The Indigenous History of El Salvador

The Popol Vuh, Theology in a Time of Disease

[Este mismo cuento en español.]

I have discussed how the early Chorti Mayans of coastal El Salvador and Guatemala discovered or highlighted the discovery of soaking corn in ash in about 1500 BC, and their promotion of this discovery led to one of the fastest civilization expansions in the history of the pre-modern world.

However, this expansion was only possible with an ideology or theology attached to it. By about 1700 BC, the Chortis were rapidly advancing due to improved agriculture from constantly improving corn and bean production through selective hybridization. In addition, their efficiency at fishing and ocean harvesting was greatly enhanced by their discovery of the 13 to 14 day tidal cycle, which led to the creation of the Tzol'kin calendar.

Finally, their correlation of eclipses with 52-day periods of slack tides and very poor fishing, allowed them to begin long trade journeys to central Mexico, the Veracruz coast, the Peten, and the Yucatan without missing out much on the best fishing. On these trade trips, the Chortis, the master agriculturalists, were always pushing the latest corn hybrid and encouraging more corn production. Corn seed from the most recent harvest was likely one of their major trade products on these trips.

Yet, by 1500 BC or just before then, they faced a major crisis in the legitimacy of their leadership. That was because the very same Chorti elite, those who consumed the most corn, were becoming diseased. They became weak and they became lesioned, with bloody sores all over their bodies. Not only that, but the people in their communities and the people who they convinced to give up hunting and gathering and produce more corn were also becoming diseased. They didn't know yet about pellegra (also called pellagra), the disease caused by niacin deficiency common among those who rely on corn as a staple in the diet.

But due to this disease, throughout Mesoamerica people were rejecting Mayan leadership, rejecting corn and the agricultural lifestyle, and reverting to hunting and gathering. Neighboring peoples who relied on hunting were defeating the weakened Mayan and mocking their diseased leaders. No doubt, civilization was delayed by hundreds of years by pellegra. The Chortis had discovered what seemed to be a cure, but many did not believe them. That is, they did not believe until the Mayans developed a story, a narrative, that explained meaning and truth, despite the scourge of pellegra. This narrative is best described by the Popol Vuh, the sacred text relayed by the Quiche after the arrival of the Spanish.

The early chapters of the Popol Vuh read like a description of the symptoms of pellegra and in each case the conclusion is that the creator beings failed. That is, it wasn't the fault of the people who became diseased nor was it the fault of the Mayan leaders who promoted a new lifestyle. One chapter describes humans who were dry, with no sweat and no blood. Dry is also a word meaning extreme skinniness in Mesoamerica and weight loss and weakness is one symptom of pellegra. Another chapter describes the rain washing away the substance of the skin and organs of the humans - a symptom of pellegra is the wasting away of the skin.

Yet another chapter goes into horrid detail of symptoms of dementia, with the animals speaking back to the humans, even the corn grinding stones - the metates and manos - speaking back and saying that they would grind up those who usually did the grinding. Dementia is one of the advanced symptoms of pellegra.

The Popol Vuh explains that all of these attempts to create human beings failed. A new attempt to create humans was made and it was successful. In this way, the Mayan creation story is parallel to the Poton Lenca creation story of central and eastern El Salvador that I have already described. Ixbalanque, one of the hero twins (the other is Hunahpú) in the Popol Vuh, represents the diseased leader who had lesions all over his body.

By associating this hero, Ixbalanque, with the jaguar, the most powerful animal in the Mesoamerican ecosystems, but also an animal with spots (similar to lesions), the Mayans were legitimizing their diseased leadership. The jaguar people are the powerful people with the lesioned leadership. Many people had to die before the gods revealed the secret of corn soaking, thus the concept of sacrifice was incorporated into the cosmology.

Most importantly, the Popol Vuh reassures people that it is not the fault of the people in the first agricultural villages that they were hearing voices, that they were lesioned, that they were weak and dying. Nor is it the fault of the corn or the agricultural way of life. Rather, it was the fault of the creator beings. Now they had finally succeeded with a new being, a being made of corn dough, corn that has been cured of the disease by soaking it in ash. The narrative of the Popol Vuh helped to convince both the Chorti Maya villagers and neighboring peoples to trust the diseased Chorti leadership and to accept the strange new practice, sent by the gods, of soaking corn in ashes.

[PostScript, Jan. 27, 2010. To remember those who died in this epidemic and to give thanks for the one true answer to overcoming it, the Mayans put a touch of ash on their foreheads.]

10 Female Earth / 10 Jaguar in the Mayan - Azteca Calendar

10 Ix / 10 Ocelotl, 10th Day in the Week 1 Snake
Lunar Eclipse, full moon. This 13 day week will usually have an eclipse every other (260 day) year.
10 Ix (Maya) - Glyph of earth god; or jaguar. Ix is a female god spirit in Chorti and refers to being split open (i.e. corn)
10 Ocelotl (Nahuatl) - Jaguar

Direction: North

Acajutla High Tides: 1:34 AM and 2:12 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range: 1.78 meters average, increasing. (Difference in High/Low Tides). Usually a full moon on a 10-day will be a huge tide, but with this being an eclipse, the tide is still rather slack. The Pacific Coast Mayans of 2000 years ago would have been able to predict this.

Keywords: Understanding of the nature of power. Lack of understand leads to manipulation and domination.

9 Ben / 9 Reed in the Mayan / Azteca Calendar

9 Ben / 9 Acatl, 9th Day in the Week 1 Snake
This 13 day week will usually have an eclipse every other year. It occurs on the 10th day of this week this year (tomorrow).
9 Ben (Maya) - Glyph of garden or milpa
9 Acatl (Nahuatl) - Plant; reed

Direction: East (both the day and week are East - day of new beginnings)

Acajutla High Tides: 12:35 AM and 1:13 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range: 1.56 meters average and quickly increasing. (Difference in High/Low Tides)

Keywords: Political sensitivity; driven to power.

From the Maya, the Beginnings of the Olmecs and Zapotecs

Between 6700 BC and 1600 BC, corn was increasing used as a staple in the Mesoamerican diet, but it actually produced more malnutrition as it became more popular. Diets were improved through more efficient coastal fishing by the peoples of the origin of the Mayan philosophy along the Pacific Coast of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Chiapas, when they discovered the 13-day tidal calendar. But that only helped to spread higher culture along the coast itself.

It wasn't until they discovered the 'magic' of soaking corn kernels in ashes (nixtamalization) that civilization spread to the inland areas. At first, this practice was done as a way to soften up the hard encasing of the kernels, but soon the health benefits of the practice were noted. The health of entire communities soon improved dramatically as they overcame the niacin deficiency, known as pellegra, that is common to using corn as a staple food. Later soaking corn in lime was found to be even better than in ashes and it became the norm throughout Mesoamerica.

From Chalchuapa, Monte Alto, and La Blanca, these first Mayans brought this discovery to other peoples. In some cases it may have been a migration, as to El Mirador and Chiapa de Corzo. Other Mayan migrations were made from the Pacific Coast to the Yucatan and the Chiapas highlands, demonstrated by the splitting of the Mayan language groups, Yucateca Maya and Huasteca, respectively, at this time.

In other cases, with the central Mexican valley, the Zapotecs in the Oaxacan valley, and the Olmecs along the Veracruz Gulf Coast, it was an exchange of knowledge and culture, with the Mayans sharing their calendar and the 'nixtamal' discovery. The Olmecs then spread this information and other art and science to areas of present day Morelos and Guerrero.

These same early Mayan leaders had been spreading new hybrid varieties of corn to the same regions, but it only produced more disease and malnutrition. Why and how should they be believed now? The Mayan sacred text, the Popol Vuh, helps to answer that question. Next time we will explore the Popol Vuh, pellegra, and the crisis of leadership in early Mesoamerican cultures.

8 Eb in the Mayan Calendar

8 Eb, 8th Day in the Week 1 Snake
This 13 day week will usually have an eclipse every other year. It occurs on the 10th day of this week this year.
8 Eb (Maya) - Unclear glyph and translation
8 Malinalli (Nahuatl) - Twisted; grass

Direction: South

Acajutla High Tide: 12:10 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range: 1.36 meters average and increasing. (Difference in High/Low Tides)

Keywords: Sensitivity and determination

Put the Lime in the Coco

Something revolutionary happened 3,500 years ago in the Americas. It led to an ALBA of sorts - a giant fair trade alliance. And it spread civilization quicker than almost any other event in human history.

In Mesoamerica 1500 BC there was only one location with village life with any signs toward civilization, along the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, Guatemala, and El Salvador, due to developing a counting and calendar system to track the high tides and allow for much greater fishing production. This advanced knowledge of the tides did little to grow a civilization since it was irrelevant to inland peoples and the tides along other parts of the coast did not follow the same pattern.

Yet, by 1400 BC, there were populated villages moving very quickly toward civilization in at least seven locations, in addition to the Pacific coast: northern Peten of Guatemala (Mirador), central Chiapas (Chiapa de Corzo), Olmec Gulf coast of Veracruz (San Lorenzo and Laguna de los Cerros), Oaxacan valley (San Jose Mogote), central Mexican valley (Tlapacoya and Tlatilco), Morelos Valley (Chalcatzingo), and northern Guerrero (Teopantecuanitlan).

This is also about the time that the Huastecan Mayan and Yucatecan Mayan language groups split off from the main line of Mayan languages. Another sign of quick dispersion of culture.

By 1500 BC, the peoples of Mexico and Central America had been growing squash for at least 5,500 years, corn for 5,000 years, and beans for 2,000 years. Corn was slowly evolving as it was continually hybridized to select the biggest cobs. But most people were still living in isolated groups, gaining much of their limited protein from fishing or hunting and gathering.

Scientists now know that corn produces a condition called 'pellegra', a type of malnutrition when people use corn as a staple crop. Pellegra was a major health concern in places like northern Italy in the 18th and 19th centuries and in the American south - over 1,300 pellegra deaths were counted in South Carolina as recently as 1915. That is because unsoaked corn, by itself, has a noted lack of the B vitamin niacin and amino acids lysine and tryptophan. Pellegra causes confusion, weakness, dermatitis and skin lesions, insomnia, dementia, and death. All things that could keep a civilization from forming. Beans also have lysine and tryptophan and together with corn makes a complete protein, but this wasn't enough to overcome the niacin deficiency of corn.

Soaking corn in ashes or in lime slake (calcium oxide) before cooking the corn releases the niacin when consumed and increases the lysine and tryptophan. How did the early Mesoamericans discover this? The very early corn had an extremely hard encasing, just like the grass it was hybridized from, teosinte. It could only be consumed by popping it or roasting it. In addition to releasing important nutritious elements, soaking corn in ashes or lime also breaks down the hard encasing of the corn kernels, making it possible to mash the corn to make it into masa, which could then be used to make atol, tamals, tortillas, and pupusas. One day, some uncooked corn kernels must have been left out in a gourd or ceramic container, some ashes accidently placed on top, and then it rained. In the morning, the family noticed very soft corn, perfect for mashing. Something that doesn't happen just with water soaking. And the tradition was born. Within a generation or two, the health benefits of the soaking would have also been noticed. Yes, tortillas are linked to higher civilization.

In the Nahuat language, this is called nixtamal, leading to the English word nixtamalization. Nixtamal probably comes from the Mayan - ix or ixim is corn in Mayan, and in Ch'orti Maya, grinding the soft corn is called muxi uixim. Corn mash, which is much easier after the nixtamal process, is a shared root word in all Mayan languages that separated at about 1500 BC. In addition, there are early Olmec drawings of tamals, which would be much easier to make after soaking the corn in ash- or lime-water. While the exact date is not known, I believe that it is such an important discovery that it would lead to a huge expansion in village life and population density. This leaves the most probable date of 1500 BC.

7 Artisan in the Mayan Calendar

7 Artisan, 7th Day in the Week 1 Snake
This 13 day week will usually have an eclipse every other year. It occurs on the 10th day of this week this year.
7 Chuen (Maya) - Glyph of a monkey (translates artisan or craftsman)
7 Ozomatli (Azteca) - Monkey

Direction: West

Acajutla High Tides: 11:05 AM and 11:35 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range: 1.22 meters average and increasing. (Difference in High/Low Tides)

Keyword: Strong leadership but be careful not to dominate

6 Torch / 6 Dog in the Mayan - Azteca Calendar

6 Torch / 6 Dog, 6th Day in the Week 1 Snake
This 13 day week will usually have an eclipse every other year. It occurs on the 10th day of this week this year.
6 Oc (Maya) - Glyph of a dog with a torch
6 Itzcuintli (Nahuat) - Dog

Direction: North

Acajutla High Tides: 10:03 AM and 10:35 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range: 1.15 meters average. Lowest point in 13 day calendar. (Difference in High/Low Tides)

Keyword:Persistence

The First Milpa - Jared Diamond, Corn, and Mexico

Jared Diamond identifies at least five locations around the world as independently domesticating plants - including Southwest Asia, China, Mesoamerica, Andes upland and Amazon foothills, and the latest chronologically, the Eastern United States. The first four became sites of early advanced civilizations. The first of these was Southwest Asia, about 8500 BC, followed by China, in 7500 BC.

In Mesoamerica, it is the story of corn. Corn, or maize, and the corn field, milpa, are sacred in Mexico and Central America. The holy book, Popol Vuh, talks about the flesh of the first father and first mother being made from corn mush. For decades historians and scientists have debated the origin of corn. Now, thanks to advances in molecular biology and genetics, we are much closer to the answer: teosinte grass from Mexico.

There are two big surprises to the news announced in March 2009 - first, it was not just any teosinte, but Balsas teosinte, or Zea mays parviglumis. Surprisingly it was found in southwest Mexico in mid-level elevations, along the Balsas River which borders Guerrero, Michoacan, and Jalisco. Teosinte is a wild grass that has edible grains - a small, hard grain that must be smashed open with a rock. Guatemalan teosinte, or Zea luxurians, with optimal conditions in the highlands of Guatemala, northern El Salvador, and southern Honduras. But Balsas teosinte has optimal growing conditions in western Mexico.

The second surprise was the date - the site shows that corn was domesticated by at least 6700 BC, along with squash. The practice of cultivating corn spread quickly south - by 5500 BC to Panama and soon thereafter to Columbia and Ecuador. It made the move to the north, out of the sub-tropics, much more slowly, arriving in the southwestern US by 0 BC and to the Mississippi Valley by 1000 AD. By at least 3000 BC, beans (cooking beans) were also domesticated, and together with corn create a complete protein.

While squash and corn, and later beans, made their way south, at least three domesticated plants from South America made their way north: yuca (manioc), peanuts, and cacao.

It is at least worth mentioning that temperatures were slowing rising at 6700 BC, entering the warm period called the Holocene Climate Optimum. Temperatures rose much more dramatically in northern latitudes, but there was likely mild warming in the sub-tropics. The previous ice age had ended by at least 9000 BC, but it seems likely that from 9000 to 6700 BC, the range of Balsas teosinte was slowly drifting northwest from Central America toward the Guerrero-Jalisco coast. Since scientists did not find corn and teosinte together at the 6700 BC site, it is possible that corn actually was hybridized even earlier and that this hybridization could have happened further south along the Guatemala or El Salvador coast. There are hints that this might be true, but I save that for a later post.

Jared Diamond says that corn was very hard to domesticate from teosinte, leading to a 5,000 year head start for Southwest Asian cultures. He did not have the benefit of the 2009 announcement mentioned above, which proved a much earlier date. In fact, Mesoamericans were less than 2,000 years behind in plant domestication. It is true that it likely took several thousand years of hybridization to grow corn that produced thumb size cobs to corn that produced finger size cobs. Yet, there was another, more serious problem with corn that kept it from being the generator of advanced culture. When the Mayans of the Guatemalan/Salvadoran Pacific Coast solved this problem in about 1500 BC, civilization took off like wild fire in Mesoamerica. Any guesses? Next time...

[Post Script: I now believe that the hybridization process may have begun as early as 8300 BC and took place in El Salvador at the close of the last Ice Age. Feb. 25, 2010]

5 Water in the Mayan Azteca Calendar

5 Water, 5th Day in the Week 1 Snake
This 13 day week will usually have an eclipse every other year. It occurs on the 10th day of this week this year.
5 Muluc (Maya) - Glyph of a fish head or jade, both symbolize water
5 Atl (Nahuat) - Glyph of a canal

Direction: East

Acajutla High Tides: 9:06 AM and 9:39 PM
Semi-diurnal Tide range: 1.15 meters average. Lowest point in 13 day calendar. (Difference in High/Low Tides) Good for playing in the water but not for finding fish.

Keywords: Creativity; art. Emotional power. If you are visiting relatives a good day to visit an art exhibit. If you are on a long journey, slow down and enjoy the surroundings.