Chichimeca

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This article is about the historical Mesoamerican peoples. For the modern day group, see Chichimeca Jonaz people. For the modern language, see Chichimeca Jonaz language. For the historic group of the eastern United States known to the Spanish as "Chichimeco", see Westo. For the genus of moth, see Chichimeca (moth).

Chichimeca (Spanish:

silver mines the Spanish wished to exploit."[1] Gradie noted that Chichimeca was used as a broad and generalizing term by outsiders, writing, "[it] was used by both Spanish and Nahuatl speakers to refer collectively to many different people who exhibited a wide range of cultural development from hunter-gatherers to sedentary agriculturalists with sophisticated political organizations."[2] They practiced animal sacrifice, and they were feared for their expertise and brutality in war.[3]

The Chichimeca War (1550-1590) ended with the Spanish making favorable peace terms with the Chichimeca. Spanish/Chichimeca interaction resulted in a "drastic population decline in population of all the peoples known collectively as Chichimecas, and to their eventual disappearance as peoples of all save the Pames of San Luis Potosí and the related Chichimeca-Jonaz of the Sierra Gorda in eastern Guanajuato."[4] In modern times, only one ethnic group is customarily referred to as Chichimecs, namely the Chichimeca Jonaz, a few thousand of whom live in the state of Guanajuato.

Etymology

The Nahuatl name Chīchīmēcah (plural, pronounced [tʃiːtʃiːˈmeːkaʔ]; singular Chīchīmēcatl) means "inhabitants of Chichiman," Chichiman meaning "area of milk." It is sometimes said to be related to chichi "dog", but both i's in chichi are short, and both in Chīchīmēcah are long. That changes the meaning, as vowel length is phonemic in Nahuatl.[5]

Ethnohistorical descriptions

In the late sixteenth century, Gonzalo de las Casas wrote about the Chichimec. He had received an encomienda near Durango and fought in the wars against the Chichimec peoples: the Pame, the Guachichile, the Guamari and the Zacateco, who lived in the area known at the time as "La Gran Chichimeca." Las Casas' account was called Report of the Chichimeca and the Justness of the War Against Them. He described the people, providing ethnographic information. He wrote that they only covered their genitalia with clothing; painted their bodies; and ate only game, roots and berries. He mentioned, in order to prove their supposed barbarity, that Chichimec women, having given birth, continued traveling on the same day without stopping to recover.[6]

In the late 16th century, according to the Spanish, the Chichimeca did not

worship idols as did many of the surrounding indigenous peoples.[7]

Wars with the Spanish

Main article: Chichimeca War

Chichimeca military strikes against the Spanish included raidings, ambushing critical economic routes, and pillaging. In the long-running

Catholicism. Within a century, the Spanish and Chichimeca assimilated.[8]

References

  1. ^ Gradie, Charlotte M. "Discovering the Chichimecas" Academy of American Franciscan History, Vol 51, No. 1 (July 1994), p. 68
  2. ^ Gradie, Charlotte M. "Discovering the Chichimecas" Academy of American Franciscan History, Vol 51, No. 1 (July 1994), p. 68
  3. ISBN 9780195188431
  4. ISBN 9780521652049
    .
  5. ^ See Andrews 2003 (pp.496 and 507), Karttunen 1983 (p.48), and Lockhart 2001 (p.214)
  6. ^ As cited in Gradie (1994).
  7. ^ http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs/Chichimecas.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  8. ^ Powell, Phillip Wayne (1952), Soldiers, Indians & Silver, Berkeley: U of California Press, pp. 182-199; LatinoLA | Comunidad :: Indigenous Origins Archived 2019-01-04 at the Wayback Machine

Sources

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