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 We snack on its popped kernels, pour milk over its flakes, dip chips made from its ground grains, bake with oil from its crushed kernels, drink soda sweetened with its syrup and drive cars using fuel distilled from its kernels. In the United States, this popular plant—unmatched in usefulness— is known as corn. Throughout most of the world, however, it is called maize.
For thousands of years maize was central to the lives of Native Americans, but it was unknown to the rest of the world until 500 years ago. Ancient maize-growing cultures of Mesoamerica believed maize was the origin and source of life. It was sacred and viewed as a life-giver, infant-protector, a symbol of imperial power, and the offspring of Sun Father and Earth Mother. In the Caribbean, the Taino people gave this plant the name mahiz, meaning “our mother.” The scientific name is Zea mays. Zea is the Greek word for grain, and mays means “that which sustains life.”
Today maize sustains people all over the world and is grown more widely than any other food plant. It is nearly impossible to go a single day without eating, drinking, wearing or using corn/maize in some form or another. Why is maize so amazing?
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