Kejache
The Kejache (/keˈχätʃe/) (sometimes spelt Kehache, Quejache, Kehach, Kejach or Cehache) were a
Territory
The Kejache occupied a region that is now crossed by the border between
Culture
The Kejache, as described by the Spanish, were poorer than neighbouring Maya peoples, using wood and thatch as building materials and lacking material resources.
By the mid-17th century the Kejache were important intermediaries between the Itza and Yucatán. The Putun Acalan subgroup of the Kejache had previously traded directly with the Itza but had been relocated by the Spanish. The remaining Kejache, decimated by disease and subject to the intense attentions of Spanish missionaries, were no longer able to supply the Itza directly and became middlemen instead.[9]
Language and etymology
Kejache was the name by which they identified themselves to others.[10] The Kejache spoke the Yucatec Maya language,[4] and the name kejache is derived from the Yucatec words kej meaning "deer" and ach, which was a suffix that may have indicated the abundance of the animals.[11] The Kejache territory was referred to as Mazatlan in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs;[12] the Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo interpreted the "land of the Mazatecas" as the "town or lands of deer".[11] The Kejache shared many surnames with the neighbouring Itzas and, despite the later hostility between the two peoples, it is likely that they had a common origin.[6]
History
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Although the Kejache seem to have had a common origin with the Itza, possibly as far back as the Late Classic period (c. AD 600–900), the approximate date of their division into separate peoples is unknown. The Kejache separation may have occurred due to either continued Itza migration to Petén during the Postclassic period (c. 900–1697) or because internal warfare caused them to divide. It is possible that the Kejache had occupied their territory since the Classic period and they may have been descendants of the inhabitants of the prominent Maya cities in the region, such as Calakmul and the cities of the Río Bec zone.[4]
The Kejache are likely to have occupied the Petén region of what is now northern Guatemala for a considerable time before being displaced by Itza expansion into the area north and northwest of the Itza kingdom. The Kejache province was frequently at war with the Itza and the two territories were separated by a deserted no-man's land. The Kejache are believed to have lacked a centralised political structure,[6] although their capital was said to be Mazatlan (as referred to in Nahuatl by Aztec merchants).[10] Ten Kejache towns are mentioned in Spanish colonial documents,[8] including Tiac and Yaxuncabil, mentioned by Hernán Cortés.[13]
Spanish conquest
Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés passed through Kejache territory in 1525 en route to Honduras and reported that the Kejache towns were situated in easily defensible locations and were often fortified.[6] One of these was built on a rocky outcrop near a lake and a river that fed into it. The town was fortified with a wooden palisade and was surrounded by a moat. Cortés reported that the town of Tiac was even larger and was fortified with walls, watchtowers and earthworks; the town itself was divided into three individually fortified districts. Tiac was said to have been at war with the unnamed smaller town.[14] The Kejache claimed that their towns were fortified against the attacks of their aggressive Itza neighbours.[4] In 1531 Alonso Dávila crossed the north of Kejache territory in search of an adequate base of operations for conquest.[15] A portion of the northern Kejache territory was given in encomienda to Miguel Sánchez Cerdán in May 1543.[16]
By 1600, the Kejache population is estimated to have been around 7000, distributed between 10–20 settlements. By this time, the Kejache were under pressure not just from the Itzá, but also from the
The Kejache had a number of well-fortified towns built along the principal trade route from
After the fall of the Itza to the Spanish invaders in 1697, the surviving Kejache fled with Itza and Kowoj refugees into the Lacandon forest, where they became the ancestors of the modern Lacandon people.[21]
Notes
- ^ a b Jones 2000, p. 353.
- ^ a b Chávez Gómez 2006, p. 58.
- ^ Villa Rojas 1985, p. 447.
- ^ a b c d Rice and Rice 2005, p. 152.
- ^ Rice 2009, p. 17.
- ^ a b c d e Rice and Rice 2009, p. 12.
- ^ Villa Rojas 1985, p. 455. Chavez Gomez 2006, p. 62.
- ^ a b Villa Rojas 1985, p. 455.
- ^ Schwartz 1990, pp. 34–35.
- ^ a b Chávez Gómez 2006, p. 60.
- ^ a b Jones 1998, p. 435n13.
- ^ Jones 1998, p. 31.
- ^ Rice and Rice 2009, p. 12. Villa Rojas 1985, p. 455.
- ^ Rice et al. 2009, p. 127.
- ^ Villa Rojas 1985, p. 450.
- ^ Bracamonte y Sosa 2001, pp. 73–74.
- ^ Brocamonte y Sosa 2001, p. 74.
- ^ Rice 2009, p. 19.
- ^ Brocamonte y Sosa 2001, p. 75.
- ^ Rice et al. 2009, p. 138.
- ^ Hofling 2009, p. 78.
References
- Bracamonte & Sosa, Pedro (2001). La conquista inconclusa de Yucatán: los mayas de las montañas, 1560–1680 (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Centro de Investogaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Universidad de Quintana Roo. OCLC 49519206.
- Chávez Gómez, José Manuel A. (2006). "La Recreación del Antiguo Espacio Político. Un Cuchcabal Kejache y el Na'al Kejach Chan en el siglo XVII". Nuevas Perspectivas Sobre la Geografía Política de los Mayas (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidad Autónoma de Campeche and the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc (FAMSI). pp. 57–80. OCLC 69676215. Retrieved 2013-01-25.
- Hofling, Charles Andrew (2009). "The Linguistic Context of the Kowoj". In Prudence M. Rice; Don S. Rice (eds.). The Kowoj: identity, migration, and geopolitics in late postclassic Petén, Guatemala. Boulder, Colorado, US: OCLC 225875268.
- Jones, Grant D. (1998). The Conquest of the Last Maya Kingdom. Stanford, California, USA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804735223.
- Jones, Grant D. (2000). "The Lowland Maya, from the Conquest to the Present". In Richard E.W. Adams; Murdo J. Macleod (eds.). The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Vol. II: Mesoamerica, part 2. Cambridge, UK: OCLC 33359444.
- Rice, Prudence M. (2009). "Who were the Kowoj?". In Prudence M. Rice; Don S. Rice (eds.). The Kowoj: identity, migration, and geopolitics in late postclassic Petén, Guatemala. Boulder, Colorado, US: OCLC 225875268.
- Rice, Prudence M.; Don S. Rice (2005). "Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Maya Political Geography". In Susan Kepecs; Rani T. Alexander (eds.). The Postclassic to Spanish-Era Transition in Mesoamerica: Archaeological Perspectives. Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA: University of New Mexico Press. )
- Rice, Prudence M.; Don S. Rice (2009). "Introduction to the Kowoj and their Petén Neighbors". In Prudence M. Rice; Don S. Rice (eds.). The Kowoj: identity, migration, and geopolitics in late postclassic Petén, Guatemala. Boulder, Colorado, US: OCLC 225875268.
- Rice, Prudence M.; Don S. Rice; Timothy W. Pugh; Rómulo Sánchez Polo (2009). "Defensive architecture and the context of warfare at Zacpetén". In Prudence M. Rice; Don S. Rice (eds.). The Kowoj: identity, migration, and geopolitics in late postclassic Petén, Guatemala. Boulder, Colorado, US: OCLC 225875268.
- Schwartz, Norman B. (1990). Forest Society: A Social History of Petén, Guatemala. Ethnohistory. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: University of Pennsylvania Press. OCLC 21974298.
- Villa Rojas, Alfonso (1985). "Los Quejaches: Tribu Olvidada del Antiguo Yucatán". Estudios Etnológicos: Los Mayas. Serie Antropológica (in Spanish). Vol. 38. Mexico City, Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. pp. 447–462. OCLC 15544002. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
Further reading
- OCLC 2452883. Retrieved 2012-12-03.
- Thompson, Sir Eric (1977). "A Proposal for Constituting a Maya Subgroup, Cultural and Linguistic, in the Petén and Adjacent Regions". In Grant D. Jones (ed.). Anthropology and History in Yucatán (Kindle). The Texas Pan American Series. Austin, Texas, US: University of Texas Press. 476. OCLC 2202479.