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dining

A brief history of Panama's principal food

article and photo by Joel Inwood

As some of you may know, the word Panama comes from the Cueva language that was spoken when the Spanish arrived. It means roughly "abundance of fish." Dr. Richard Cooke recently gave a talk at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute about this history of seafood and fishing in Panama, and it included some surprising insights into modern Panamanian palate as well.

Cooke quoted the Spanish chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo's observation that fishing was the principal sustenance of Panama's pre-Columbian inhabitants because the abundance of fish made it easier than the alternatives. Unlike modern Panamanians their ancient ancestors ate many different kinds of fish. They were skilled at taking advantage of the large schools of small fish that were "super-abundant," according to Cooke.

The modern Panamanian preference is a fish with white meat like the ever present corvina, guabina or red snapper, Cooke says. Many other fish have lost their popularity over the years, and been lowered to category "revolting," he says, although many are close cousins of the more popular ones.

According to Cooke Panamanians don't like "mariscoso," or fishy fish, such as the jurel or bonito. However, astute venders can pass off "corvinata," which is a type of salt water catfish, and "pargo blanco, which is a roncador!" Cooke also notes the irony in Panamanian's spending a fortune on imported bacalao --- dried codfish --- when there is such an abundance of fish right on their door step.

In Bahia de Parita Cooke has been able to fine archaeological information that's "particularly precise and diverse," and it goes back to 5000 BC. In more recent sites, Cooke and his associates have identified the consumption of over 150 species of fish, in addition to mollusks and coastal birds.

Cooke is a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center. According to his web page, his research interests are: "archaeology of New World tropics; long-term history of native American peoples of Panama and neighboring areas; archaeozoology (especially fishing in the eastern tropical Pacific); archaeology and education in Latin America."

Cooke has been working in Panama since 1969, "concentrating on the Gran Cocle culture area," the website says. "His laboratory houses a large vertebrate skeleton collection, which specializes in marine fish from the eastern tropical Pacific." He is directing a project at Cerro Juan Diaz near Parita Bay. It "employs several Costa Rican, Colombian and Panamanian specialists [in] attempts to reconstruct the social organization, economy and commercial relations of this important native American settlement occupied between about 200 BC and AD 1600."