Joshua Tewksbury: Article Analysis

Borrell’s article describes the study of chili peppers through the field studies of Joshua Tewksbury, an ecologist interested in finding the reason why chili peppers are spicy and if bugs can be blocked by chili peppers and in that way avoid fungus. This article is part of the Smithsonian online magazine. It lacks a reference list; however it makes references to similar studies such as Perry, Billing, Sherman, Nabhan, Bosland, Machnicki, Foley, Levey, Manchego and Carlo’s. The writer provides a detailed description of the Tewksbury’s field studies and his colleagues in Bolivia which makes the article reading pleasant and interesting. He narrates how Tewksbury explores the Bolivian forest biting as many fruits as he can in order to collect data for his studies. Borrell makes brief but interesting historical allusions to the use of chilies. He points out the spread of chilies around the world was favored by the discovery of the American continent. Another historical allusion is the
increased consumption of chilies in the United States in recent years which might be caused by the increasing Latin American immigration to that country. In addition, the author indicates Perry’s findings which reveal that chilies have been domesticated for at least eight thousands of years and they have been cultivated in the American continent for over six thousand years. In this concern, Borrell presents three possible explanations about the domestication of chilies at early times. Researchers as Perry, argue people domesticate chilies simply because they like. On the other hand, Billing & Sherman stress people do it since they learned chilies could be useful to reduce food spoilage or relieve stomach upsets as Mayans used them. Unfortunately, the writer did not go deeper into the topic. Undeniably, this is a substantial article which allows the reader to be informed about recent studies of chili peppers and to know historical matters as well.
Conway’s article is intended to describe the relevance of canoes and chinampas on Nahuas in the period from 1600’s to 1800’s. It illustrates how canoes impacted on the development of aquatic societies and its influences over other fields such as the economy system and the preservation of their cultural heritage. Canoes, which are a type of pointed small boats, played a significant role in the foundation of aquatic communities such as Xochimilco, Chalco, and surroundings. In this concern, the writer makes reference to reports from 1875 that compared canoes with other means of transportation at that time. Canoes favored Nahuas economy in aquatic societies since they allowed people to transport and commercialize fruits, vegetables, fish, and crafts among other products to México City, even urban infrastructure
resources. In addition, the author presents the confrontation between Nahuas and Spaniards for free trade and traffic of canoes in aquatic communities. Injurious interference, freight delivery without payment and seizing goods were some of the crimes suffered by Nahuas merchants and rowers at the hands of Spaniards between 1550 and 1658. He exemplifies such crimes presenting the case of don Miguel de la Cruz, the governor of the village of San Juan Istayopa, who had a bad reputation for maltreatment towards the Nahua rowers. On the other hand, canoes rowers committed crimes against merchants. Conway narrates some crimes occurred between 1563 and 1582. Spaniard farmers and merchants complained about the excessive amounts of money rowers required to transport products on canoes. All these problems led hacendados to own their embarcaderos facilitating direct negotiation with rowers. Nonetheless, it originated the absolute control of embarcaderos by Spaniards and the Nahuas limitation to work as rowers. These and other facts described in the article help the reader to estimate how canoes became a crucial factor in the economy, the development of aquatic communities in México City and Estado de Mexico, and the preservation of Nahuas cultural heritage. Conway’s article provides the reader with the opportunity to see with different eyes the aquatic communities which nowadays are considered as one of the best tourist attractions.