Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao: Maya Studies

Winner of the Society for Economic Botany's Mary W. Klinger Book Award

"A triumph of four-field anthropology. Botany, archaeology, linguistics, ethnography, and a small bit of physical anthropology are seamlessly united. . . . Without integration of the fields, few or none of the interesting conclusions in this work could have been reached."--"American Anthropologist"

"Contains a watershed of interesting and exciting information. . . . For those with a serious interest in food history and foodways, it is an invaluable source of up-to-date information on one of the most beloved and revered foodstuffs in the Americas."--"Austin Chronicle"

"A unique, extremely useful collection on chocolate use in Mesoamerica that sets a standard to follow in the expanding field of cultural food studies."--"Choice"

"McNeil has here assembled an impressive stable of scholars to examine all aspects of cacao development and use in Mesoamerica from its discovery to its use by the modern Maya."--"American Archaeology"

"In this collection of 21 papers, the authors discuss the linguistic, chemical, agricultural, medicinal, economic and social aspects of the cacao plant, often in exhaustive detail."--"Cambridge Archaeological Journal"

"I highly recommend the book for specialists as well as for the general public interested in knowing more about cacao; the reading is not complicated and is presented from an anthropological perspective."--"Journal of Ethnopharmacology"

"A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane and Arlen Chase."