The Last Saltmakers of Nexquipayac, Mexico: An Archaeological Ethnography (Anthropological Papers (Univ of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology))

Parsons (U. of Michigan) first met the saltmakers in question while doing archaeological fieldwork in the eastern valley of Mexico in the 1960s. In 1987, he revisited some of the sites located in the earlier surveys and found that many of the rural, agricultural villages he remembered had become suburban bedroom communities inhabited by wage earners who commuted to jobs in Mexico City. This ethnography, based on a six-week study conducted in 1988, records the details of the lives of the few people still making salt in Nexquipayac--traditional work with direct links to the pre-Colombian past that is rapidly dying out. The volume is illustrated with b&w photos that are fuzzy but serviceable; it has no subject index. Contents List of figures List of tables List of plates Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction General Background The Physiological Basis for Salt Consumption Salt and Saitmaking in Mesoamerica and the Valley of Mexico The Scope of This Monograph The Local Setting The Organization of This Monograph Chapter 2: Saltmaking at Nexquipayac in 1988 Synopsis of the Saltmaking Process The Workshops: Facilities and Implements The SN Workshop The Permanent Features The Portable Contents The IC Workshop The Eastern Sub-Area The Western Sub-Area The Central Sub-Area The MC Workshop The Soils Used in Saltmaking: Types and Sources Lakeshore Soils Leached Workshop Soils The Lakeshore Sources Ash Deposits Used in Saltmaking Collecting and Transporting the Soils The SN Strategy: Combination of Truck and Cart The IC Strategy: Exclusive Reliance on Burro Cart Hauling Soil in the 1930s and 1940s Storing Soils at the Workshop Mixing the Soils to Be Loaded into the Pilas The SN Workshop: Preparing the Sal Blanca Mixture The SN Workshop: Preparing the Sal Negra Mixture The IC Workshop: Preparing the Sal Blanca Mixture The IC Workshop: Preparing the Sal Negra Mixture Pilas: Preparation, Use, and Maintenance Preparing a New Pila Loading the Soil Mixture The Leaching Process Cleaning Out the Pila Pit Boiling Hut Operations Boiling the Agua Salada: Sal Blanca Boiling the Agua Salada: Sal Negra and Salitre Drying the Salt: Sal Blanca Drying the Salt: Sal Negra Salitre Crystallization and Drying Fuel Operations The Present Pre-1960s Distributing the Salt The Present The 1930s and 1940s Summary and Conclusions Sources of Soil and Water Workshop Features and Implements Recycling Soil Expertise and Knowledge Fuel Costs The Uses of Salt Chapter 3: Saltmaking in the Valley of Mexico, 1500-1920 The Geochemistry of Tequesquite in and around Lake Texcoco The Changing Needs for Salt during the First Posthispanic Century Documented Salt Use in the Valley of Mexico on the Eve of Spanish Contact The Triple Alliance Tribute Eye-Witness Accounts from the Valley of Mexico The Posthispanic Sixteenth-Century Documentary Source Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, The Florentine Codex The Relaciones Geograficas Other Sixteenth-Century Accounts The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Summary and Conclusions Chapter 4: SaItmaking in Mesoamerica outside the Valley of Mexico, 1500-1920 Marine Coastal Lagoons Inland Salt Springs Inland Salt Lakes Summary and Conclusions Chapter 5: Worldwide Comparative Perspectives Technological Variability Minimalist Salt-Harvesting Techniques Transport, Boiling, and Storage in the Workshop Preparation of Salt "Gardens" Solar Evaporation Brine Boiling Fuel Problems Leaching Devices and Procedures The Use of Salty Brine in Cooking and Seasoning Food Making Different Types of Salt Drying and Cleaning Salt Packaging, Storing, and Transporting Finished Salt Rainy Season Saltmaking Leaching the Ashes of Salt-Rich Plants Collecting Precipitated Salt from Salt-Rich Plants Quantitative Input-Output Data Settlement Patterns The Complementarity of Saltmaking and Agriculture The Association between Saltmaking and Pottery Making The Scale and Organization of Traditional Saltmaking The Sociopolitical Implications of Salt Production, Distribution, and Consumption Overall Conclusions Chapter 6: The Association between Saltmaking and Textile Dyeing The Preparation of Mordant Ash and Brine in West Africa The Use of Salt and Tequesquite in Traditional Mexican Cloth Dyeing Summary and Conclusions Chapter 7: The Archaeology of Traditional Saltmaking The Valley of Mexico The Significance of Fabric-Marked Pottery Pre-Middle Postclassic Saltmaking in the Valley of Mexico Summary and Conclusions Other Parts of Mesoamerica Location and Appearance of Saltmaking Sites Non-Movable Ceramic and Masonry Containers Ceramic Assemblages Changes in Saltmaking over Time Summary and Conclusions North America South America Europe Briquetage and "Red Hill" Sites A Reconstruction of Saltmaking at Briquetage Sites The Seasonality and Specialization of Iron Age Saltmaking at Briquetage Sites Changes in European Saltmaking during the Later Iron Age Technological and Organizational Changes in Saltmaking during Roman and Post-Roman Times Africa Asia Overall Summary and Conclusions Chapter 8: Conclusions Potentially Appropriate Saltmaking Techniques in the Valley of Mexico The Use of Brine for Flavoring and Cooking Foods The Use of Plant Ash vs. Crystalline Salt Harvesting Natural Tequesquite during the Dry Season Simple Solar Evaporation: Replicating and Extending Nature Intensified Solar Evaporation Specialized Year-Round Saltmaking The Infrastructure of Saltmaking The Geopolitics of Salt A Hypothetical Developmental Scenario Stage 1: The Early, Middle, and Late Formative, ca. 900-250 B.C. Stage 2: The Early Terminal Formative, ca. 250-50 B.C. Stage 3: The Late Terminal Formative, Classic, and Epiclassic, ca. 50 B.C.A. D. 900 Stage 4: The Early Postclassic, ca. A.D. 900-1100 Stage 5: The Middle and Late Postclassic, ca. A.D. 1100-1520 Future Research Directions Epilogue: Saltmaking at Nexquipayac in 1998 Glossary Bibliography In the 1980s, a few traditional saltmakers were still manufacturing several kinds of salt in the eastern Valley of Mexico. This in-depth study of the methodology of this dying craft includes a comparative study of pre-industrial saltmaking around the world and considers the implications of this knowledge for future archaeological research. Jeffrey R. Parsons. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 315-341).