Tlaloc’s Cheeky Charms: Colouring in the Ethnobotanical Visions of Amaranth and Chia in Postclassic Aztec Food-Art and Sculpture

Nahua people (commonly 'Aztecs') of Mesoamerica are known to have sustained their spiritual economy with a variety of seeds and plants used for crafting effigies of their deities-especially maize.This essay reveals the underappreciated significance of Mexican amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus and A. hypochondriacus) and chia (Salvia hispanica) to Nahua cosmology.It argues that these plants were associated with the water and earth deities Chalchiuhtlicue and Tlaloc in intricate ways.For the latter, this includes the decorating of cheeks with seed paste and rain-making vessels.The crops functioned as a dynamic medium for ritual activity, underpinning food as sacred art and material culture.The chapter demonstrates the role of food-based decoration that identify deities, proposing a new colouration of an understudied Postclassic sculpture: the 'Tlaloc priest' at the Library of Congress.Situated in recent collections research and ethnohistorical analysis of manuscripts, the chapter highlights materiality of food, ritual activities, and plant ethno-ecologies to advance the themes of the present volume.