Guatemala – GT002A
Composition: Clay
Colour: Yellow
Shape: Shaped
A sweet taste with a grainy, very dry texture.
These earth tablets were obtained from the market in Esquipulas for the collection of the Museum of Edible Earth in January 2018.
Such earth tablets are known as ‘Pan de Dios’ in Spanish, or ‘Bread of God’ in English. They are stamped with Christian images, such as crosses, Jesus and Mary. The tablets come from the pilgrimage town of Esquipulas. According to the marketplace vendors, they are blessed by the Catholic Church. The vendors report that Pan de Dios tablets are made from limestone white earth and fine white kaolin which are mined at the mountain near the town of Esquipulas.
Usually the tablets are bought by pregnant women who eat them when they have cravings for earth. They are used as medicine, food supplements and for spiritual cleansing. Vendors of Pan de Dios recommend many uses for this earth, such as ridding children from intestinal parasites or curing wounds by applying powdered Pan de Dios. Midwives use the tablets with particular symbols such as crosses, saints and fruits, because they believe that the health and gender of the unborn fetus can be determined with sympathetic magic.
An itinerary of local earth consumption in Guatemala is traced from the 17th century. There is an assumption that this practice was brought from Africa to the Americas. It was diffused throughout the African diaspora and later throughout Central America and the American Southwest.
Sources:
● ‘Geophagy in Highland Guatemala’, Human Mosaic, 35 (1), 2004, pages 51-57, by Nina Muller-Schwarze, 2004 www.academia.edu/
● ‘Geophagia’, by Prof. Bert Boekschoten. In: Geo.brief magazine, 45e jaargang, number 6, page 22, October 2021, the Netherlands (Dutch) www.masharu.nl
● ‘Pan de tierra bendita: sealed earth and clay eating in Oaxaca (Elusive Earths III)’, by Jennifer Teets and Lorenzo Cirrincione, 07/05/2016, Guatemala (Spanish) accessed on 01/02/2022 www.youtube.com
Photo by masharu
This is too grainy. And a little bit sweet
Luuk van de Dun and his friend discovering the Bread of God Esquipulas
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very dry texture, sucks the liquid out your mouth, sandy
feels like a brick, not as soft as clay, more dry.
granola structure
It is bitter. Today we understood that we like to eat earth
Цветы / flowers
concrete
Cassava not-cooked
Esse foi curioso, ter um simbolo religioso associado a isso e algo inesperado. Jamais achei que coisa do tipo seria possivel, mas nosso mundo em sua tao ampla diversidade nos prova o contrario. Nunca imaginei que terra seria usada como maneira que purificacao da alma, e diferente mas merece respeito. A experiencia vai alem de sabores, texturas e tudo associado ao paladar. A experiencia de comer isso mexe com cabeca, mentalidade e ate alma.
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