The diet of Guam's ancient Chamorro is included in the Guampedia.
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Humans need food in order to survive.People get their food from the natural environment through practices of food collection, farming, and the hunting or raising of animals.Food is culturally important as well.We serve food at many social events, such as fiestas, weddings, rosaries, family meals and barbecues.Our society and culture influence our preferences for the things we eat.The fruit bat, also known as fanihi, is considered a delicacy in the Marianas.On the other hand, balati, or sea cucumber, which is abundant all over the island's beaches, is not something most people in the Marianas would place on their dinner tables.
Culture tells us how food should be prepared, processed and stored.There are different kinds of foods that we have recipes for.Chamorro red rice, Japanese sushi, Chinese dim sum, Italian pasta and so on are dishes that are often described with ethnic terms.Culture gives context for which certain foods may be eaten.Traditions, rituals, taboos and other customs are associated with blessing, sharing, distributing or restricting food.Thanksgiving turkeys, Christmas hams and colored Easter eggs are part of an American Christian cultural context in which these dishes are given socially important meanings and are only served on special holidays.
One can argue that food is important to our culture.Almost as soon as they walk through the door, visitors to our homes are offered something to eat.Gifts of food are presented at our most festive occasions, like village fiestas and weddings, and at the most solemn ceremonies, such as after evening rosaries.Chamorros used food to help negotiate peace following warfare in the past.Chamorros traded food for European commodities.
Food preferences don't stay the same over time.Delicacies from the past are no longer appetizing.Fruit bat is rarely served today, not only because it's an extinct species, but because our tastes have changed.Our preference for Western or Asian cuisine, and even fast food items, like hamburgers, pizza, fried chicken and doughnuts, over traditional foods of the islands, have taken over the dinner and the fiesta tables.Our health has been impacted by our modern diet.
The Chamorro diet used to be rich in fruits, tubers, and foods from the surrounding lagoons and oceans.Tools and methods were used to fish and cultivate food plants.We can get a sense of the importance of food in shaping the way people in small island communities adapt to and face the challenges of their natural environment by looking at ancient Chamorro subsistence strategies.
The preparation of food is an important part of the Chamorro culture.Our grandparents and other family members were very concerned about making sure we were fed and that visitors to our homes were offered something to eat.Sometimes family members would come together to prepare dishes for a party.In a similar way, a look at the diet and cooking methods of our ancient Chamorro ancestors will help us gain insight on food choices and methods used before Spanish colonization.
There is very little written about the archeology of Chamorro food.The stories about diet and cooking practices can be told from reports from archeological sites, anthropological observations, and journals of visitors during the Spanish era.
In general, these reports describe the kinds of foods that were readily available in the Marianas, as well as plants that the first settlers or early inhabitants likely brought with them.Dokdok, pandanus, and fadang were native to the islands.The ancient Chamorros probably introduced lemmai, bananas and sugarcane.The kinds of sea creatures the Chamorros ate or actively sought on fishing expeditions can be seen in the bones and shells of fish.Storage methods and cooking techniques likely used by natives are revealed by the evidence from pottery.Changes in pottery styles give a glimpse of the changing lifestyles of islanders.Information about Chamorro health and nutrition can be found in Skeletal remains.
The importance of food in Chamorro culture is one of the customs described in Spanish accounts.Chamorros served all their food at one time, as opposed to breaking it up into different courses.The ancient Chamorros spoke very little while eating.Some records say Chamorros ate a lot of food, while others say he was a moderate eater.Historic accounts agree that the ancient Chamorros valued sharing food.
The ancient Chamorros had a good diet and ate a lot of food.The Chamorro natives were described as robust, corpulent and strong by the earliest European visitors.Chamorros were healthy, strong and lived to an old age because they ate moderately.Some archeological reports show that islanders had periods of poor health.
Archeologists look at bones and teeth to see how well a population is doing.Changes in bone can be a sign of stress or disease.During periods of famine when food resources are hard to come by due to seasonal weather patterns or natural disasters, most of the stress occurs.Skeletal remains of individuals who underwent such stresses would show defects or signs of improper growth, as well as a sign of recovery and healing.
Chamorros were remarked upon for their height and physical strength by the Spanish.The average height for males and females was between 168 and 175 centimeters and between 150 and 160 centimeters, respectively.It is possible that strenuous physical activities were a part of daily life in Chamorro.The diet of the ancient Chamorros probably had a lot to do with their good health, although they did suffer from some diseases, such as yaws.
There were signs of betel nut chewing in adult tooth samples.The betel nut was introduced to the islands.It was chewed with piper leaf and slaked lime, a social practice that had little to do with nutrition.The excess saliva produced when chewing betel nut helped prevent dental caries.Betel nut was chewed frequently and generously shared with others.
The Chamorro economy was based on small clearings in the bush, as well as food collecting and fishing.The activities were scheduled for certain times throughout the year.The year in the ancient Chamorro calendar was divided into thirteen moons, similar to the months in a Western calendar.The ideal times for farming and fishing were described each month.The Chamorro calendar is still used by people who fish, farm and/or give cultural advice.
The 10th moon was known as "planting time" or "time to hoe the field" in the ancient Chamorro calendar.The third moon was the time to catch gatafe.
The diet of ancient Chamorros consisted of coconuts and yams, as well as bananas and breadfruit.Taro was cultivated for both the fiber and the leaves.
According to a report by Takayama and Egami in 1971, rice was cultivated in the Mariana Islands based on archeological studies conducted in 1937 and 1943.There was evidence of rice husks on three sherds.Europeans arrived in the Mariana Islands before the sherds.
Rice was culturally important and served as a ritual food at many ceremonies, solemn feasts and funerals, it was also an important trade item and payment medium among villages and between islands.According to anthropologist Laura Thompson, coconuts, bananas, rice, and taro were the only cultivated plants of the ancient Chamorros.The only Pacific island group where rice was cultivated was the Marianas, suggesting a connection between the Chamorros and cultures from Southeast Asia.
There were no four-legged animals in the Marianas.During the Spanish period, domestic animals such as pigs, chickens, cats, dogs, goats, cattle and carabao were introduced to Guam.Two species of bats were the only mammals in ancient times.Fanihi were eaten by the Chamorros.Other sources of food for ancient Chamorros were jungle fowl in the Northern Marianas.
The ancient Chamorro's main source of food was seafood.Chamorros were expert fishermen who knew how to fish.Stone and fishhooks have been found in archeological sites.The bones, scales, teeth and more of fish have been found, and writers of the Spanish period describe different reef fish and inshore fishes.It is important to the Chamorro people.The bones of dolphins, marlins, sharks and other deep sea fish have been found, along with some reports of turtle remains at archeological excavations.
European explorers and missionaries have written about the Chamorros.In 1565, Major Esteban Rodriguez talked about their encounter with Chamorros who came alongside their ship and traded rice, fish, yams, bananas, coconuts and other products from the land for iron nails, which could be used to make tools.The rich resources of the land, the desire for new and different tools and implements, and the trade between the Chamorros and others are told in further study of this account.
Other than doing household chores and taking care of children, Chamorro women gathered food in the jungle and on the reef, fished with hand nets, made coconut oil, manufactured pots and cooked with other women.Women tilled and planted village garden plots.They made herbal medicines and mats to display food.Chamorro men tended gardens, fished, built houses and canoes, worked wood and stone to fashion tools and other implements, and explored the open ocean on deep sea fishing expeditions.They made or repaired nets while cooking in the earth oven.
Women and children used to gather fish and shellfish in the lagoons.Women worked with men in net fishing using a large drag net, tekken, and a hand net.
The upper and lower castes of the ancient Chamorro society were known as chamorri and mangachang.The upper class matua and middle class achaot were the two different classes of the chamorri.Some members of the achaot class were matua who had been demoted.
The chamorri lived close to the sea, while the Mangachang lived in the jungles and hills.
The Chamorros labor was divided by class.The upper class men built canoes and manufactured shell money.
In ancient Chamorro society, only chamorri owned land.They had servants who worked the land for them.Mangachang had to ask permission from the chamorri to plant food.They gave a portion of the vegetables and fruits to the chamorri owners.They were not allowed to fish in the ocean or eat fish and shellfish from the sea.They could fish in freshwater rivers and streams by hand or with clubs, and eat asuli, which the upper classes wouldn't touch because of food taboos.Large-scaled fish and sharks were considered dangerous by the chamorri.
Fray Juan Pobre was a Spanish friar who lived in the Chamorros in 1602.He wrote.
The people living along the shore have a lot of fish, while those who live inland have less.They arrange exchanges for fish, rice, and fruit from the land.They have high regard for the large trees that are called orimayes [i.e., lemmai or seedless breadfruit], with good reason that the fruit provides their daily sustenance, serving instead of bread.
Many archeological sites have evidence of fire.Blackened pottery sherds, earth ovens, and rocks were found at archeological excavation sites.The shells that were burned or boiled have been recovered.
The Chamorros used a lot of different methods of cooking.Similar to other Pacific island cultures, ancient Chamorros cooked in the chahan by covering their food with hot stones and leaves and placing them on the embers.Most of the food was eaten raw.Maahak were caught in schools and dried in the sun for future consumption.It was possible to keep breadfruit for a long time when the fruit was lacking.Turtle, bats and a small number of birds were eaten, but not the main source of food for the Chamorros.Rice was husked with a wooden pestle in a mortar.Alagan is the name of the rice that was boiled.Special gatherings and ritual ceremonies used rice cakes, which were formed from cooked rice.
Rice and coconut were added to a stew called atole at feasts.The root cops were baked by the Chamorros.Coconut cream, made by straining ripe coconut, was once used in many dishes and coconut milk was drunk in ancient times.
The ancient Chamorros preserved their food by drying it in the sun, salting it, or soaking it.The breadfruit and yams would be soaked in the ocean for hours before being buried.The ancient Chamorros could easily have cooked their food with lemons or other types of fruit.
During times of famine, less desirable foods, such as fadang, were eaten.These foods were more difficult to prepare and process, and so were reserved for times when more desirable foods weren't available.After disasters like typhoons, Chamorros gathered fadang nuts which were soaked in water to extract the poison, dried in the sun, and ground in a stone mortar for flour and baked.
The tuba is a beverage made from the coconut bud and is thought to have been present in ancient times.Immigrants from the Philippines introduced tuba during the Spanish Era.
The Chamorros used a lot of different kinds of tools to cultivate and process fruits and vegetables.
Archeologists have found red-slipped pottery and marine shell tools and ornaments from small beach and lagoon-side Pre-Latte Era encampments.Fishing gear used by the natives, including numerous shell hooks and gorges, points and shanks of hooks, stone and shell weights, and bone needles for making and repairing nets have been found in archeological sites.The Tridacna gigas were used as scrapers and knives.
Rice was added to tree and root crops late in the Latte Era.Larger pottery vessels dating from this period that have been recovered from various archeological sites were most likely signs that the Chamorros were beginning to store food.The jungle, beaches, mountains, and savannas are where pottery containers can be found from the ancient Chamorros.
The gardening tools used by ancient Chamorros are described in early historical accounts.The wooden digging sticks are called dagau and tanum.As a mattock, pick and planting stick, pole for carrying heavy objects, and as a defensive weapon, Dagau was made of the mangrove or ggo.Tanum was used to break coconuts.The akoa was a 5-foot pole with a stone three inches wide and 1.5 inches thick, fastened to the wood.
The stone mortar (lusong), which was used with a pestle, is one of the most visible ancient objects found at many archeological sites.Chamorro medicine and food were prepared with the stone mortar.Up through the 20th century, this tool was used to husk rice, grind Federico nuts and crush herbs.
It was noted in historical records that ancient Chamorros had exceptional skills in plaiting and weaving with various plant materials.Following ancient models, mats and baskets are still made and used.The mats were woven mostly by women and could be used for drying rice and serving food.Baskets made of panadanus leaves were used to present offerings or gifts of rice.There were larger baskets for carrying weapons and food during warfare activities.
The ancient Chamorro people used to eat mostly tree and root starches, fruits and leaves.
They ate a variety of animals.Archeological data shows that the Chamorro people lived a long life.
Their use of fire, pottery, tools and other gathering and cooking implements tell us that they had a complex system.
The Chamorros used salt from the sea to preserve certain foods.Salt water from waves breaking along the island's coast could get trapped in depressions on the rocky shoreline.Salt deposits could be collected from the water that had evaporated.The natives of Malojloj may have had access to natural sea salt.Salt may have been used as a trade commodity.
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