Mix
The Mixe or Mije (pronounced ['mihe] in both cases) are an indigenous people in Mexico .
The Mixe colonize the eastern highlands of the Mexican state of Oaxaca . Compared to other indigenous peoples of Mexico, they have retained a high degree of cultural independence. The Mixe language is still spoken by around 90,000 people. The self-designation of the Mixe is ayüükj'ä'äy and means "people who speak the mountain language". The word "mixe" probably comes from the word mīxtli , which means "cloud" in Nahuatl .
history
The ancestors of the Mixe were probably the Olmecs , the first advanced civilization in Central America . The Mixe themselves, however, believe that their ancestors immigrated from the Andes in South America across the sea to Mexico. Under the leadership of the legendary King Condoy, they would have built a prosperous empire at the foot of the holy mountain Cempoaltepetl . Little is known about the history of the mixes during the pre-Columbian era. What is certain is that the Mixe were not completely subjugated either by the Zapotec kingdom of Zaachila or by the Aztecs .
After the Spanish conquered central Mexico, Diego Sandoval was tasked with conquering the Mixe. However, Sandoval was unsuccessful and the Mixe still attach great importance to being the only autochthonous people of Mexico not to have been formally defeated. Since 1555, however, succeeded the Dominicans , a large part of mixes, especially in the villages Juquila , Totontepec and Quetzaltepec to proselytize .
economy
The Mixes live mainly from subsistence farming , especially the cultivation of corn, beans, pumpkin and potatoes as well as hunting and fishing . In the past few decades, the mixes also began to grow coffee commercially . Traditional cloth and ceramic products are also made in the larger cities .
language
The Mixe language is part of the Mixe-Zoque language family and is closely related to the Sayula Popoluca and Oluta Popoluca languages spoken in Veracruz . The mix language is a polysynthetic ergative language . It is divided into three dialects: The highland mix (in the northern highlands around Totontepec and in the southern highlands around Tlahuitoltepec , Ayutla and Tamazulapan ), the medium highland mix (in the area around Juquila and Zacatepec ) and the lowland mix (in the around Guichicovi ). The Mixe language is poorly documented and many variants are not recorded at all. The dialects around Totontepec, Ayutla and Coatlán are best documented. For these, dictionaries and short grammars were created by SIL International .
Social structure
In addition to the family, the most important social support of the Mixe is the “cargo system”. Civil and religious honorary posts, the cargos (Spanish for offices), are given among the men in the various villages . These are limited to one year. There is a rotation of offices . The few men who held all the different cargos become part of the council of elders . However, the conversion of many mixes to Protestantism has weakened this traditional administrative system in recent years and led to increased social tensions.
religion
The religious conception of most Mixe is syncretic , so that Roman Catholic and traditional rites coexist or merge. Another component of the Mixe religion is nagualism . In addition to the Catholic creed, most mixes continue to worship the deities of the traditional pantheon . These include, among others:
- Poj 'Enee ("the thunder wind"), a fertility and rain god and patron of the Mixe cities
- Naaxwiiñ ("the surface of the earth"), an earth and fertility goddess
- Yuuk ("the lord of the animals "), the deity of the wild animals and the hunt
The Mixe are among the few indigenous peoples who continue to use the Central American calendar of the K'iche ' from Guatemala , which was widely used in pre-Columbian times . The Mixe use this calendar to set the dates of religious events and to determine the names of their children. The mixes usually have two names: a calendar name given at birth in the Mixe language and a Spanish-Catholic name given at baptism.
Web links
- Servicios del Pueblo Mixe - SER Mixe (Spanish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ See the website of the Instituto Nacional Indigenista. ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Lyle Campbell : A Linguistic Look at the Olmec . In: American Antiquity . 41, No. 1, 1976, pp. 80-89. doi : 10.2307 / 279044 .
- ^ Søren Wichmann: The Relationship Among the Mixe-Zoquean Languages of Mexico. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 1995, ISBN 0-87480-487-6 .
- ↑ Alvin Schoenhals & Louise Schoenhals: Vocabulario Mixe de Totontepec , Series de Vocabularios Indigénas “Mariano Silva y Aceves” Num. 14. SIL, Mexico 1965, DF
- ↑ Searle Hoogshagen & Hilda Halloran Hoogshagen: Diccionario de Mixe Coatlán , serial de Vocabularios indigenous "Mariano Silva y Aceves" Num 32. SIL, Mexico in 1993, DF.
- ^ Frank J. Lipp: The Mixe of Oaxaca: Religion, ritual and healing , University of Texas Press, 1991, p. 25.
