Part One. Beginnings and Religion. Chapters 1-5.

Chapter 1 (Vail) considers chocolate use by Mayan cultures in the Pre-Hispanic Yucatan peninsula, as evidenced through cacao-and chocolate-associated texts and information from
actual residues of chocolate beverages discovered in ceremonial pots excavated at archaeological sites. Her chapter traces the role of cacao in Mayan religion and explores its function both as food and as ceremonial items. Chapter 2 (Macri) examines theories on the origins of the word cacao (originally given as *kakaw) and traces the scholarly debates regarding the linguistic origins of cacao and how the word diffused throughout Mesoamerica. Her chapter also reviews the controversial suggestion that first use of the word chocola-tl in the Nahua/Aztec language appeared only after the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the 1520s. Chapter 3 (Grivetti and Cabezon) identifies the several Mayan, Mixeca/ Aztec, and contemporary Native American religious texts that report how the first cacao tree was given to humans by the gods. Their chapter considers how chocolate found a niche within Catholic ritual and social uses during religious holidays in New SpainlMexico. Chapter 4 (Cabezon and Grivetti) translate and comment upon a suite of extraordinary New World, Spanish texts written during that tragic period known as the Inquisition. The documents reveal how chocolate sometimes was associated with behaviors considered by the Church at this time to be heretical, among them blasphemy, extortion, seduction, and witchcraft, as well as accusations and denouncement for being observant Jews. Their chapter casts bright light on these dark actions practiced during this terrible period of Meso-American history. Chapter 5 (Shapiro) documents the intriguing and rich history of Jewish merchants influential in the 18th century cacao trade between the Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curayao, New Amsterdam/New York, and elsewhere in New England. Her chapter reveals and describes for the first time the important role played by Jewish merchants who developed and expanded cacao trade in North America.

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