John S. Henderson

Chemical and archaeological evidence for the earliest cacao beverages

Chemical analyses of residues extracted from pottery vessels from Puerto Escondido in what is now Honduras show that cacao beverages were being made there before 1000 B.C., extending the confirmed use of cacao back at least 500 years. The famous chocolate beverage served on special occasions in later times in Mesoamerica, especially by elites, was made from cacao seeds. The earliest cacao beverages consumed at Puerto Escondido were likely produced by fermenting the sweet pulp surrounding the seeds.

Beginnings of Village Life in Eastern Mesoamerica

Excavations in northern Honduras have produced evidence of initial village life that is among the earliest cases documented in Mesoamerica. Settlement beginning prior to 1600 B. C., the production of sophisticated pottery by 1600 B. C., and integration in economic exchange networks extending into Guatemala and Mexico by 1100-900 B. C. (calendar ages), are all consistent with patterns recorded in the Gulf Coast, Central Highlands, and Pacific Coast of Mexico. Supported by a suite of 11 radiocarbon dates, these findings overturn traditional models that viewed Honduras as an underdeveloped periphery receiving delayed influences from Mexican centers.

BEING “OLMEC” IN EARLY FORMATIVE PERIOD HONDURAS

Abstract Practices and features that many researchers have identified as “Olmec,” even when found outside of the Gulf Coast of Mexico, supposed by some to be the heartland of an Olmec culture, are often a minority within local assemblages with vast differences in style and form. This is the case in Honduras, where objects identified as “Olmec” were clearly locally made. Thus they cannot be explained simply in terms of the import to Honduras of “Olmec” objects made elsewhere. This paper seeks to address the question, “what did it mean to the inhabitants of Formative period Mesoamerican villages to make and use objects whose stylistic features made them stand out as different from others in their own communities?” Drawing on data from original fieldwork at multiple sites in Honduras and reanalysis of museum collections, this paper proposes a model for understanding this phenomenon rooted in social theories of materiality, the phenomenological experience of personhood, and the creation of identity through entanglement with things.

MULTI-PROXY ANALYSIS OF PLANT USE AT FORMATIVE PERIOD LOS NARANJOS, HONDURAS

Author(s): Morell-Hart, S; Joyce, RA; Henderson, JS | Abstract: Copyright

Forming Mesoamerican Taste: Cacao Consumption in Formative Period Contexts

Until recently, most of our assumptions about cacao preparation and consumption in Mesoamerica were based on late documentary sources. In recent years, the amount of direct evidence of cacao consumption has rapidly grown. Even the earliest time periods of the Early and Middle Formative period have now provided evidence of cacao consumption, from the Gulf Coast of Mexico to the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, and as far east as Honduras. What is most remarkable about this early evidence for the use of cacao is the variety of preparations and serving practices implied by the combinations of vessels that have tested positive for chemical traces of cacao. In this paper, we discuss our own work at Puerto Escondido, Honduras, and argue that the initial use of cacao was as a fermented beverage, in comparison to other published data from Formative period sites. We emphasize the variety of ways cacao was prepared and consumed, rather than advocating a single model of area-wide cacao consumption. We suggest that we need to construct models that highlight variability over time and across space in the kinds of cacao foods prepared and served and the contexts of their preparation to fully understand the development of Mesoamerican taste over time.

Motherhood, Personhood, Identity, and Place-Making in Ancient Mesoamerica

Hudson and Henderson explore how motherhood shaped ancient Mesoamerican processes of identity construction—at the level of the individual and at the level of the community and polity—and how it influenced the social mechanisms of place-making and legitimization. Steambaths, at the core of domestic life, also symbolized key conceptual dimensions of motherhood and were consequently central to the development of individual personhood and to the formation of family and community identity. They draw attention to the close conceptual connection between steambaths and caves, which linked motherhood to the ancestors and to the construction of social and political identities extending beyond the community.

Long-Distance Exchange and Centralized Political Power in Precolumbian America

Abstract Purpose Relationships between long-distance exchange, especially of luxury goods, and the centralization of political power represent a fundamental dimension of political and economic organization. Precolumbian American societies, outside familiar European contexts that have shaped analytical perspectives, provide a broadened comparative field with the potential for more nuanced analysis. Methodology/approach Analysis focuses on four cases that vary in political centralization, institutional complexity, and geographic scale: Ulua societies without political centralization; small Maya states; Aztec; and Inka empires. Emphasis on relationships between principals and agents highlights the potential of social practices to perform the functions often associated with state institutions Findings In the Ulua region, commerce flourished in the absence of states and their concomitants. The very wealth of Ulua societies and the unusually broad dispersion of prosperity across social segments impeded the development of states by limiting the ability of local lords to intensify their status and convert it to political power. Intensity of market activity and long-distance exchange does not correlate well with the florescence of states. Less centralized and non-centralized political systems may in fact facilitate mercantile activity (or impede it less) in comparison with states. Originality/value These cases frame a useful perspective on the organizational configuration of long-distance trade. Informal social mechanisms and practices can be an alternative to state institutions in structuring complex economic relations. The implications for understanding trajectories of societal change are clear: the development of states and centralized political organization is not a prerequisite for robust long-distance commerce.

Calendar Structures for Venus in Mesoamerican Divinatory Books: Common Approaches to Commensuration and Correction

Long-recognized similarities in representations of Venus, its movements, and associated supernatural forces in pre-Columbian books from central Mexico and the Maya lowlands point strongly to the value of a comparative approach. A new analysis of Venus records in the western Mesoamerican Borgia group shows that their calendar structures relate the periodicity of Venus to other calendar cycles in much the same way as the Venus table in the Maya Dresden Codex. Conversely, proposals for ways in which users of the central Mexican books may have corrected for discrepancies between canonical cycles of the calendar framework and what was actually observable in the sky reveal a novel way in which correction could have been effected in the Dresden Codex. These insights show that shared structural principles go deeper than related iconography and metaphors.