Chilli Pepper Origins
Get thy learn on
Chillies have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since 7500 BC.
There is archaeological evidence that chilli peppers were domesticated more than 6000 years ago.
It is one of the first cultivated crops in the Central and South Americas.
By 1492, Native Americans had domesticated at least four species of capsicum.
In the West Indies, Columbus found several different capsicums cultivated by the Arawak Indians.
Indirectly, this also spelled bad news for the Caribs, who had followed the Arawaks hard on the heels from island to island to hunt.... and eat them. Nom nom nom.
Altghough the last full-blooded Arawak died around 1862, the Arawak legacy remains : they developed the hammock, (which is a great invention if you live on a tropical paradise island and want to demonstrate your genetically superior disdain for time).
Many words commonly in use in European languages have their roots in Arawak history. A "savanna," or tidal flatland, came from the Taino word "sabana." "Huracan" became "hurricane" in English. "Mahisi" became "maiz" (corn) in Spanish, "barbacoa" became "barbecue", and the Arawakan language, word for peppers : 'axi', which the Spaniards translated to 'Aji'. It is used on South American markets to this day.
In that fateful year 1518, when the Spanish conquistadors came to Mexico, they heard the Nahuatl speaking natives calling their fiery spice by a Nahuatl name that sounded like 'chee-yee'.
When Spanish botanist Francisco Hernandez de Toledo arrived in 1570,
he wrote that Nahuatl name as "chilli" giving it the Spanish spelling using a "ll" which sounds like "y".
Hence : chilli. Later, the Spanish "ll" sound as 'y' reverted to the sound of a single 'l' in Spanish.
The Aztecs classified chillies into 6 categories, based not only on level of pungency (mild to hot), but also on
the type of pungency (sharp to broad).
Besides jazzing up their diets with the chilli peppers, they also exploited its medicinal properties
to soothe sore throats. Aztec women believed that chilli powder made their skin beautiful and applied it as a
paste made from mixing chilli powder and their urine. Yummy. The Aztecs believed chilli peppers had magical
qualities and placed them in doorways to ward off evil spirits, accidents or disgrace. They dangled strings of
chilli peppers from their canoes to ward off sharks. Chillies were also eaten as a defense against the entrance of
evil spirits in the body and used to punish wrongdoers who were forced to breathe the irritating smoke from a
bonfire made of chilli plants.
In Nahuatl language, the stem 'chil' refers to the chilli plant. It also means 'red'. Tonalchilli = chilli of the sun or summer, and chiltepin means 'flea chilli'.
When he took the first seeds to Europe, the initial reaction there was that the plant was some kind of exotic aphrodisiac or some shit, and it was used only as a decorative shrub for some time..
The eating of chilli peppers didn't become popular in Europe until the Turks introduced the plant to Hungary in the Sixteenth Century and the distinctive Hungarian paprika evolved.
So 50 years after that Nimrod Columbus introduced the chilli pepper to Spain, they were being cultivated on all coasts of Africa, India, Asia, China, the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Europe and Italy.
Portuguese trading partners in turn spread the peppers to Asia and the Arab world by the early 1500s.
Exactly how the plant spread from South Asia to China and Southeast Asia is not recorded in much detail, but it is assumed that local, Arab and European traders carried the chilli via traditional trading routes along the coasts and great waterways such as the holy stinking cow shit Ganges river in India, which is now the largest producer of chillies in the world, accounting for 45% of the world's area and 25% of production.
In the 16th century the celebrated musician Purandarasa described chillies in lyrics as a comfort to the poor and the great flavour-enhancer.
Today chilli peppers are the biggest spice crop in the world and consumed by more than 1.5 billion people.
INCLUDING ME.
There is archaeological evidence that chilli peppers were domesticated more than 6000 years ago.
It is one of the first cultivated crops in the Central and South Americas.
By 1492, Native Americans had domesticated at least four species of capsicum.
In the West Indies, Columbus found several different capsicums cultivated by the Arawak Indians.
Jean Baptiste Labat, a French priest who visited Dominica sometime between 1694 and 1705, wrote "the Arawaks crush such a great quantity of pepper in their sauce that it is impossible for anyone other than themselves to make use of it."
Contrary to popular belief, the Arawaks did not come from a planet in the 4th quadrant that was not part of the Galactic Republic,
but were a people that originally migrated from Guyana and Suriname in South America and inhabited the entire Caribbean archipelago, or
the West Indies, especially Aruba.
The nudist Arawaks ran around butt-ass nekkid all day, held frequent love feasts (which kicks ass), and lived an untroubled life, fearing nothing but drought, hurricanes, and sudden raids from their enemies, a ferocious tribe of cannibals called the Caribs.
The Arawaks owned most things in common except personal possessions like stone tools, clay pots and canoes. They were a peaceful and gentle tribe of naked chileheads, a people so generous and guileless that they readily embraced the Spaniards and provided every comfort for them. Unfortunately for the Arawaks, only to be repaid by being enslaved, slaughtered mercilessly and succomb to imported diseases to which their immune systems had no defense.
Within a few decades not one Arawak islander was left alive.
The nudist Arawaks ran around butt-ass nekkid all day, held frequent love feasts (which kicks ass), and lived an untroubled life, fearing nothing but drought, hurricanes, and sudden raids from their enemies, a ferocious tribe of cannibals called the Caribs.
The Arawaks owned most things in common except personal possessions like stone tools, clay pots and canoes. They were a peaceful and gentle tribe of naked chileheads, a people so generous and guileless that they readily embraced the Spaniards and provided every comfort for them. Unfortunately for the Arawaks, only to be repaid by being enslaved, slaughtered mercilessly and succomb to imported diseases to which their immune systems had no defense.
Within a few decades not one Arawak islander was left alive.
Altghough the last full-blooded Arawak died around 1862, the Arawak legacy remains : they developed the hammock, (which is a great invention if you live on a tropical paradise island and want to demonstrate your genetically superior disdain for time).
Many words commonly in use in European languages have their roots in Arawak history. A "savanna," or tidal flatland, came from the Taino word "sabana." "Huracan" became "hurricane" in English. "Mahisi" became "maiz" (corn) in Spanish, "barbacoa" became "barbecue", and the Arawakan language, word for peppers : 'axi', which the Spaniards translated to 'Aji'. It is used on South American markets to this day.
South America
In Nahuatl language, the stem 'chil' refers to the chilli plant. It also means 'red'. Tonalchilli = chilli of the sun or summer, and chiltepin means 'flea chilli'.
Distribution across the rest of the world
Unlike what that Fucktard Columbus thought, the chilli pepper is not related to black pepper and didn't originate in India either.When he took the first seeds to Europe, the initial reaction there was that the plant was some kind of exotic aphrodisiac or some shit, and it was used only as a decorative shrub for some time..
The eating of chilli peppers didn't become popular in Europe until the Turks introduced the plant to Hungary in the Sixteenth Century and the distinctive Hungarian paprika evolved.
So 50 years after that Nimrod Columbus introduced the chilli pepper to Spain, they were being cultivated on all coasts of Africa, India, Asia, China, the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Europe and Italy.
Portuguese trading partners in turn spread the peppers to Asia and the Arab world by the early 1500s.
Each far eastern language has it's own word for chillies, 'Prik in Thai, and 'Mirch' in Hindi, for instance.
Exactly how the plant spread from South Asia to China and Southeast Asia is not recorded in much detail, but it is assumed that local, Arab and European traders carried the chilli via traditional trading routes along the coasts and great waterways such as the holy stinking cow shit Ganges river in India, which is now the largest producer of chillies in the world, accounting for 45% of the world's area and 25% of production.
In the 16th century the celebrated musician Purandarasa described chillies in lyrics as a comfort to the poor and the great flavour-enhancer.
Today chilli peppers are the biggest spice crop in the world and consumed by more than 1.5 billion people.
INCLUDING ME.
