How Did Popcorn Become Popular

Popcorn is often associated as a relatively modern snack that is usually consumed while watching television or a movie. Although popcorn can simply develop from a dried corn seed being heated, culture and taste has played an important role in how it has become a popular snack present in many regions today.

Early Evidence of Popcorn

Corn was domesticated more than 9,000 years ago in the New World, most likely in Mexico. At about 5500 years ago, evidence from Mexico also suggests popcorn may have been made, where burn remains have been found. As corn spread in its use throughout the New World prior to the arrival of Columbus, many cultures that adopted corn began to also make popcorn. This was done mostly by taking a long stick, attaching the corn, and then letting the ear of corn pop its kernels over an open fire. The popcorn would then be captured. Another way included using clay pots where the corn was placed and then the kernels popped inside the jar. In some exceptional preservation environments, popcorn older than 1,000 years has been found in Utah and Peru, where both regions are dry and can preserve archaeological remains.

In addition to being important for food consumption, evidence exists popcorn was made for ritual reasons. A 1,700-year-old painted funeral urn found in Mexico depicts a corn god shown wearing a headdress made of popcorn. Popcorn was so widely used by native cultures in Mexico and other parts of the New World that Europeans first encountered it in their initial encounters with indigenous people. Both Cortes and Columbus encountered popcorn in their early encounters with native populations, where people ate and wore popcorn as part of headdresses, similar to how the corn god was at times shown. One story exists that popcorn was served in the first Thanksgiving, where early colonists learned about popcorn with the natives they shared a meal with.