End of ADS-L Digest - 24 Feb 1998 to 25 Feb 1998
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<br>From: Automatic digest processor (2/25/98)
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<br>         ADS-L Digest - 23 Feb 1998 to 24 Feb 1998             98-02-25 00:00:16
<br>There are 10 messages totalling 361 lines in this issue.
<br>
<br>Topics of the day:
<br>
<br>  1. Chocolate in Guatemala ???
<br>  2. hurache
<br>  3. Slimed (6)
<br>  4. WOTY Posted
<br>  5. CD-ROM dictionaries
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<br>
<br>Date:    Tue, 24 Feb 1998 00:39:13 -0600
<br>From:    Mike Salovesh  salovesh[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]NIU.EDU 
<br>Subject: Re: Chocolate in Guatemala ???
<br>
<br>Barry A. Popik wrote:
<br>
<br>       From March 5-20th I'll be in Guatemala (no internet!), touring the Mayan
<br>  sites and investigating the origin of "chocolate."  There is a safety risk,
<br>  and it was a tough choice between being robbed in Guatemala or dying from
<br>  anthrax poisoning on the New York City subways.
<br>
<br>Now you're walking in my bailiwick, Barry.  I've been doing fieldwork in
<br>Guatemala and Mexico for many years.
<br>
<br>If you're looking for the origin of chocolate _beans_, of course there
<br>are some plantations in Guatemala.  But if you're true to your metier,
<br>you must be talking about the _word_ chocolate . . .  and you'll be at
<br>least a thousand miles southeast of where the word came into European
<br>speech.  Its origins are in Nahuatl, the language of central Mexico.
<br>
<br>Nahuatl was spoken by the Mexica, the inhabitants of the city of
<br>Tenochtitlan.  They were the people we usually call the "Aztecs", and
<br>the heart of their city became the center of Mexico City.  The ancient
<br>inhabitants of Guatemala spoke various languages of the Maya family.
<br>Today, roughly 60% of the people of Guatemala grow up with some one of
<br>23 extant Maya languages as their first language.  As far as I know,
<br>every single one of those languages uses some form of Nahuatl loanword
<br>for chocolate.
<br>
<br>Among Maya speakers, infusions of a mixture of chocolate, cinnamon, and
<br>coffee are served on a number of ceremonial occasions, including fiesta
<br>celebrations, marriages, curing cermonies, and other rituals.  That
<br>beverage is usually NOT called "chocolate"; the tendency is to use a
<br>word also applied to medicine, potions, and home-brewed alcohol.  When
<br>Guatemalan Indians speak of chocolate, using either a direct loan from
<br>Nahuatl or a form derived from the loan that took root in Mexican
<br>Spanish, they mean the growing plant, or chocolate beans, or the mass
<br>that comes from grinding those beans, or a heavenly concoction that is
<br>the apotheosis of what we call "hot chocolate".
<br>
<br>Freshly-prepared hot chocolate, Guatemalan style, IS a treat -- but the
<br>ne plus ultra in (non-alcoholic) things to drink is called "licuada de
<br>pin~a".  You have never known the full delights of pineapple until you
<br>eat a round of field-ripened fruit fresh picked in Guatemala or
<br>southeastern Mexico -- and the drink made from it is an even more
<br>delightful experience.
<br>
<br>Who told you there's no internet in Guatemala?  There are even Internet
<br>cafes in Antigua and Guatemala City and, I think, in Flores (the base
<br>town for visits to the great prehispanic city of Tikal).  Fees are
<br>surprisingly modest, the computers and software are adequate, and it's
<br>easy to remain connected if you want to.  I was even able to log on to
<br>my own account back home via Telnet anytime I wished.  Cafe Internet's
<br>services were a helluva lot cheaper than calling my wife on the phone!
<br>
<br>Take the warnings about getting robbed seriously.  Keep your New Yorker
<br>street smarts turned on at all times.  Be as defensively aware of your
<br>surroundings as you would be when walking through the borderland between
<br>the turfs of rival urban gangs.  Armed robberies happen even on the
<br>Guatemala City bus system, in broad daylight, at that.
<br>(Three years ago, I watched one go down on Sixth Avenue in Guatemala
<br>City at lunchtime -- right across the street from the main police
<br>headquarters.  Things can be even worse in the boondocks, where the
<br>robbers may actually be the cops.)
<br>
<br>Don't get me wrong: I love Guatemala, and I will be there for five or
<br>six weeks this summer.  But I take my behavioral cues from my Guatemalan
<br>friends.  Like them, I always keep my antennae in scan mode when I'm not
<br>in places that provide high security as one of the costs of doing
<br>business.
<br>
<br>  iFeliz viaje!
<br>
<br>--  mike salovesh                                salovesh[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]niu.edu 
<br>    anthropology department
<br>    northern illinois university                     PEACE !!!
<br>