Last edited Mon Nov 2, 2020, 11:33 PM - Edit history (1)
to look up tamale to see if there is a different meaning for it. I suspected that it was something sacred because of the depiction of gods, especially the feathered serpents. In Mesoamerican religions, the feathered serpent is a supreme deity, associated with the planet Venus, symbol of war. It was also a patron deity of agriculture and fertility, and of urban life for civilizations founded on agriculture. Therefore, it was also a deity of culture and learning. To the Mayans, he was Kukulkan or Gukumatz. To the Aztecs, he was Quetzalcoatl.
The names of the feathered serpent deity translate literally to "serpent of precious feathers." Figuratively it could be used to mean "wisest of men."
Corn was the foundation of Mesoamerican agriculture, so corn was a sacred food of the gods, and sacred to people, too.
So, back to tamale. I found no other meaning than the food we know. But I discovered that the history of the tamale suggests a connection to the feathered serpent deity as a sacred food associated with him and with sacred rituals and days, since it is made of a filling within a corn flour dough, and wrapped in corn husks for cooking.
My own interpretation of "the first tamale" is that it represents the origin of a sacred feast of the gods, sort of like a Mesoamerican equivalent of what the Lord's Supper and communion for Christians. But that's just a guess.
Serpents (but not feathered ones) have represented agriculture and fertility to other cultures that are totally unrelated to Mesoamerica. In ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean region, serpents represented fertility and regeneration of vegetation through its shedding of skin and crawling on the soil of the earth. Also as a phallic symbol.
In the Genesis story, the serpent symbolizes evil, a hint of the clash of cultures when the nomadic herders of the Bible encounter the agricultural civilization of the Phoenicians/Canaanites with their fertility rituals that were offensive to the patriarchal tribal people who wrote Genesis. This theme comes up again in Genesis when Cain and Abel, sons of Adam and Eve, clash with each other. Genesis says that Abel was a herder and his animal sacrifices were more pleasing to God than the vegetation sacrifices of his brother, Cain. So, in jealousy, Cain kills Abel. An allegory for why there was so much warfare between the herding people and the agricultural civilizations.
Interestingly, a similar clash occurred in the American West of the 19th century, between ranchers vs. farmers - but minus the serpent symbolism, although I suppose either side might have used the word "snake" as a derogatory epithet against the other.
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