Alcohol and Drugs History Society

Chocolate in Mesoamerica (book)

Cameron L. McNeil, ed., Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao [Maya Studies] (University Press of Florida, 2007).  

Table of Contents:

Introduction : The biology, antiquity, and modern uses of the chocolate tree (Theobroma cacao L.) / Cameron L. McNeil -- Cacao and its relatives in South America : an overview of taxonomy, ecology, biogeography, chemistry, and ethnobotany / Nathaniel Bletter and Douglas C. Daly -- The domestication and distribution of Theobroma cacao L. in the neotropics / Nisao Ogata, Arturo Gómez-Pompa, and Karl A. Taube -- The jaguar tree (Theobroma bicolor Bonpl.) / Johanna Kufer and Cameron L. McNeil -- The determination of cacao in samples of archaeological interest / W. Jeffrey Hurst -- The history of the word for 'cacao' and related terms in ancient Meso-America / Terrence Kaufman and John Justeson -- Brewing distinction : the development of cacao beverages in formative Mesoamerica / John S. Henderson and Rosemary A. Joyce -- Cacao in ancient Maya religion : first fruit from the maize tree and other tales from the underworld / Simon Martin -- The language of chocolate : references to cacao on classic Maya drinking vessels / David Stuart -- The social context of Kakaw drinking among the ancient Maya / Dorie Reents-Budet -- The use and representation of cacao during the classic period at Copan, Honduras / Cameron L. McNeil, W. Jeffrey Hurst, and Robert J. Sharer -- Cacao in greater Nicoya : ethnohistory and a unique tradition / Larry Steinbrenner -- The good and evil of chocolate in colonial Mexico / Manuel Aguilar-Morena -- The Itza Maya control over cacao : politics, commerce, and war in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries / Laura Caso Barrera and Mario Aliphat F. -- Cacao production, tribute, and wealth in sixteenth-century Izalcos, El Salvador / William R. Fowler -- Soconusco cacao farmers past and present : continuity and change in an ancient way of life / Janine Gasco -- Traditional cacao use in modern Meosamerica / Cameron L. McNeil -- Cacao, gender, and the northern Lacandon god house / Timothy W. Pugh -- Food for the rain gods : cacao in Ch'orti' ritual / Johanna Kufer and Michael Heinrich -- Cacao in the Yukatek Maya healing ceremonies of Don Pedro Ucán Itza / Betty Bernice Faust and Javier Hirose López -- From chocolate pots to Maya gold : Belizean cacao farmers through the ages / Patricia A. McAnany and Satoru Murata.

Chocolate and sex in early modern Guatemala (article)

Martha Few, "Chocolate, Sex, and Disorderly Women in Late-Seventeenth- and Early-Eighteenth-Century Guatemala," Ethnohistory 52/4 (2005): 673-687.

Latin America's "wrong left" and drug trafficking

Jorge G. Castañeda, in the May/June 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs, counsels Washington and the international community on what they should do about "Latin America's left turn." Castañeda characterizes his "wrong left" with many "moral" problems, including the tolerance of drug trafficking.

The international community should also clarify what it expects from the "wrong left," given that it exists and that attempts to displace it would be not only morally unacceptable but also pragmatically ineffective. The first point to emphasize is that Latin American governments of any persuasion must abide by their countries' commitments regarding human rights and democracy. The region has built up an incipient scaffolding on these matters over recent years, and any backsliding, for whatever reason or purpose, should be met by a rebuke from the international community. The second point to stress is that all governments must continue to comply with the multilateral effort to build a new international legal order, one that addresses, among other things, the environment, indigenous people's rights, international criminal jurisdiction (despite Washington's continued rejection of the International Criminal Court and its pressure on several Latin American governments to do the same), nuclear nonproliferation, World Trade Organization rules and norms, regional agreements, and the fight against corruption, drug trafficking, and terrorism, consensually defined. Europe and the United States have enormous leverage in many of these countries. They should use it.

Full text here.

Guatemalan opium plantations found

Police discovered 200 hectares (nearly 500 acres) planted with opium poppies in the northwestern Guatemalan province of San Marcos, authorities said Thursday.

The Daily Journal reports.

Guatemala (dissertation)

Dunn, Alvis E. “Aguardiente and Identity: the Holy Week Riot of 1786 in Quezaltenango, Guatemala.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1999. [On the religious aspects of alcohol in the history of Quezaltenango.]

A hot year for coffee? The signs look good

The Herald Tribune reports (19 March 2005) that a drop in Brazil's coffee exports and a major growth in Asia's coffee industry has put coffee prices at a 5-year high. Read the full story here.

Pit Stop on the Cocaine Highway

The Washington Post reported on 6 October 2004 that in the 1990s, tons of Colombian cocaine were flown to northern Mexico and then driven across the border into the United States. But now better-equipped Mexican military pilots scramble to intercept suspicious planes. So traffickers prefer Guatemala, where the radar is spotty and the government is largely unable to stop the flights, according to Guatemalan and U.S. law enforcement officials. As a result, Guatemala is now the hottest destination in Central America for Colombian cocaine on its way to the United States. Find the full story here.