Nixtamalization: How Ancient Americans Bio-Engineered Corn

Image caption: (left) Las Tortilleras by Pierre-Frederic Lehnert, early 19th century. Source: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. (right) A woman grinds nixtamalized dough into masa in Oaxaca, Mexico, date unknown. Source: Government of Mexico’s CONABIO Image Database. Article by Joan Sullivan, BA Diaspora & Transnational Studies and Latin American Studies. The Collector – February 5, 2024.

Ancient Indigenous scientists transformed a labor-intensive and undigestible wild grass into one of the planet’s most important food sources. Without their preparation methods, it’s a source of deadly disease.

In the first half of the 20th century, a devastating pellagra epidemic struck the United States. At its peak, the epidemic caused more than 250,000 cases of illness and 7,000 deaths per year, primarily in the South. It also overwhelmed healthcare resources and exposed […]

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