Thoughts from the Bean Warriors

Archaeologists                                                                               Bean Warriors

Archaeologists: The jungle was inhospitable.                                                      

Bean Warriors: We made it hospitable.

Archaeologists: They grew lima beans.                                                           

Bean Warriors: It was the protein that didn’t run away.

Archaeologists: Small bushy annual plants that needed constant tending.

Bean Warriors: It was a perennial vine that grew high in the trees.

Archaeologists: During harvest season, it required a huge labor force.       

Bean Warriors: The pods twisted open in the dry season. It rained beans from the sky.

Archaeologists: They stole the beans from the commons to control.                       

Bean Warriors: How can you steal from that which is not possible to possess?

Archaeologists: They wore armaments and carried vicious weapons.                      

Bean Warriors: Those were planting tools.

Archaeologists: Here is an axe, so sharp and ready to kill those who dare.             

Bean Warriors: That is a mattock. It relieved the tension of our clay soils to accommodate the beans.

Archaeologists: Here you see sharp spears ready to pierce. Three at a time.         

Bean Warriors: That is a dibble. We throw three seeds at a time. Each of them land in a drill in a row created by our three dibbles.

Archaeologists: Look at their helmets they wore so strong.                                        

Bean Warriors: Those are cotyledons protecting the root from washing free of the soil in the spring rains.

Archaeologists: Their noses were exposed.                                             

Bean Warriors: That is the radical which is the first root to create the bond between earth and sky.

Archaeologists: Their eyes and faces were painted in a dramatic frightening fashion.

Bean Warriors: Nature created the patterns on the skin of the bean. The beans spoke to us. We responded in an honorable way.

Archaeologists: Who knows what they were thinking?

Bean Warriors: There were no thoughts. We met at the junction of human and plant consciousness.

Archaeologists: Today we experience the story of a time gone by.                        

Bean Warriors: Today we experience a time still alive. The beans have left our home feeding hundreds of cultures across all of space and time.

Archaeologists: This clay vase tells it all.                                                  

Bean Warriors: We stored the mother of lima beans in there.

Archaeologists: The bean warriors                              Bean Warriors:    We are not.

Archaeologists: Come alive. Bean Warriors: Talk to the beans.

Kenneth Asmus

Vessel Depicting the Assault of Bean Warriors

Date:

100 BCE–500 CE

Artist:

Moche
North coast, Peru

LINK ART INSTITUTE CHICAGO