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Huichol

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The Huichol are an indigenous ethnic group of Western Central Mexico that live in the Sierra Madre Occidental, in the states of Nayarit and Jalisco. Due to longtime deliberate isolation and resistance to evangelism they have retained much of their original culture. They call themselves “Wixáritari” or “the people” in their native Huichol language they call “Wixárika“.

Location

The Huichol claim that they originated in the State of San Luis Potosi but later migrated westward to the parts of Durango, Jalisco, Zacatecas and Nayarit in which the rugged Sierra of the Huichol is found. Once yearly, some Huichol journey back to San Luís, their ancestral homeland to perform “Mitote” Peyote ceremonies. The three main Huichol communities belong to the municipality of Mezquitic, Jalisco and are called San Sebastián Teponohuastlan (Wautüa in Huichol), Santa María Cuexcomatitlán (Tuapuri in Huichol) and San Andrés Cohamiata (Tatei Kié in Huichol). Other Huichol communities include Guadalupe Ocotán (in Nayarit), and Santa Catarina and Tuxpán de Bolaños in Jalisco. However only around 7,000 Wixáritari live in their homeland while some 13,000 have migrated to other places within Mexico, and other still live in Cora communities in the Mesa del Nayar.<ref>Dr. Phil Weigand quoted from a pdf found at [1] on November 11th 2006.</ref>

Religion

Their religion consists of four principal deities, the trinity of Corn, Blue Deer and Peyote, and the eagle, all descended from their Sun God, “Tao Jreeku”. Most Huichols retain the traditional beliefs and are resistant to change.

Art Forms

In traditional Huichol communities, an important ritual artefact is the nieli’ka: a small square or round tablet with a hole in the center covered on one or both sides with a mixture of beeswax and pine resin into which threads of yarn are pressed. Nieli’kas are found in most Huichol sacred places such as house shrines (xiriki), temples, springs and caves.

In the past thirty years, about four thousand Huichols have migrated to cities, primarily Tepic, Nayarit, Guadalajara and Mexico City. It is these urbanized Huichols who have drawn attention to their rich culture through their art. To preserve their ancient beliefs they have begun making detailed and elaborate yarn paintings, a development and modernization of the nieli’ka.

For the Huichol however, yarn painting is not only an aesthetic or commercial artform. The symbols in these paintings are sprung out of Huichol culture and its shamanistic traditions. From the small beaded eggs and jaguar heads to the modern detailed yarn paintings in psychedelic colours, each is related to a part of Huichol tradition and belief.

The first large yarn paintings were exhibited in Guadalajara in 1962 which were simple and traditional. At present with the availability of a larger spectrum of commercial dyed and synthetic yarn, more finely spun yarn paintings have evolved into high quality works of art.

The beaded art is a relatively new innovation and is constructed using glass, plastic or metal beads pressed onto a wooden form covered in beeswax. Common bead art forms include masks, bowls and figurines. Like all Huichol art, the bead work depicts the prominent patterns and symbols featured in the Huichol religion.

Some Huichol shaman-artists have acquired some fame and commercial success: the acclaimed Huichol yarn painter José Benítez Sánchez has had an exposition of his works in the USA.

Lifestyle

The Huichol are dirt farmers, using digging sticks to glean a living from land that is desert for half the year and jungle the other half. Often they must spend time working in tobacco fields, which has been ruinous to their health. Owners of these large plantations are no longer allowed to use First World pesticides too toxic to use in the countries where they are manufactured. Fortunately, the Huichol live in the mountains above Mazatlán and other coastal tourist meccas, and are able to sell their crafts. (They are also protected by their many anthropologists, as they once were by friars.) In summer, when the rains come, they live on their ranchos (farms) in tiny rancherias (hamlets) and make cheese from the milk from their cattle, which they slaughter and eat usually only during fiestas. For the most part, their diet consists of tortillas, made from the Blue, Red, Yellow or White “Sacred corn,” beans, rice and pasta, with the occasional chicken or pig, from which they make “Chicharrones,” chili peppers, all supplemented with goods provided by nature, like “weizz,” a legume gathered from trees, or “ciruelas” wild plums and guayabas (guavas).

Marriages are arranged by the parents when the children are very young. Huichol usually marry between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. Extended Huichol families live together in rancho settlements. These small communities consist of individual houses which belong to a nuclear family. Each settlement has a communal kitchen and the family shrine, called a xiriki, which is dedicated to the ancestors of the rancho. The buildings surround a central patio. The individual houses are traditionally built of stone or adobe with grass-thatched roofs.

A district of related ranchos is known as a temple district. Temple districts are all members of a larger community district. Each community district is ruled by a council of kawiterutsixi, elder men who are usually also shamans.

The craftsmanship of the Huichol includes embroidery, beadwork, sombreros (hats), archery equipment, prayer arrows, and weaving, as well as “cuchuries”, woven or embroidered bags.

The Huichol seek autonomy in their land, but have two governments, one native to the Huichol and one answering to the Mexican Government through “Municipal Agents” in the larger settlements. The government has established schools without much success in the Huichol Zone during the last 40 years, both church and state. A private Junior High School has led to some friction between “Town” and “Gown” among members of the tribe. Friction also exists between converts to Christianity, the scorned “aleluias,” and followers of the old religion, which means the evangelicals and their missions are barely tolerated.

With the building of roads in the Huichol Zone in the last ten years, new influences are impacting the social fabric of the Huichol. Where mules, horses and burros used to be the main forms of transport, trucks are becoming more prominent, importing food, medicines and beer.

History

The Huichol and the surrounding Chichimecan tribes, such as the Cora, Tepehuán, Pame and Chichimeca Jonaz all partook in the mixtón rebellion against the Conquistador forces of Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán. They were not definitively conquered until the late 1600s. The Cora people held out a little longer until 1722. But even after their “conquest” the Huichol and Cora held on to traditional customs although bending them to fit their new political situation. To a wide extent they kept their indigenous political structure based on the ceremonial centers tukipa led by leaders called kawiterutsixi “those who know all”. They still hold on to this structure to this day and the Tukipa correspond to the three major Huichol settlements.

Language

The Huichol language, Wixarika, is an Uto-Aztecan language (Corachol branch) related to Cora.

Notes

References

Schaeffer, Stacy B. and Furst, Peter T., Editors. (1996). People of the Peyote: Huichol Indian History, Religion, & Survival. Big book of articles on every imaginable topic regarding these well-studied people.

Miller, Wick. (1983). Uto-Aztecan languages. In W. C. Sturtevant (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 10, pp. 113-124). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.

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