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Petén Foodways

Petén

Regional

⚠ NOT THE MAYA HIGHLANDS — A LOWLAND TROPICAL FOREST SYSTEM, and a third of the national territory holding a small fraction of its people. Petén is Classic Maya country — TIKAL, Uaxactún, Yaxhá — and its modern Maya are ITZA’ (whose language is critically endangered), MOPAN and Q’EQCHI’, alongside Ladino settlers who arrived with the twentieth-century colonisation programmes. The foodway: maize, beans and squash on forest plots; the LAKES — Petén Itzá, Yaxhá, Sacpuy — with BLANCO and mojarra, and the documented lake-fish tradition of Flores and San Andrés; game historically, now largely restricted; TURKEY, and the ocellated turkey which is endemic and protected. ⚠ AND THE FOREST PRODUCTS ARE THE DISTINCTIVE PART: XATE palm, allspice (PIMIENTA GORDA), CHICLE latex — the chewing-gum base that built Petén’s twentieth-century economy — and RAMÓN/breadnut, the Maya forest tree whose seed is documented as a famine and staple food. The Maya Biosphere Reserve’s community concessions are the modern frame for all of it.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Itza’ community documented
  • Mopan community documented
  • Q’eqchi’ community documented

Languages: Itza', Mopan, Q'eqchi', Spanish

What is recorded

  • Petén comprises roughly a third of Guatemalan national territory with a small share of its population and is recorded as a lowland tropical forest food system rather than as part of the Maya highlands. Its Maya peoples are Itza’, whose language is critically endangered, Mopan and Q’eqchi’, alongside Ladino settlers from twentieth-century colonisation programmes. Xate palm, allspice, chicle latex and ramón (breadnut) are documented forest products, chicle having underpinned the department’s twentieth-century economy. The ocellated turkey is endemic and protected. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • related to Belizean Cuisine documented

    Mopan and Q’eqchi’ communities and the lowland forest food system run across the Petén-Belize border.

  • related to Guatemalan Maya Highland Foodways possible

    ⚠ EXPLICITLY NOT FILED UNDER THE HIGHLANDS. Petén is a lowland tropical forest system with different crops, different Maya languages and a different history.

  • related to Mexican Cuisine documented

    The Yucatán lowland food system continues north of the border; Itza’ and Yucatec are closely related.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.