Eating chili when walking could be heard out of context of what we are looking for when using the WALK-RWD system, however, I am going to explain this based on some engravings that were found some decades ago in the ruins of Cacaxtla, Tlaxcala State , Mexico, and of certain images designed in codices (in Nahuatl amoxtli or analte) of the pre-Columbian cultures of the New World. Images that I have drawed using my character called Quale, with the sole purpose of trying to use my own illustrations.
All of them have representations of human beings, who are observed in some way related to the chili (Nahuatl). You can see various activities represented such as harvesting (in markets), commercial exchange, transportation, storage and preserved in special bags, as well as people walking, running or doing some physical exercise, which at the same time are perceived they are eating chili. Chili is a fruit native to this part of the world that was named Capsicum in the early 16th century, after the discovery of these lands, although the first Europeans to try it assumed it was a variant of pepper.
The tlacuilo (in Nahuatl, scribe or painter) was the drawer in charge of representing and explaining this type of activity through images and hieroglyphs, in the different media used in those pre-Columbian nations, such as codices, murals, steles, etc.
Capsicum is the Latin name that was thus designated in the 16th century by European botanical specialists, surely paying attention to its shape and its spicy content in its veins: from the Latin capsa, capsae: box, capsule, container, wrapper, encapsulate; hence the name of the substance Capsicin (or Capsaicin) was derived, which is what contains the irritant of this fruit and which is located mainly in its veins: from the Latin ina: function, peculiarity, characteristic, to generate. This spicy substance contained in chili peppers is found in the filaments or glands, and also in the seeds in less quantity. Capsicin is located in these veins (or placenta). See my “Capsicupea book. Mexican marinades”, in which I present the 27 varieties of chili that are produced in Mexico and 440 culinary dishes that are made with this capsicum fruit. On the subject I must explain that the 4 hundred ADOBOS dishes that I present in the book are all made with DRIED CHILES, not with fresh chilies.
The peppers -red, green, yellow and orange-, so called, do not contain any dose of Capsicin, so they are sweet on the palate. The determination of this name “pepper” results from the confusion that occurred at the time of the discovery of the New World, with pepper thinking that it was a variety of it, and still in some languages certain names are still preserved with the pepper root: peperone (Italian), piment (French), pepper (English), pimentao (Portuguese), allspice (English), pepper (Jamaica), etc.
For illustrative purposes we attach – as I had said – certain images, where you can see very clearly some of these activities carried out by New World cultures in relation to chili. Said images were elaborated based on the originals extracted from the respective codices.
In an “engraving” we observe a Tepatiano or healer who was the doctor who was in charge of prescribing the procedure that was used by placing the patient, in a certain position, in order to receive the emanations (vapors) generated by the water that was brought to a boil [steam, which was put to heat (on the fire, to boil)] with some varieties of chili, a mixture that generated an infusion that when vaporized and absorbed by the patient – as can be seen in the image-, gave him a medical remedy and healing.
In this case of aspirations of chili vapors, I would like to pause a bit to comment on certain totemic aspects, apart from having a direct relationship with the practical procedures of healing through these emanations with chili, as can be seen in the pre-Columbian codices on the medical care that were practiced by this New World culture, the Totem is a “material” representation of an animal, plant or thing, which is the object of veneration and worship by a primitive group of human beings. From the socio-anthropological point of view, it is the image of any of those 3 representations that a group of people, large or small, be it a tribe, clan, etc., venerate and value for various characteristics, and are linked in a way soulish or spiritual with all members of the human group. The social group that adopted the Totem invariably took the name of the animal, the plant or the thing chosen; thus they had the tribe “Wolf”, “Corn”, “Rock”, “Deer”, “Eagle”, “Chili”, “Hawk”, “Beaver”, etc. During Totemism, the soul of the being flows to identify itself with the “Totem-Plants” (or animals or things) and takes possession of that totem and receives various benefits that the soul of the adopted Totem-Plant contains. That totemic soul was an image -and replacement- unconscious -and also conscious- that flowed from a personification and incarnation, from one body to another, with absolute and complete mobility, leaving one body and entering the other, and this soulish mobility it gave sustenance to the unconscious of the individual, urgently in need of it. From here a new way of invoking human spirituality is born, but above all flourishes, and perhaps also, is the genesis of the conscious repression of certain stimuli from the external environment, which begins to replace the belief in the natural environment -to trust that objective reality- by the spirits and very later, with the gods (religion). Thus, these vaporizations was also a conscious practice of exchanging positive influences with the soul of the Totem-“Chili”. Future Posts TOTEM AND WALKING, and THE WALK OF ANCIENT MAYAS AND THEIR TOTEM “CHILI”.
We also find in another “engraving” a mother with her child using the same healing procedure, by spraying with chili. And perhaps it represented a soulish exchange with the Totem-“Chili”.
I would like to comment that the conquerors had impregnated in their minds the “evil of their fellow men” from that part of the New World and when observing these healing images they only interpreted what they for millennia had heard, read and seen. These interpretations occurred in a general way in all the sectors and activities that were having contact, both with artistic and literary works and in the pre-Hispanic codices and their daily activities.
In this image you can see a tameme (from the Nahuatl meme: carry on his back; ta: on the subject that the action of the verb falls on) who were the people who carried packages or baskets on his back, using a mecapal. The baskets or motetes were made with vines. This loader, who carries a bag of chilies, also received the name of tlamama (From Nahuatl mama: carry piggyback; tla: thing, anything) is walking with his load and will be able to eat some chiles during the journey.
The following image does not represent an individual who is hungry (mayana: in Nahuatl wanting to eat something), but the only provision (in Nahuatl itacate or tlahuacal) of food for their walk, are the chilies.
It is observed a walker who undoubtedly was recommended to walk with that itacate of chili peppers of various types in order to strengthen his body and get some medical remedies or the prevention of discomforts because he is walking in a hurry (totoca, in Nahuatl someone who is going rush).
This preventive and strengthening treatment was also used in pre-Hispanic ball games, undoubtedly with mythical and divine purposes.
The ball game facilities were great sanctuaries where divine communication with the gods was achieved. Surely the fruit of the chili was considered an ambrosia of the gods, and for that reason it was ingested in these sport competitions. Its ingestion during these contests was a mythical representation that facilitated that divine communication.
The Pok-a-Tok (ball game in Mayan) was one of the most important rituals in the Mayan world, through which a communication with the gods was established, and was developed as such to represent diverse myths, mainly that of the Original Creation.
The game was played between two teams formed with seven players per side (This number of seven players is defined in the mural of the ball game of Chichen Itza, but there are opinions that it was also played with eight, nine and ten players per side). It was played with a rubber ball, which could not be touched with the hands or feet. The players were dressed in ex (loincloth in Mayan) and wore sandals, thick gloves for the hands and protected elbows and hips.
The objective of the game was to introduce the ball through a hole, in the shape of an ear that was placed on both sides of the playing field. The hole through which the ball had to pass represented the center of the maximum energy, that is, it was the direct link with their gods. It was built with two holes, one on each side of the playing field, to which any of the two teams could pass the ball, indistinctly. Having two holes represented ambivalence and duality, that is, their coexistence with the gods in that divine trance obtained during the encounter. One of the interpretations given is that the movement that the ball took during the game represented the positions of the stars (the divinities) in the sky and every time the ball was introduced through any of the two holes, a communication with the gods was made.
The rubber ball was propelled with the elbows and hips, to try to introduce it in any of the 2 rings located and embedded on both walls of the field, from 12 to 14 inchs in diameter in its interior hole and at a height of 16 feet from the ground.
The playing field where the Pok-a-Tok was played measured 480 feet long, by 118 feet wide, although these dimensions could vary. The floor was made of stucco which was a floor prepared of white material, just like the sacred paths or sacbéoob. (Post THE ANCIENT MAYAS AND THEIR WHITE ROADS. PART I).
Before the beginning of each contest, players from both sides were invited to eat chili, as part of the mythical ritual of ingesting the sacred totem “Chili” (Future Post THE WALK OF THE ANCIENT MAYANS AND THEIR TOTEM “CHILI”). Another possible mythical interpretation about the game of ball and above all about the configuration of the playing fields, is that there was a small enclosure where the different varieties of chili that the players ingested were deposited and distributed, according to their needs and the prescriptions of the tepatians specialized in sports activities.
The purpose of this post is not to invite you to eat chili peppers when you are walking, but only to convey you that this fruit has been used for many millennia, in many parts of the world and in different human actions (*): to walk while eating it, to strengthen the players and chargers, to heal (to cure in general), as an offering to the divinities, to prepare culinary dishes of “adobo” and “mole”, to fumigate food storage areas and dwellings (housing), also as Vegetable-Totem (in totemic times), for food preservation, and other uses.
I consider it quite relevant to know the great diversity that exists of this product, and I will allow myself to present you a table of the most important varieties, where you can see the relationship that exists between dried chilies and their corresponding fresh chilies, from which they are obtained by certain drying processes. The combinations that can be made for the preparation of dishes that in Mexico are called ADOBOS and MOLES, is truly incalculable. In my book “CAPSICUPEA. Los adobos Mexicanos (Mexican Marinades)”presented 440 different dishes and all of them are very representative of the Mexican taste (Nahuatl-Mexica).
Source: Loya Lopategui, Carlos, CAPSICUPEA. Los adobos Mexicanos (Mexican Marinades), EMULISA, Mexico, 2017.
(*) Information extracted from the Mayan texts and books (CODEXS) in reference to health, food, disease cure, its medicinal practices, its specialized books on medicine and diseases, and how to diagnose and cure through the prescription of medicines and exercises such as walking, and how they also pointed out the expiration or validity of certain herbal and mineral medicines, which lost their effects after a certain time of having prepared them. The recommendations made by the ancient Mayans in their codices on health, such as that of the Cruz-Badiano (1552) in which medical knowledge is gathered and the Madrid Codex. It is important to point out the investigations carried out by the doctor of Felipe II, Francisco Hernández, as the fact that he was the first to use some of the plant remedies that were used in pharmacological medicine in Europe, based directly on the herbal knowledge of the original of the New World.
Currently there are about 100 varieties of chili peppers, only in America.
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