La cuisine et sa ritualisation en pays mixtèque (Oaxaca, Mexique)

• Main Author: Esther Katz
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Groupe de Recherche Amérique Latine Histoire et Mémoire 2013-09-01
• Series: Les Cahiers ALHIM
• Subjects: Mexico; Mixtec highlands; Food; Rituals; Offerings
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/alhim/4517

Mixtec and Triqui Indians of the Mixtec highlands, in Southern Mexico never feast without food, even though it may be lacking in daily life. Although the region is known for its poverty, daily and feast cuisines are quite elaborated. Mixtec highlands cuisine is close to the cuisine of Central Mexico, but differs from it by some local specialties. Feast cuisine is served in civic festivals, celebrations of the life cycle and saints festivals celebrated by a whole community. Some dishes are more specifically festive foods, nevertheless daily and feast cuisine both express a relationship with natural elements and the sacred, in particular through the dead, source of abundancy and fertility. Cuisine contributes, like rituals, to the balance of natural forces and of the cycles of rain, corn and human life.