PREHISPANIC BIOTECHNOLOGY IN MESOAMERICA

Abstract

Taking into account the definition of biotechnology as “any technological application using biological systems or their derivatives for the creation or modification of products or processes for specific uses” ratified in the Convention on Biological Diversity of 1992 (United Nations, 1992) and in the Mexican law of ecological equilibrium and environmental protection of 2013, seven technologies that were developed and used by Mesoamerican civilizations prior to the arrival of the Spanish are presented. The following technologies are selected to open this chapter of prehispanic biotechnology. The technology to obtain and manage elastic polymers, procurement and use of pigments or dyes, the fermentation process, the ‘nixtamalization’ of maize, the empirical use of papain, the tanning of animal hides and the curing and subsequent aging of tobacco leaves prior to being smoked.