Dorie Reents-Budet 204 Figure 10.2. Late Preclassic Maya jar with a simple geometric motif rendered in bichrome slip paint. The jar was found in the tomb of a noblewoman. Burial 167, North Acropolis, Structure 5D-sub-10-1st. Tikal, Guatemala. Instituto de Antropología e Etnología, Guatemala City (reg. no. 17.1.1.089). Why did food-service wares develop from quotidian containers into an extraordinary ceramic tradition characterized by effusive painted decoration featuring elite life and the mytho-religious foundations of social stratification and rulership? The answer lies in the social context in which the vessels were used and the foodstuffs they contained. Representations of foods and vessels from Classic Maya painted art depict plates containing piles of tamales; jars filled with special drinks, including those made from fermented honey and maguey; and cylindrical vases in which kakaw beverages were prepared and served (B. MacLeod 1990; Reents-Budet 1994c:75–83). Although these comprise commonly consumed foods, it is the special context of banquets held in the residences of the elite and the palaces of rulers that caused the transformation of everyday containers into specialized vessels of enhanced social affect and political meaning (Reents-Budet 2000a; also see Reents-Budet 1994b:Figure 2.20 for a portrayal of feasting). The banquets, in turn, were the cornerstone and focal point of an elite economic system based on feasting with its concomitant giftgiving that included both basic commodities and luxury goods (Reents-Budet 2000b). Although feasting events likely were held at all levels of ancient Maya The Social Context of Kakaw Drinking among the Ancient Maya 205 society, those hosted by the socioeconomic and political elite would have been notable for their opulence, a hypothesis based on sixteenth-century ethnohistoric accounts of aristocratic feasts (for example, Landa 1941 [1566]) and the Classic period archaeological and pictorial records (Reents-Budet 1998). The Classic Maya were not unique New World consumers of kakaw beverages nor is it certain that they were the first Mesoamericans to devise an elite economic system with feasting as a primary component. The consumption...