Totonac
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Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
Mexico (Veracruz,Puebla) | 411,266 |
Languages | |
Totonac languages, Spanish | |
Religion | |
Indigenous Religion, Christianity |
People | Totonac |
---|---|
Language | Totonac |
Country | Totonacapan |
The Totonac are an
Etymology
The term "totonac" refers to the people living in Totonacapan. There is no agreement as to the origin of the term. Some authors have translated the term "totonac" as a Nahuatl word meaning "People of Hot Land". The translation for this word in the Totonac Language, according to sources, is "toto-nacu" meaning "three hearts" signifying their three cities or cultural centers:
Geography and traditional lifestyle
In the 15th century, the Aztecs labeled the region of the Totonac "
Food culture
Totonacs in the twentieth century led the peoples growing the highest quality vanilla, and most Mexican vanilla was produced by Totonacs. Their association with agriculture of vanilla pre-dates the arrival of Columbus in the New World. While vanilla was long significant to Totonac culture, its importance as an export good did not emerge until the early-eighteenth century, when they traded with other Totonacs and with people in northern Oaxaca. The first regulation of the harvesting of Mexican vanilla appears in 1743, when the mayor of Papantla attempted to use a law for personal profit on the vanilla harvest. A second law regulating was promulgated in 1767, after Totonac vanilla growers in Colipa complained about thieves stealing immature vanilla pods. During Humboldt's travels in Mexico, most European imports of vanilla conveyed through the port of Veracruz, and Totonacs in the Misantla region harvested about 700,000 vanilla beans per year.[3]
There is a total absence of
Clothing
Totonac women were expert weavers and embroiderers; they dressed grandly and braided their hair with
Housing
Houses were generally thatched and had an overhang. They were rectangular in shape.
History
The region of Totonacapan was subject to Aztec military incursions from the mid-15th century until the Spanish arrival. Despite the establishment of Aztec fortifications throughout the region, rebellion was endemic. Major Totonac centers were
Language
The Totonac people traditionally speak
The main varieties of Totonac are:
- Cazones, Tajín, Espinal, and other towns along the Gulf Coast of Veracruz.
- North-Central Totonac: spoken roughly between Xicotepec de Juárezin Puebla.
- South-Central Totonac: spoken mostly in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, including the towns of Zapotitlán de Méndez, Coatepec, and Huehuetla in Puebla.
- Misantla Totonac: spoken by fewer than 500 people in Yecuatla and other communities outside the city of Misantla, Veracruz.
Religion
Most present-day Totonacs are
The traditional religion was described in the early 1960s by the French ethnographer, Alain Ichon.[6] No other major essay on Totonac religion has been found. Mother goddesses played a very important role in Totonac belief, since each person's soul is made by them.[7] If a newly born child dies, its soul "does not go to the west, the place of the dead, but to the east with the Mothers".[8] Ichon has also preserved for posterity an important myth regarding a maize deity, a culture hero with counterparts among most other cultures of the Gulf Coast and possibly also represented by the Classic Maya maize god. As to traditional curers, it is believed that they "are born during a storm, under the protection of thunder. They think that a lightning bolt strikes the house of a new-born baby ..., and makes it ... under its possession".[9]
Other known deities include Chichiní (the sun[10]) and Aktzin.
See also
- Danza de los Voladores de Papantla
- Maya maize god
- Aktzin
Notes
- ISBN 978-1-4200-8337-8.
- ^ Sandstrom, Alan R., and E. Hugo García Valencia (Eds.). Native Peoples of the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press (2005). p. 192
- ^ Bruman, Henry (1948). "The Culture History of Mexican Vanilla". The Hispanic American Historical Review. 28 (3): 360–376. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
- ^ ISBN 0140441239
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14794a.htm
- ^ Ichon 1973
- ^ Alfredo López Austin (transl. by Ortiz de Montellano) : Tamoanchan, Tlalocan. University Press of Colorado, 1997. p. 161, citing Inchon, p. 46
- ^ Alfredo López Austin (transl. by Ortiz de Montellano) : Tamoanchan, Tlalocan. University Press of Colorado, 1997. p. 162, citing Ichon, p. 209
- ^ Alfredo López Austin (transl. by Ortiz de Montellano) : Tamoanchan, Tlalocan. University Press of Colorado, 1997. p. 169, citing Ichon, p. 287
- ^ "Totonac Religion | Encyclopedia.com".
References
- James Olson, ed. Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Empire, 1402-1975, 1992.
- I. Bernal and E. Dávalos, Huastecos y Totonacos, 1953.
- H.R. Harvey and Isabel Kelly, "The Totonac," in Handbook of Middle American Indians, 1969.
- Isabel Kelly and Ángel Palerm, The Tajín Totonac, 1952.
- Ichon, A. : La religión de los totonacas de la sierra. México : Instituto Nacional Indigenista, 1973.
- ELLISON, Nicolas: Semé sans compter. Appréhension de l'environnement et statut de l'économie en pays totonaque (Sierra de Puebla, Mexique). Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 2013.
- Ellison, N., 2020. “Altepet / Chuchutsipi: Cosmopolítica territorial totonaca-nahua y patrimonio biocultural en la Sierra Nororiental de Puebla” , Revista TRACE, 78, CEMCA, julio 2020, págs. 88-122, ISSN 2007-2392.
- LOZADA VÁZQUEZ, Luz María: El papel de Progresa en la reproducción de las unidades domésticas campesinas : Estudio en una comunidad totonaca de Huehuetla, Puebla, Mexico, Universidad nacional autónoma de México, 2002.
- LOZADA VÁZQUEZ, Luz María: « Chaleur et odeurs pour nos morts. La cuisine cérémonielle de la Fête des Morts dans une communauté Totonaque de Puebla, Mexique », in Food and History 6 (2) 2008 : 133-154.
- Ellison, N : « Symbolisme sylvestre et rapports d’altérité dans une danse rituelle totonaque ». Annales de la Fondation Fyssen. n°22, 2007, pp. 83–97.
- Ellison N.: « Au service des Saints : Cultiver la forêt, nourrir la terre, protéger la communauté » in Cahiers d’Anthropologie Sociale, N°3, 2007, pp. 81–96.
- Ellison N. : « Les enjeux locaux de la ‘reconstitution des peuples indiens’ au Mexique. Reconfiguration des rapports entre minorités et pouvoirs publics, le cas totonaque », in Cahiers des Amériques Latines, N°52, (Novembre-Décembre), 2006 ; pp. 5.
- Ellison N. : « Une écologie symbolique totonaque, le municipe de Huehuetla (Mexique) », Journal de la Société des Américanistes, pp. 35-62, Tome 90-2, 2004.
- Ellison N. : « Cambio ecológico y percepción ambiental en la región totonaca de Huehuetla ». Actes du colloque international «Territoires et Migrations » (Zacatecas, Mexique), Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Mexico. Version publiée dans la revue électronique Nuevo Mundo, Mundos Nuevos (CNRS/EHESS), 2003, n°3.
External links
- Interdisciplinary bibliography of research on the Totonac culture
- Catholic encyclopedia entry
- Ellison, N. : Semé sans compter. Appréhension de l'environnement et statut de l'économie en pays totonaque
- Ellison, N., 2020. “Altepet / Chuchutsipi: Cosmopolítica territorial totonaca-nahua y patrimonio biocultural en la Sierra Nororiental de Puebla”
- Ellison N. : Cambio ecológico y percepción ambiental en la región totonaca
- Ellison, N. : Les Totonaques aujourd’hui, entre crise du développement et nouvelles revendications
- Lozada Vazquez, L.M.:Chaleur et odeurs pour nos morts. La cuisine cérémonielle de la Fête des Morts totonaque