indigenous wordsA mexican movie Unit 4

Carolina González 11/06/2014

Index

Náhuatl …………………..3

Otomí………………………6

Mixtecos…………………..8

Tarahumra……………….10

Nahuatl

The Nahuatl Culture is a very ancient native group which is still present in the modern central America. The Nahuatl people were very spiritual and in ancient times offered sacrifice to their gods. The Nahuatl culture had a very big change after the European people conquered Central America and forbid and destroyed almost all their beliefs and cultural, religious and spiritual activities. The word Nahuatl which is divided in nahua-tl which means ''clear sound or pleasant'' and tlahtol-li means '' tongue or language.The Nahuatl people developed before the Aztecs. A lot of their gods were  lost with the invasion of the European people but here in Mexico you still find parts of their roots. The Nahuatl is a Yuto-Aztec language spoken in Mexico and Central America. 

The Nahuatl is a native language and Mexico has approximately one and a half million. The majority of the speakers of the language,  are bilingual with Spanish as their second language. It's estimated that the first Nahuatl words which started the beginning of the Nahuatl language were spoken 5,000 years ago. The Yute is the mother language of the Nahuatl and it has approximately the age of the Indo-European family of languages. Also, its possible that the language is related to the Kiowa family of the United States and Canada.

The Yutonahua, Nahuatl or Nahua are the southernmost living families of this language root.The Nahuatl language is spoken in Mexico, El Salvador, United States, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The regions here with the most Nahuatl speaking people are State of Mexico- D.F., Puebla,Guerrero, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Durango, Morelos, Tlaxcala, San Luis Potosí, Michoacán,Jalisco and others. The majority of the Nahuatl speaking people live in Mexico (1.600.000),United States (200.000), El Salvador (20.000) and Guatemala with (800) People. The Nahuatl language is a relative to the Caracol families which are Cora, Huichol, Pimana, Papago, Tepehuano, Tarahumara and Yaqui. The Nahuatl is very closely related to the Pochuteco which has disappeared.

· http://www.mexicanartdealing.com/nahuatlculture.htm

otomi

Name

There is uncertainty about the precise meaning of the word Otomi. In Otomi otho means possessing nothing, and me set. These two words could be interpreted as wandering people. You can also consider Otocac Otomi comes from Nahuatl, the walking, and mitl, arrow; Also, it may be derived from totomitl, flechador birds or poultry. If we consider the different meanings, the term can be defined as Otomi "hunters walking loading arrows." In their language, the Otomi Hña HNU, which means speakers of Otomi or Otomi people themselves.

Location

Sticking to the linguistic criterion, the Otomi live in 14 of the 121 municipalities in the State of Mexico. In order of importance are Toluca, Temoaya, Jiquipilco, Morelos, Otzolotepec, Chapa de Mota, Lerma, Aculco, Amanalco, Huixquilucan, Xonacatlán, Timilpan and Zinacantepec. Most of these municipalities are located in two regions: the northwest, Atlacomulco-Timilpan, and the central region, Toluca-Lerma.

Habitat characteristics of the Otomi are varied, it has valleys, forests and mountains. The highest plateau is the valley of Toluca, with a height of 2683 m; northwest valleys are as Acambay, Tixmadeje Plan of San Bartolo and Pastor. The region is crossed by the Mount of Crosses, the Sierra del Monte Monte Alto and Bajo, and the Sierra de San Andrés Timilpan, and is irrigated by the Lerma River. The predominant climate in the region are humid and cool temperate, the rainfall occurs in summer and freezing in winter.

· http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=632&Itemid=62

mixtecos

It has divided the settlement area of the Mixtec people Mixteca Baja, or Mixteca Alta Sierra Mixteca and the Coast, where also live Nahuatl speakers, pussy, trique and Amuzgo, ethnic minority groups, which either so share cultural traditions and religious practices of the Mixtecs. Thus economic and social conditions in which ethnic groups live above are similar to those of the Mixtecs.

The economy

Agricultural activities, organized under three schemes land (ejido, private and community), revolves around the staple crop of maize associated with beans, bean and squash; secondarily seeded separately beans, wheat, barley, canary seed, whose cultivation has started in some places of the Mixteca Alta and Baja.

Apart from agriculture, indigenous supplement their economy with the care of domestic animals such as chickens, turkeys, cattle, goats, sheep, and draft animals and cargo. Also many are compelled to make, especially those living in some sector of the Mixteca, odd jobs as laborers in cutting cane in Veracruz and tomato in the states of Morelos and Sinaloa, or temporarily in the municipalities region or cities such as Mexico, Orizaba, Oaxaca and Acapulco, and in states like Baja California, as laborer, servants, street vendors, porters.

http://www.aquioaxaca.com/imagenes/edificios/image35.jpg

tarahumara

The Tarahumara Indians inhabit the Sierra Madre Mountains of the State

of Chihuahua in Northwest Mexico. Their territory centers in the upper

Rio Urique drainage, and covers approximately 5,000 square miles.

Modern population estimates range between 40,000-50,000. The Tarahumara

language is classified as Uto-Aztecan and seems to be most closely

related to Pima-Papago, Mayo, Huichol, and Yaqui.

Fried (1952: 1) divides the Tarahumara into three categories, on the

basis of geographical and historical factors: (1) Christianized mountain

(high sierra) dwellers (2) Christianized canyon (barranca) or lowland

dwellers, who vary in material culture from the former and who have

been usually subjected to greater Mexican influence, and (3) gentiles,

those who have resisted Christian (Mexican) influence. Most of the

gentile communities are located in the high sierra. Bennett and Zingg

(1935:ix) add as a fourth category a Christianized sierra region,

displaying special cultural traits.

Although the majority of the Tarahumara have been Christianized to

some degree, they have also tended to be a highly conservative people.

In fact, Champion (1970: 429) claims "There have been no significant

or basic changes in the culture of the Tarahumara since at least 1700."

Perhaps this is an overstatement, but the general pattern of conservatism

is supported by Kennedy (1963: 639), who says of his field data: "There

is an amazing correspondence . . . between what Lumholtz found in

1896 and what I found in 1960." A key aspect of this conservatism

may be language, since most Tarahumara evidently still do not speak Spanish.

http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/ethnoatlas/hmar/cult_dir/culture.7872

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