Olla, comal y horno de barbacoa: técnicas de cocción de la cocina ritual mixteca
Pot, plate and pit oven: Mixtec ritual cooking techniques

Summary/Abstract: Among Mixtec Indians of Oaxaca (or Ñu Savi, the People of the Rain), what are the characteristics of cooking techniques performed in festivals or rituals? A diachronic analysis of cooking techniques, associated utensils and festive dishes from a village of the Mixtec highlands aims at answering this question. The festive dishes are prepared in earth oven, a very ancient technique that allows for cooking at once a large quantity of food, in pots (boiled, steamed or fried) or in a plate (for tortillas). The staple food, tortillas and beans, is cooked in festivals. However, other corn dishes –pozole, masa de barbacoa, mole amarillo–, probably more ancient than tortillas, play a major part as festive food. The Mixtec language makes a difference between “cooking food leaving it soft ” (chi’yo) or “leaving it dry” (skasu). Precisely, ritual cooking techniques only fit into the chi’yo category, linked to the symbolism of rain and fertility.

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