TESGUINO AND THE TARAHUMARA

Introduction

The consumption of alcoholic beverages has a number of important social roles in traditional societies, including many of the Native American groups of the Southwest. Despite the probable importance of alcoholic beverages in the prehistoric Southwest, little research has been devoted to identifying the use of such beverages, although lip service is often paid to their likely presence. This is surprising given that modern peoples who engage in household alcohol production usually use ceramic vessels for the fermentation of these products, and ceramics are some of the best-preserved and most abundant types of evidence available to the archaeologist. The problem is identifying the characteristic traces of alcohol production that may be preserved on ceramics found in the archeological record. In order to address this question, I conducted an ethnoarchaeological analysis of Tarahumara (Rarámuri) ceramics from the Arizona State Museum collection. The purpose was to identify size and use-wear attributes characteristic of Tarahumara tesgüino vessels, and how these differ from water jars, which share the similar function of holding liquids. It is hoped that the results of this research can be applied to areas outside the Southwest, where prehistoric peoples also made alcoholic beverages from cereal grains such as maize.

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The Biology of Maize

The corn plant is a form of grass with an erect, solid stem. Corn comes in thousands of different varieties, but they all share certain common biological properties. The main stalk terminates in a staminate or tassel, which contains small flowers called spikelets that produce pollen grains (male gametes). The corn ear is enclosed in modified leaves called husks that protect the pistillate (female) inflorescence, which consists of up to 1000 seeds on a hard cob. The silk fibers that protrude from the ear are actually elongated styles that are each attached to an individual ovary or kernel. Fertilization occurs when pollen from the tassels falls onto the silks, where it germinates and grows down the silk to an ovary.

Figure 2.3.18  Corn in various stages of production for tesgüino (Lappe & Ulloa 1989).

The size of the corn plant is highly variable. Some dwarf varieties grow to less than 2 feet in height, while others may grow over 20 feet tall. Mature ears from different varieties vary in length from 3 inches to over 20 inches, and may contain from 8 to 36 or more rows of kernels. Corn is the most important grain crop grown in the United States, and ranks third behind wheat and rice in total volume output in the world.

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