Living Room Lecture - Raise a Cup of Foaming Cacao: Interaction Between Mesoamerica & South America

In this presentation, Dr. Jonathan J. Dubois will focus on cacao and the iconography associated with it in the Ancient Americas. Most of our knowledge about the practice of rituals involving the consumption of fermented cacao beverages comes from Mesoamerican ethnohistory and Classic Period (300-900 CE) iconography and epigraphy. Recent studies have demonstrated that cacao was likely domesticated in Northwestern South America at least a millennium before it came into use farther north.

Dr. Dubois’ investigations have begun to demonstrate that imagery related to cacao in Mesoamerica also appears more than a millennium earlier in South America, during the Formative (1500-500 BCE). He will discuss the iconographic evidence from both regions and explore the implications of this evidence. Dr. Dubois will conclude with a discussion of an ethnohistoric model for what these earliest long-distance traders may have been – specialists in the ceremonies and traditions surrounding the plants and objects they were trading in.

This event will be held on Zoom.
Cost: Pay what you wish
Proceeds from our Living Room Lecture series help provide critical support for the care of Center collections and virtual programs for all ages.

About the San Diego Archaeological Center
The San Diego Archaeological Center is a nonprofit curation facility and museum where visitors can learn the story of how people have lived in San Diego County for the past 12,000 years. In addition to its role as a museum, the Center serves as an education and research facility and is the only local organization dedicated to the collection, study, curation and exhibition of San Diego County’s archaeological artifacts.