The 2012 ASHS Annual Conference

The Popol Vuh  is an ancient text of stories of the Quiché Indians of Guatemala in Central America. It is considered an important text in the literature of the Americas because it contains fragments of cosmogony, religion, mythology, and cultural traditions that pre-date the Spanish conquest of that region. The Quiché nation was a powerful and civilized people who descended from the Mayans. Plants mentioned in the Popol Vuh include foods such as corn (made into cakes, or tortillas), beans, eaten with corn cakes, pepper seeds, cacao, tomato, tobacco, and tropical fruits. Vines are mentioned, which are presumed to be of varying Vitis species. Gourds are mentioned in the context of carrying various items and in a story involving a calabash tree. Other uses for corn were an intoxicating beverage from which "The Four Hundred Youths" became intoxicated, and its use to create the first successful humans (after mud and wood had been unsuccessful). Rubber was used to make a ball, with which a special game was played: elbows, knees and hips, but not hands, were used to thrust the ball through a solid stone ring high on the opponents’ wall. Other fruits mentioned are yellow berries, eaten for sustenance, and tzite bean, a type of red bean, also called Palo de Pito (Erythrina berteroana or E. rubrinervia) used by soothsayers both then and now. Some plants are represented in heiroglyphs from the Mayan codices. For example,  several drawings depict a person planting grains of corn using a stick. The codices predate the written Popol Vuh by at least three centuries, and record Mayan history for hundreds of years prior to the Spanish conquest. The codices themselves were written on the inner bark of fig trees.