The rich ideological context of agave and its products in Mexico was recorded in detail by the Spanish soon after their arrival. The plant and utensils for fermented beverages were central elements in Mesoamerican iconography and a female deity, Mayahuel, was its personification. Alcoholic agave drinks were incorporated into many rituals and consumption was restricted to designated occasions and individuals.

The ethnographic record of the Greater Southwest, from later post-contact times, also reflects beliefs, ceremonies, and prescribed social relations surrounding this resource. Gathering trips for wild agaves were usually communal undertakings, with cooperation in collecting and preparing the agaves, amassing firewood, and making the fire. These tasks were often assigned by gender. For example, men harvested the plants and women gathered wood among the Pima; in contrast, Havasupai women harvested while men gathered wood. To insure successful cooking, sexual abstinence during the prolonged baking period of one to days was practiced by culturally and geographically disparate groups including the Pima, Havasupai, and Apache. Havasupai also were forbidden to eat food other than corn or snake and used red paint on their faces the morning when agave was removed from the pit. The Mescalero Apache refrained from drinking on the morning pits were opened. Ceremonies and prayers accompanied the cooking process among many groups. Communal baking made quantities of sweet food available for many people, an occasion the Zuni celebrated by dances and feasting. Huge roasting pits in the public precincts of sites such as Casas Grandes in Chihuahua may have similarly supplied largescale feasting events in the past.

 

Contemporary Uses of Agave