Nov 9, 2018
The first tamales were made as early as 7,000 B.C., before corn had been fully domesticated. Indigenous people gathered wild “teocintle,” the ancestor of modern maize. From the start the tamale had religious significance. For the Aztecs, Teocintle was the name of a maize god. The Olmec, Toltec and Mayan civilizations of ancient Mexico shared creation myths that identified people with corn. A creation story in the Popul Vuh, the most important collection of Mayan mythology, says that the first humans were formed of mud that quickly dissolved, the second from wood that lacked a soul, and the third from corn, which gave humanity its lasting form.
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