Simbolismo de las técnicas de preparación del maíz. Análisis de unos platillos tlapanecos (me’phaa) del estado de Guerrero (México)
Symbolism of Maize Processing. Analysis of Some Tlapanec Dishes from the State of Guerrero

Summary/Abstract: The present article tries to generate the bases to establish a symbolic classification of maize dishes according to their preparation techniques. With the help of the Nahuatl texts compiled by Fray Sahagún in the sixteenth century, and the results of fieldwork among contemporary Tlapanecs (me’phaa) from the state of Guerrero (Mexico), it presents various ways of preparing maize. These include four cooking techniques (two of the grains – popcorn and pozole, and three of the dough – tortilla, tamal, atole), to which two transversal categories can (or cannot) be applied (nixtamalization and fermentation). Then three dishes elaborated by the Tlapanecs are studied in their ritual context, which allows to put in evidence the symbolism linked to the absence of nixtamalization (fertility, growth of the plants and personal penance). As for fermentation, it is a random process that requires technical precautions and a period of penance and, therefore, it is considered that its success or failure publicly reveals the quality of sexual abstinence of the ritual specialist.

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