Why were amaranths forbidden?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

January 11, 2005

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In Mexico, the huautli was cultivated on the chinampas, the elevated gardens the Aztecs created from marshland and lakes. The brilliantly colorful plumes of flowers are 'grain amaranths', Amaranthus cruentus and A. hypochondriacus, domesticated in Mexico and Guatemala. Cultivation of these amaranths is ancient. Seeds have been found as grave goods in caves near Tehuacan Puebla in Mexico dated to 5500 years ago.

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Amaranth seeds are tiny, about 1 millimeter in diameter, but the plant makes up for their small size by sheer numbers. A single amaranth can produce 50,000 or more seeds. The seeds were popped over heat and ground into flour. Flat breads were baked of amaranth flour. The puffed seeds were simply fashioned into confections with honey or a syrup of cactus sap.

Amaranths as crops almost ceased after the Spanish Conquest. It was a conflict of faiths. The early civilizations revered food plants, even considering them sacred, as gifts from the gods. For certain ceremonies and celebrations, effigies of the Aztec gods were made with amaranth seeds. Celebrants partook of the gods by eating the figurines.

But in the 1500s, the Conquistadores, full of religious zeal, saw the ceremony as horrible. Eating the bodies of their gods was barbaric and nothing more than ritualistic cannibalism. To rid the world of heathens, temples were destroyed. Aztec priests were tortured, forced into hard labor, or executed. Amaranths were forbidden and gardeners who grew them had their hands chopped off.

Amaranth seeds were sent back to Europe, but not as colorful crops. They grew in flower gardens under such names as the prince's feather and flower gentle.

Tom Clothier's Garden Walk and Talk has photographs of three modern cultivars of Amaranthus cruentus. To view his photographs, click on the link:

http://tomclothier.hort.net/album/lovelie2.htm

Sanaz Memarsadeghi has created a beautiful and informative term paper, "Chinampas of the Valley of Mexico" posted on the website of the Geography Department of the University of California, Berkeley. To learn more about the chinampas, click on the link:

Click here to learn more about the chinampas

Follow the links on the left side.

(Compiled from: "15. Amaranthus cruentus" and "16. Amaranthus hypochondriacus", FNA Volume 4, Pages 423 and 405, Flora of North America, eFloras.org, ; "Grain Amaranths: history and nutrition", Dominique Guillet, Seed Manual, Kokopelli Seed Foundation; The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, John Gerard, 1633 edition, republished Dover Publications, NY, 1975; and History of the Conquest of Mexico and History of the Conquest of Peru, William H. Prescott, Modern Library, Random House, NY, originally published 1843)

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