El hombre que conoció a Cocijo

2015

My project traces the evolution of the Zapotec cultural practice of guelaguetza, an indigenous sharing system of collaboration and exchange in Mexico, from pre-Columbian and colonial times to the present. Ironically, the term "guelaguetza" was appropriated by the Mexican government in the twentieth century to promote an annual dance festival in the city of Oaxaca that has little to do with the actual meaning of the indigenous tradition. My analysis of Zapotec-language alphabetic sources from the Central Valley of Oaxaca, written from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, reveals that Zapotecs actively participated in the sharing system during this long period of transformation. My project demonstrates that the Zapotec sharing economy functioned to build and reinforce social networks among households in Zapotec communities. I argue that guelaguetza enabled communities of the Central Valley of Oaxaca to survive the trauma of conquest, depopulation, and external demands for local resources. Zapotecs relied on the system to maintain control of valuable community resources, such as property, labor, and iii agricultural goods. My project also examines the system of guelaguetza from a transnational perspective by considering how it continues to function effectively for Zapotecs outside of Oaxaca, in other parts of Mexico and in the United States, especially in California. The project utilizes a range of unpublished archival sources from Mexico, Spain, and the United States, including Spanish-and Zapotec-language legal documents, municipal records, and chronicles. Finally, I incorporate Mexican literature from the early twentieth century, and modern ethnographic observations from Oaxaca and California.

American Ethnologist, 2014

Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2015

Background: Some Mayan peasant-hunters across the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico still carry out a hunting ritual –Loojil Ts’oon, Loj Ts’oon or Carbine Ceremony– in which they renew the divine permission for hunting in order to continue deserving the gift of prey after a period of hunt. Thus they are granted access to game by the gods and the Lords of the Animals, particularly the spirit/evil-wind call. This paper focuses on the acts within the Loojil Ts’oon –which is performed in the X-Pichil community and surrounding area– that make it unique among the hunting rituals performed in other parts of the Peninsula. Methods: The Loojil Ts’oon hunting ritual was observed and registered in audiovisual format in two different occasions in X-Pichil (Friday 04/29/2011 and Friday 07/29/2011). Afterwards, we delivered digital videodisks (DVD) to hunters and their families and to the j-men (the magic-medic-ritual specialist) who participated in these ceremonies. This delivery produced confidence among participants to talk more openly and in-depth about the Loojil Ts’oon, revealing symbolic, psychological, and material details previously unknown to outsiders. Qualitative information was obtained through the ethnographic method using techniques such as participant observation and guided tours. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to obtain complementary information. Results and discussion: On one hand, we describe the preparation and cleansing of the “Sip soup”, as well as its parading and distribution –delivery to the spirit/evil-wind Sip– on the streets of the community (highlingting the role of the rooster as a counter-gift). On the other hand, the cleansing of the jaws (of deer: Odocoileus virginianus, Mazama spp.; and peccaries: Tayassuidae) and their return to the Lords of Animals in the hills so that they may give these animals new life. Conclusions: By performing the Loojil Ts’oon, the act of killing an animal is legitimized. The kill transforms into an exchange to perpetuate life, in which gods and Lords of animals grant the hunter the solicited new game if he has completed his ritual duties and has not broken the prescribed hunting rules. The Loojil Ts’oon does not only represent the continuity and regeneration of animals, that is, fauna as a resource, but also of the whole hunting cycle. The hunter does so to maintain and recreate order and equilibrium in one’s relationship with nature as a whole, with the rest of one’s social group, and with oneself. Thus, hunting transcends the exclusively material dimension of a subsistence activity Keywords: Ritual hunting, Ritual deposit, Carbine (firearm), Spirit/evil-wind Sip, Jaws, Yucatan Peninsula

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2011

Reviews the contributions of Tsotsil (Tzotzil) oral history to the history of the community of San Juan Chamula – and of the Tsotsils in general – in two senses. First, as a detailed view “from the other side” of Chiapas’s common history: who were the Tzotzil actors, what ends did they pursue, etc. And second, as a demonstration of the continuity of a uniquely Tzotzil self-consciousness, of a Tzotzil intellectual tradition, from remote times to the present in communities like Chamula. [Considera las aportaciones de la historia oral tsotsil (tzotzil) a la historia de la comunidad de Chamula, y de los tsotsiles de los Altos de Chiapas en general, en dos sentidos. Primero como visión detallada del otro lado, de actores tsotsiles,a la historia general. Y segundo como demostración de la continuidad desde tiempos remotos de una tradición intelectual propia en comunidades de habla y cultura como Chamula.] KEYS Tsotsil (Tzotzil) language and linguistics, Tsotsil (Tzotzil) oral history, San Juan Chamula-history and ethnohistory, Highland Chiapas-history

Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 2009