Tarahumara

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Tarahumara girl sells jewelry in the Barranca del Cobre.
The interior of a Tarahumara family's cave near Creel

The Tarahumara are an indigenous ethnic group living in northern Mexico . They are famous for their ability to take long distance runs through deserts, canyons and mountains. The men therefore also refer to themselves in their Tarahumara language, which belongs to the Uto-Aztec languages , as Rarámuri ('those who run fast', i.e. runners) - whereas women generally refer to igomele and the individual woman as Muki .

residential area

Their tribal area covers about 50,000 km² of the southwest of the Mexican state Chihuahua and thus some of the highest peaks of the Sierra Madre Occidental (also known as Sierra Tarahumara ) - with ridges between 1500 and 2400 m above sea level. The area includes numerous canyons including the famous Barranca del Cobre (Copper Gorge). Over the years they have withdrawn further and further into the impassable mountain area of ​​the Alta Tarahumara and the Baja Tarahumara . The Alta Tarahumara is a sierra with a lot of forest and cold climate and is inhabited by the Tarahumara Alto tribal group , who call themselves Rarámuri . The Baja Tarahumara lies in the valleys, with a tropical hot climate, and is inhabited by the second tribal group, the Tarahumara Bajo , who call themselves Rarómari . In the highest mountain regions, the weather varies from −20 ° C in winter and 20 ° C in summer. In the valleys and canyons the temperature is a mild 15 ° C in winter and up to 40 ° C in summer. Due to their isolated way of life, the Tarahumara were able to maintain their traditions; many still inhabit caves and grow corn and beans. The Tarahumara can be found near Creel . There is a Tarahumarian ejido (trading cooperative) with pine forests , waterfalls, hot springs and the cave dwellings in the Complejo Ecoturístico Arareko . 90% of today's 50,000 Tarahumara live mostly in the Municipios Bocoyna, Urique, Guachochi, Batopilas, Carichí, Balleza, Guadalupe y Calvo and Nonoava.

history

The Tarahumara, Apaches ( Chiricahua and Mescalero ), Lower Pima ( O'Ob and O'Odham ), Northern Tepehuan ( Odami ) and about 90 other tribes once lived in the region of today's Chihuahua state in the Llanos. But when the Spanish conquerors discovered silver mines in Batopilas, the Tarahumara were forced to work in the mines and then fled to the hidden valleys of the Barrancas. As a result, the worst fighting and bloodiest uprisings in Mexican history broke out on their land. From 1607 the Jesuits and Franciscans tried to convert the Tarahumara. One of the first Jesuits there tried to evangelize them by force, whereupon they defended themselves armed. They are said to be probably the only group of indigenous people who have never been subjugated. The Apaches living to the northwest and northeast also attacked their settlements from the middle of the 17th century and fought them bitterly. The Tarahumara then provided the Spaniards and Mexicans in the constant defensive battles on the northern border against the Apaches, always fearless and persevering fighters, who could also take on the strong-running Apache warriors on foot. The Spanish forced some Tarahumara, who could not hide in the mountains, to work for them as peons on Spanish estates ( haciendas ) or mines . In 1825 a law was passed which allowed land for agricultural use. Landless Mexicans came in droves and drove the Tarahumara again from their fertile land.

The Norwegian anthropologist and photographer Carl Lumholtz visited the Tarahumara several times on his Mexico expeditions between 1890 and 1898 and lived with them for a total of one and a half years. In his book Unknown Mexico: Explorations in the Sierra Madre and Other Regions, 1890–1898 (1902), he describes a. a. the life, rites and religion of the Tarahumaras. Using a graphophone , he recorded several melodies and chants of the ethnic group on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History and the National Geographic Society .

Culture and way of life

Agriculture ( corn , beans , zucchini , watermelons , paprika (chilli), later potatoes and wheat ), collecting wild fruits, berries, roots and hunting field mice and lizards supplement their basic food - later cattle breeding was added.

dress

The women adorn themselves with voluminous pleated skirts and blouses made of brightly patterned, colorful fabrics. The men wear the same blouses in plain colors, combined with wide loin pants. The traditional leather strap sandals are worn by both sexes.

religion

The Tarahumara now call themselves Catholics. In fact, however, they practice a syncretistic mixed religion that contains more elements of their traditional religion : According to their beliefs, God and the devil are brothers. Both created the seven-level universe. The top level is inhabited by God and Mary, who are understood as spouses and parents of people. The Tarahumara are the children of God and Mary and the non- Tarahumara are the children of the devil. Its kingdom is viewed as a mirror image of the kingdom of God, but has no similarities with Christian notions of hell. The Tarahumara believe that the strength of the divine couple is weakened during Holy Week. Therefore, they try to give them new strength with religious Easter ceremonies. Catholic rituals, on the other hand, (such as waving incense) have apparently impressed the Tarahumara, because the medicine men have since modified some of the traditional ceremonies accordingly. The medicine man, called ewe-ame , continues to exercise his traditional function: He heals the sick with herbs, provided he is a simple healer; uses the hallucinogenic peyote cactus to hold or bring back the lost or fleeing soul of the sick; works against witchcraft and has an almost semi-divine status if he is considered a real Ewe-ame . If the soul does not catch, the person dies and the soul wanders into an animal or becomes a star in the sky. All stars are therefore souls of deceased Tarahumaras.

runner

The Tarahumara are famous as long-distance runners . Running is very important in their culture, they refer to themselves as Rarámuri ('those who run fast'). Traditionally, the Tarahumara hunt (also endurance ) on wild animals (such as deer, roe deer), which they chase up the mountain slopes until they sink exhausted and can be strangled with bare hands. With the runs over 24 hours, during which a small ball is driven in front of you, the course of earth and sun is to be symbolized for cultic occasions. Even today there are Tarahumara who - whether hunting or racing - run up to 170 km through rough gorges without stopping. The mountains of the Sierra have always forced them to take long walks. Over time, they developed more and more stamina in this way. They manage distances of over 300 km without any problems, barefoot or at most with sandals (huaraches). In the meantime, the international endurance running movement has created a special form of tourism in which long-distance running is the focus.

See also

Web links

literature

  • Carl Lumholtz : The Cave-Dwellers of the Sierra Madre , Proceedings of the International Congress of Anthropology, Chicago 1894 (English).
  • Carl Lumholtz in Scribner's Magazine :
    • Among the Tarahumares, the American Cave-Dwellers , July 1894.
    • Tarahumare Life and Customes , September 1894.
    • Tarahumare Dance and Worship , October 1894.
  • Carl Lumholtz: Unknown Mexico: A Record of Five Years' Exploration Among the Tribes of the Western Sierra Madre; in the Tierra Caliente of Tepic and Jalisco; and Among the Tarascos of Michoacan (2 volumes), 1903 (English).
  • Antonin Artaud : The Peyotl Rite of the Tarahumaras . Matthes & Seitz Verlag, Berlin 1992.
  • Claus Deimel: Tarahumara: Indians in northern Mexico . Syndicate, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-8108-0146-1 .
  • Claus Deimel: The ritual healing of the Tarahumara (= Monografía rarámuri , Volume 1; Ethnological Treatises , Volume 13). Reimer, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-496-02634-0 .
  • Claus Deimel: Nawésari. Texts from the Sierra Tarahumara (= Monografía rarámuri , Volume 2; Völkerkundliche Abhandlungen , Volume 14). Reimer, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-496-02720-7 .
  • Christopher McDougall: Born to Run. A forgotten people and the secret of the best and happiest runners in the world . Translated from the English by Werner Roller. Blessing, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-89667-366-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ María Teresa Guerrero et al. a .: The Forest Industry in the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua: Social, Economic, and Ecological Impacts . de los Derechos Humanos and Texas Center for Policy Studies, July 2000 (PDF; English).
  2. ↑ Miriam Schultze: Traditional Religions in North America. In: Harenberg Lexicon of Religions. Harenberg, Dortmund 2002, ISBN 3-611-01060-X . P. 892.
  3. ↑ Åke Hultkrantz , Michael Rípinsky-Naxon, Christer Lindberg: The book of the shamans. North and South America . Munich 2002, ISBN 3-550-07558-8 . P. 104 ff.
  4. ↑ Arthur Ernst Grix: The "Carrera" of the Tarahumare - As an eyewitness to the 250 kilometer run of the Sierra Indians . In: The magazine . March 1956, pp. 33-37.
  5. ↑ Christopher McDougall: Born to Run: A Forgotten People and the Secret of the Best and Happiest Runners in the World . Karl Blessing Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-89667-366-4 .
  6. ↑ Angelika Prentner: Mind-altering plants from A - Z . Springer Vienna, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-211-99228-9 .
  7. ↑ John Marshall Carter , Arnd Krüger (ed.): Ritual and record. Sports records and quantification in pre-modern societies (= Contributions to the study of world history , Volume 17). Greenwood, Westport 1990, ISBN 0-313-25699-3 .
  8. ↑ Amy Elizabeth Anderson: Ethnic tourism in the Sierra Tarahumara: A comparison of two rarámuri ejidos . University of Texas, Austin 1994.
  9. ↑ Florian Sanktjohanser: In the gorge of the light-footed . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 24, 2016.
  10. ↑ The fastest runners in the world . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 27, 2011, p. R4.