“There is no need to bring silver, but some goods and seeds”: food and material culture in the evangelizing project of the mariana islands
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22456/1983-201X.102347Keywords:
Foodways. Society of Jesus. Missions. Mariana Islands. Philippines.Abstract
The Jesuit missionaries played a leading role in the dissemination of plants, animals and foodways that followed the expansion of the Iberian empires during the early modern period. In this paper I examine the introduction of new foods and culinary material culture in the Pacific region through the case study of the Mariana Islands, an archipelago where the Society of Jesus established a mission in 1668. Drawing on memorials, reports, and letters written during the previous years of the Jesuit mission (1662-1668), I consider, first, the relevance given to the introduction of new foods for the colonization and evangelization of the Mariana Islands. Secondly, I analyze the type of cuisine that the Jesuits attempted to reproduce in the archipelago, paying special attention to the ingredients (plants and animals) and the material culture related to food preparation and food consumption. Written sources show that missionaries and their contemporaries considered essential to introduce European and American foods and culinary material culture to ensure the success of the Marianas mission, and reveal that the Spanish colonial experience in the Philippines shaped the transfer and naturalization of new animals and plants in the Marianas.
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