THE TAJIN TOTONAC PART 1 KELLY AND PALERM 



171 



local fruits, as well as the adoption of the sweet- 

 potato leaf as a green. In making these sugges- 

 tions, we have tried to indicate local products 

 which might be exploited to greater advantage. 

 To use the words of Harris (p. 976) , "the solution 

 of the nutrition problem of each country may be 

 found in the proper use of its own food resources," 

 and it would be unrealistic to think of improving 

 Totonac diet in terms of wheat, beef, and dairy 

 products. 



EATING HABITS 



The first thing in the morning, the kitchen fire 

 is laid, and black coffee — in most households, the 

 charred maize substitute — is boiled. Sweetened 

 generously with brown sugar, this brew is drunk 

 by most men and a good many women. It is a 

 standing joke among the neighbors that in one 

 family, coffee is available most of the time ; "they 

 get up at midnight to make coffee." 



In addition to this early morning beverage, the 

 Totonac eat three meals a day of which the noon 

 meal ordinarily is the most substantial. This may 

 be a "recent" innovation, for the ancient Totonac 

 are said to have eaten very lightly, with only 2 

 meals a day, one in the morning, the other in late 

 afternoon (Las Casas, p. 463). In the poorer 

 households today, breakfast and supper may con- 

 sist of little more than tortillas, seasoned with salt 

 and chili sauce, and washed down with coffee or 

 atole. "Piecing" between meals is not unusual; 

 probably it is more frequent among the women, 

 who spend the day close to the kitchen, than among 

 the men, who go to the fields where opportunities 

 for nibbling are slight. 



If the milpa is at all distant, the man does not 

 return to the house at noon, but carries his lunch in 

 a maguey fiber shoulder bag. The mainstay of 

 every lunch is a stack of tortillas, brushed with 

 chili sauce. These may be piled flat on top of one 

 another, or they may be doubled, with the chili 

 surface on the inside. To keep them soft and 

 pliable, the tortillas are wrapped first in a banana 

 leaf, which has been braised on the baking plate 

 to make it flexible, then further wrapped in a clean 

 cloth. To accompany the tortillas, there may be a 

 boiled egg or, on rare occasions, meat. The 

 Totonac do not know the general west Mexican 

 practice of breaking the upper "skin" of the tor- 

 tilla and of inserting a filling of egg, bean, or meat 

 beneath it. Often a man carries an additional 



supply of chili, and he generally tops his lunch with 

 a bottle of coffee or, more rarely, of atole. At 

 noon, he eats the repast cold, despite the fact that 

 he generally carries matches and that firewood is 

 abundant. Some men complain that a cold lunch 

 is not inviting, but no effoi-t is made to heat it. 4 

 Similarly, children, who come from distant 

 houses to attend school, carry their lunches in 

 maguey fiber bags and eat their food cold. 



If the milpa is reasonably close to the house, the 

 woman often prepares the lunch and packs it — 

 including a pitcher of atole or of hot coffee — in 

 her wooden tray. She covers the contents with a 

 neat white cloth, places the tray on her head, and 

 carries the provender to the field. 



Although kitchens are disorderly, the Totonac 

 are unusually clean in their eating habits. 5 Before 

 the door of most houses, a forked stick is set in the 

 ground, its crotch supporting a shallow pottery 

 bowl or gourd, filled with water (pi. 19, a, ex- 

 treme left) . Before the meal each person washes 

 his hands. He dips water from the bowl, then, 

 to one side, rubs his hands together, so that the 

 water will fall on the ground, not into the vessel. 

 At the conclusion of the meal, he washes his 

 hands again and rinses his mouth with clear 

 water, which he spits into the patio, not on the 

 house floor. When guests are numerous, a pitcher 

 of water is placed near the bowl, so that the supply 

 may be replenished; and a large jar, with a gourd 

 clipper, provides water with which the guests rinse 

 their mouths. 



Generally the men of the family eat first, to- 

 gether with any guests who happen to be present. 

 They sit on chairs — sometimes very low ones — 

 about a table, and are served by the women and 

 girls. One informant had heard that in ancient 

 times there were neither tables nor chairs ; one sat 

 on a low stool and ate from pottery vessels spread 

 on the ground. 



Women and children usually eat later. We 

 know three families in which the wife eats at the 

 table with her husband, at least upon occasion, but 



* In west Mexico, no self-respecting mestizo muleteer would 

 think of eating cold tortillas, which become extraordinarily un- 

 palatable. Even though, the day of travel is long, the arricro 

 takes a few minutes to gather firewood. He makes a stiff blaze, 

 and when it dies down, toasts his tortillas or his tacos (tortillas 

 with filling) on the coals. 



5 Of the sixteenlh-century Maya, it is said : "No acostumbraban 

 comer los hombres con las mujeres ; ellos comfan por si en el 

 suelo o cuando mucho sobre una esterilla por mesa . . . Se lavan 

 las manos y la boca despu^s de comer" (Landa, p. 107). 



