The delicious and the sickening

Abstract

This interesting article is based on a conference delivered by the author. It is founded on the gastronomical observations of two chroniclers of the Indies: Gómara and Oviedo (especially the latter). They were almost contemporaneous but very different. According to the author, both aimed for the same objective: to narrate the entirety of the deeds of the Spanish in America over nearly 60 years of conquest, and to describe the geography, uses, and customs of the indigenous inhabitants of the continent. One of the starting points is the distinction between the delicious and the sickening or filthy. That is, to interrogate the social and ethical culinary norms that govern the tastes and behaviors described and judged by the chroniclers. Their concerns align with those of the author of this investigation; the representation of the "other" expressed in these texts gives rise to a sort of historical proto ethnology.