Maize: An Everlasting Spiritual, Cultural, and Communal Sustenance
By Christina Lee
Image from the Journal of Latin American Geography
Maize is the epicenter to the lives of the Maya populations of Guatemala. The image above, “La Sustancia de Nuestra Vida” (the Substance of our Life), portrays the lives of farmers living on the shores of Lake Atitlán, where a relationship to land, lake, and mountains is central to daily existence. This image also shows the family and community life through the cycle of maize production and consumption. The male figures in the family sow the seeds, harvest, and distribute back to the community, while the female figures in the family pull the ears, separate the kernels by hand, and cook the maize. Finally, the tortillas are made and enjoyed by the whole community, including the dogs.
It is notable that the cycle of maize production and consumption is never-ending for Mayas, and this cycle intertwines with spiritual, cultural, and social activities. Maize is the all-encompassing key to life, and it explains that Mayas use the term “Santo maiz” (holy corn).
A Central Crop
Around 2500 B.C., the Maya started cultivating corn (maize) and abandoned a nomadic way of life to settle in villages surrounded by cornfields. With the domestication of corn and the harnessing of rainwater for irrigation, all the elements were in place to support a growing Maya population. Maya farmers terraced the slopes of the volcanic mountains, cut back the heavy forests, constructed raised fields in the swampy lowlands, and conserved water in reservoirs in the Yucatán Peninsula. Irrigation canals supplied water that was carried into the fields in clay vessels. The Maya fertilized the fields with sediment and aquatic plants collected from the canals. This created a self-sustaining ecosystem.
Image from IncaMayanAztec.com
Maya farmers cleared the jungles using a slash and burn method and grew their major crops during the rainy season from May to October. In the southern lowlands and on highland slopes along the edge of the Pacific ocean, milpas, or cornfields, were farmed for a few years, then left uncultivated for four to seven years; in the northern lowlands of the Yucatán peninsula, where soil is thin, fields were abandoned for 15 to 20 years. Contemporary Maya continue to farm their land as their ancestors have done for centuries past.
So central a role did corn play in the Maya economy that it was considered sacred and treated like a deity. The Maize God is a principal deity in Maya religion. Each stage in the farming cycle was preceded by religious ritual. Corn continues to be the cornerstone of Maya culture. It provides sustenance and brings spiritual significance to daily life.
Image from the World History Encyclopedia
The Maize God
One of the most important Maya deities, perhaps even the most important, was the “Young Maize God.” Typically portrayed with a head in the form of an ear of maize, he could appear in Maya mythology as the creator god. Descending to the underworld, he reappeared with the world tree which holds the center of the earth. The world tree was visualised as a maize plant. One of the names of the Maya maize god was Yum Caax (“Master of the Fields in Harvest”) but another, as at Palenque, was Hun-Nale-Ye (“One Revealed Sprouting”). Further proof of the Maya reverence for maize is shown throughout the Popol Vuh religious text, where the ancestors of humanity are described as being made of maize. Other important crops besides maize had their own gods, for example, Ek Chuah was considered the god of cacao and so vital was water to crops that the Maya rain god Chac gained special prominence, especially in times of drought.
Image from Mexicolore
Mythology and Storytelling
The myths of farmers who lived the era parallel elements of fertilization of the earth and the harvest of food and include deities that represent the cyclical nature of life and agriculture.
There were four animals who brought the news of the ears of yellow corn and white corn…. And these were the ingredients for the flesh of the human work, the human design.
This quote is from the Popol Vuh, a text that has been described as the “bible” of the Mayas of highland Guatemala. It relates stories of gods and heroes complete with travels to the underworld, competition for power, and three attempts at human creation. Maize plays a key role in these stories. According to the Popol Vuh, maize is both the material used when humans are formed and the material that provides nourishment to the form
Maize is representative in Maya mythology in diverse ways: of substance and form, of sustenance and nourishment, and of the balanced movements of the cosmos. All of them indicate what the Maya people hold importance to their culture and offer meaning to the human state of being in the world.
When we arrive in the place where we will plant our maize we bow before the world and ask forgiveness of our God. We ask permission to cultivate our maize. Only after this do we begin to plant our maize. (Diego Chacom, in Nuestro Maiz del Lago Atitilán.)
This quote from a folktale that is commonly shared provides an insight into the farming practice. It provides a window into Maya agriculture and daily life that are infused with religion. Such recounting of the both sacred and the mundane not only highlights the importance of maize but also explains the way the people live by, as it shows how they treat their cultivation of food that leads to their well-being of their families and communities.
Other Maya folktales and storytelling illustrate the centrality of maize in the experiences, worldview, and lives of the Maya People and in the development of belongingness. For many centuries maize has been the primary staple of Mayas, with large amounts of land dedicated to the production, and also large amounts of time put into its cultivation and preparation into food. Maize sustains life, but also it is the origin of life.
Corn, Maya Time, and Calendar Traditions
The Maya sense of time is based on understanding recurrent cycles: observable motions of the sun across the sky, the phases of the moon, the gestational period of human beings, and lastly, the growing cycle of the corn. In the highlands of Guatemala, Maya calendar keepers describe time as an attribute of the sacred and thus make offerings of “corn atole,” a traditional sweet corn beverage, every 260 days to welcome a new cycle of time in the Tzolk’in sacred calendar. Traditional farmers in the Yucatán conduct ceremonies and offerings throughout corn’s growing season, which are in tune with the Haab, their solar calendar. For Maya People, time is related to the natural cycles of the Earth and sky and the cultivation of maize. Therefore, time is sacred and worthy of respect.
Image from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
The offerings and ceremonies that the Maya people practice today are rooted in the reciprocal relationship between the people and their land. The Maya communities in various regions maintain the customs of their ancestors through festivals and ceremonies connected with the growing cycle of maize. Such rituals are petitions for rain or gratitude for a successful harvest; they reflect the deep connections to the lands and their calendar systems. Below are videos of three practices that have continued for centuries:
Pa Puul Ceremony:
Sac Ha’ Ceremony:
Wajxaqib’B’atz’ Ceremony:
Image from Tramatextiles
Nowadays, maize still continues being a crucial part of the Maya diet. So much so, that many times it represents more than 60% of daily food intake. For the reasons given above and others, maize is not just food in this region; it is a foundation of culture, beliefs, keeping tradition, and sustenance that is sacred.
Resources:
“Ancient Mayan Agriculture.” Inca Mayan Aztec, incamayanaztec.com/ancient-mayan-agriculture.html.
“The Calendar System.” - Sun, Corn and the Calendar, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, maya.nmai.si.edu/calendar/calendar-system.
Cartwright, Mark. “Maya Food & Agriculture.” World History Encyclopedia, World History Encyclopedia, www.worldhistory.org/article/802/maya-food--agriculture/.
“Corn and Calendar Traditions.” Living Maya Time, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, maya.nmai.si.edu/corn-and-maya-time/corn-and-calendar-traditions.
“Exhibits on the Plaza.” Civilization.ca - Mystery of the Maya, www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/maya/mmp04eng.html.
Huff, Leah Alexandra. “Sacred Sustenance: Maize, Storytelling, and a Maya Sense of Place.” Journal of Latin American Geography, vol. 5, no. 1, 2006, pp. 79–96. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25765124. Accessed 4 Aug. 2021.
“Maize: The Epicenter of Maya Culture.” Trama Textiles | Women's Weaving Cooperative, 1 Feb. 2019, tramatextiles.org/blogs/news/maize-the-epicenter-of-maya-culture.
“RESOURCE: The Story of the Creation of Humans out of Maize.” Maya at Mexicolore, www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/teachers/resource-the-story-of-the-creation-of-humankind.