Mixtec

{{Infobox ethnic group

| group = Mixtec
Ñuù savi

| image = 235px

| image_caption = Mixtec king and warlord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw (right) Meeting with Four Jaguar, in a depiction from the pre-Columbian Codex Zouche-Nuttall.

| population = Approximately 830,000Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indios (CDI) (2000): [http://cdi.gob.mx/index.php?id_seccion=660 Lenguas indígenas de México]. Viewed 30 November 2006.Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior: [http://www.ime.gob.mx/noticias/lazos/2005/409.htm Lazos. Síntesis informativa] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303192134/http://www.ime.gob.mx/noticias/lazos/2005/409.htm |date=3 March 2016 }}, 24 January 2005. Viewed 30 November 2006

| popplace = {{flag|Mexico}} (Oaxaca, Puebla, Guerrero, Chiapas)
{{flag|United States}}

| langs = Mixtec, Spanish

| rels = Roman Catholicism with elements of traditional beliefs

| related = Zapotecs, Trique

| native_name =

| native_name_lang =

}}

{{Infobox ethnonym

|root =

|person =

|people = Mixtec
ñuù savi, nayívi savi,
ñuù davi, nayivi davi

|language = Mixtec
sa'an davi, da'an davi, tu'un savi,..

|country = Mixteca
Ñuu Savi, Ñuu Djau, Ñuu Davi,..

}}

File:British Museum Mixtec.jpg

The Mixtecs ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|iː|s|t|ɛ|k|s|,_|ˈ|m|iː|ʃ|t|ɛ|k|s}}),{{OED|Mixtec}} or Mixtecos, are Indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec culture was the main Mixtec civilization, which lasted from around 1500 BCE until being conquered by the Spanish in 1523.

The Mixtec region is generally divided into three subregions based on geography: the Mixteca Alta (Upper Mixtec or Ñuu Savi Sukun), the Mixteca Baja (Lower Mixtec or Ñuu I'ni), and the Mixteca Costa (Coastal Mixtec or Ñuu Andivi). The Alta is drier with higher elevations, while the Baja is lower in elevation, hot but dry, and the Costa is also low in elevation but much more humid and tropical. The Alta has seen the most study by archaeologists, with evidence for human settlement going back to the Archaic and Early Formative periods.{{Cite book |last=Joyce |first=Arthur |title=Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos: Ancient Peoples of Southern Mexico |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2009 |isbn=978-0631209782}} The first urbanized sites emerged here. Long considered to be part of the larger Mixteca region, groups living in the Baja were probably more culturally related to neighboring peoples in Eastern Guerrero than they were to the Mixtecs of the Alta.{{Cite book |last=Gutiérrez |first=Gerardo |title=After Monte Albán: Transformation and Negotiation in Oaxaca, Mexico |publisher=University Press of Colorado |isbn=978-1-60732-597-0 |pages=367–362 |chapter=Classic and Postclassic Archaeological Features of the Mixteca-Tlapaneca-Nahua region of Guerrero: Why Didn’t Anyone Tell Me the Classic was Over|date=7 February 2017 }} They even had their own hieroglyphic writing system called ñuiñe.{{Cite journal |last=Lind |first=Michael |date=2008 |title=Arqueología de la Mixteca |url=https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/139/13902702.pdf |journal=Desacatos |volume=27 |pages=13–32}} The Costa only came under control of the Mixtecs during the military campaigns of the Mixtec cultural hero Eight Deer Jaguar Claw. Originally from Tilantongo in the Alta, Eight Deer and his armies conquered several major and minor kingdoms on their way to the coast, establishing the capital of Tututepec in the Lower Río Verde valley. Previously, the Costa had been primarily occupied by the Chatinos.

In pre-Columbian times, some Mixtec kingdoms competed and allied with each other and with Zapotec kingdoms in the Central Valleys. Like the rest of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico, the Mixtecs were conquered by the Spanish invaders and their Indigenous allies in the 16th century. Pre-Columbian Mixtecs numbered around 1.5 million.archaeology.about.com › ... › Archaeology 101 › Glossary › M Terms Today there are approximately 800,000 Mixtec people in Mexico, and there are also large populations in the United States. The Mixtec languages form a major branch of the Oto-Manguean language family.

Nomenclature and etymology

The term Mixtec (Mixteco in Spanish) comes from the Nahuatl word mixtecah {{IPA|[miʃˈtekaʔ]}}, "cloud people". There are many names that the Mixtecs have for naming themselves: ñuù savi, nayívi savi, ñuù davi, nayivi davi.{{Pronunciation needed|date=June 2023}} etc. All these denominations can be translated as 'the land of the rain'.{{cite web|url=https://mixtec.sdsu.edu/about.html|title=About|publisher=San Diego State University|access-date=17 May 2019}} The historic homeland of Mixtec people is La Mixteca, called in Mixtec language Ñuu Savi,{{Pronunciation needed|date=June 2023}} Ñuu Djau,{{Pronunciation needed|date=June 2023}} Ñuu Davi,{{Pronunciation needed|date=June 2023}} etc., depending on the local variant. They call their language sa'an davi,{{Pronunciation needed|date=June 2023}} da'an davi{{Pronunciation needed|date=June 2023}} or tu'un savi.{{Pronunciation needed|date=June 2023}}

Overview

File:Códice Vindobonensis.jpg. The central scene supposedly depicts the origin of the Mixtecs as a people whose ancestors sprang from a tree.]]

In pre-Columbian times, the Mixtec were one of the major civilizations of Mesoamerica. Important ancient centers of the Mixtec include the ancient capital of Tilantongo, as well as the sites of Achiutla, Cuilapan, Huajuapan, Mitla, Tlaxiaco, Tututepec, Juxtlahuaca, and Yucuñudahui. The Mixtecs also made major constructions at the ancient city of Monte Albán (which had originated as a Zapotec city before the Mixtecs gained control of it). The work of Mixtec artisans who produced work in stone, wood, and metal was well regarded throughout ancient Mesoamerica.

According to West, "the Mixtec of Oaxaca...were the foremost goldsmiths of Mesoamerica," which included the "lost-wax casting of gold and its alloys."{{cite book|author=West, Robert. Early Silver Mining in New Spain, 1531–1555|editor1-last=Bakewell|editor1-first=Peter|title=Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas|date=1997|publisher=Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Limited|location=Aldershot|pages=48}}

At the height of the Aztec Empire, many Indigenous people in Oaxaca, including the Mixtecs and Zapotecs, would suffer under at the hands of the Aztecs.{{cite news|url=https://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/oaxaca_cultures.html|title=The Mixtecs And Zapotecs: Two Enduring Cultures of Oaxaca|first=John P.|last=Schmal|publisher=Houston Institute for Culture|accessdate=October 2, 2024}} In the 1450s, Mixtecs would be weakened after the Aztec armies crossed the mountains into the Valley of Oaxaca with the intention of extending their hegemony. Aztec forces triumphed over the Mixtecs in 1458. In 1486, the Aztecs established a fort on the hill of Huaxyácac (now called El Fortín), overlooking the present city of Oaxaca, which allowed the Aztecs to enforce tribute collection from the Mixtecs and Zapotecs. However, not all Mixtec towns became vassals. The Mixtecs put up some resistance to Spanish forces led by Pedro de Alvarado.{{cite news|url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/the-mixtec/|title=the Mixtec|publisher=Lumen Learning|access-date=October 2, 2024}} However, they would be subdued by the Spanish and their central Mexican allies led by Francisco de Orozco in 1521. Upon Orozco's arrival to the Valley of Oaxaca on November 25, 1521, the Mixtecs would be peacefully submit to Spanish rule, though some resistance would continue in Antequera before ending by the end of 1521.

Mixtecs have migrated to various parts of both Mexico and the United States. In recent years a large exodus of Indigenous peoples from Oaxaca, such as the Zapotec and Triqui, has seen them emerge as one of the most numerous groups of Amerindians in the United States. As of 2011, an estimated 150,000 Mixteco people were living in California, and 25,000 to 30,000 in New York City.{{Cite news

| last = Claudia Torrens

| title = Some NY immigrants cite lack of Spanish as a barrier

| work = UTSanDiego.com

| access-date = 10 February 2013

| date = 28 May 2011

| url = http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/may/28/some-ny-immigrants-cite-lack-of-spanish-as-barrier/

}} Large Mixtec communities exist in the border cities of Tijuana, Baja California, San Diego, California and Tucson, Arizona. Mixtec communities are generally described as transnational or trans-border because of their ability to maintain and reaffirm social ties between their native homelands and diasporic communities. (See: Mixtec transnational migration.)

Mixtecs in the colonial era

File:2013-13-27_Máscara_funeraria_mixteca_Tumba_No._7_Monte_Alban_Museo_de_las_Culturas_de_Oaxaca_anagoria.JPG

File:Tumba 1 Zaachila.JPG

There is considerable documentation in the Mixtec (Ñudzahui) native language for the colonial era, which has been studied as part of the New Philology. Mixtec documentation indicates parallels between many Indigenous social and political structures with those in the Nahua areas, but published research on the Mixtecs does not primarily focus on economic matters. There is considerable Mixtec documentation for land issues, but sparse for market activity, perhaps because Indigenous cabildos did not regulate commerce or mediate economic disputes except for land.Kevin Terraciano, ‘’The Mixtecs of Colonial Oaxaca: Ñudzahui History, Sixteen through Eighteenth Centuries’’. Stanford: Stanford University Press 2001, 248–49. Long-distance trade existed in the prehispanic era and continued in Indigenous hands in the early colonial. In the second half of the colonial period, there were bilingual Mixtec merchants, dealing in both Spanish and Indigenous goods, who operated regionally. However, in the Mixteca “by the eighteenth century, commerce was dominated by Spaniards in all but the most local venues of exchange, involving the sale of agricultural commodities and Indigenous crafts or the resale of imported goods.”.Terraciano, ibid. p. 251

Despite the development of a local exchange economy, many Spaniards with economic interests in Oaxaca, including “[s]ome of the Mixteca priests, merchants, and landowners maintained permanent residence in Puebla, and labor for the obrajes (textile workshops) of the city of Puebla in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was sometimes recruited from peasant villages in the Mixteca."William B. Taylor, "Town and Country in the Valley of Oaxaca", ‘’The Provinces of Early Mexico’’, Ida Altman and James Lockhart, eds. Los Angeles, UCLA Latin American Center 1976, p. 74. There is evidence of community litigation against Mixtec caciques who leased land to Spaniards and the growth of individually contracted wage labor. Mixtec documentation from the late eighteenth century indicates that "most caciques were simply well-to-do investors in Spanish-style enterprises"; some married non-Indians; and in the late colonial era had little claim to hereditary authority.Kevin Terraciano, "The Colonial Mixtec Community," Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 80, Feb. 2000 p. 39

Geography

File:Codex Zouche-Nuttall - higher definition.jpg

Image:Mixtecs.png

The Mixtec area, both historically and currently, corresponds roughly to the western half of the state of Oaxaca, with some Mixtec communities extending into the neighboring state of Puebla to the north-west and also the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec people and their homelands are often subdivided into three geographic areas: The Mixteca Alta or Highland Mixtec living in the mountains in, around, and to the west of the Valley of Oaxaca; the Mixteca Baja or Lowland Mixtec living to the north and west of these highlands, and the Mixteca de la Costa or Coastal Mixtec living in the southern plains and the coast of the Pacific Ocean. For most of Mixtec history, the Mixteca Alta was the dominant political force, with the capitals of the Mixtec nation located in the central highlands. The valley of Oaxaca itself was often a disputed border region, sometimes dominated by the Mixtec and sometimes by their neighbors to the east, the Zapotec.

An ancient Coixtlahuaca Basin cave site known as the Colossal Natural Bridge is an important sacred place for the Mixtec.

Mixtec rulers

{{smalldiv|1=

Notes:

The names of the rulers are composed by the day of the birth + nickname;
For the sake of a simpler list, minor settlements will be joined with major ones if there are family connections between their rulers;
Some Zapotec/Toltec kingdoms are included here, because of the many marital connections between the Mixtec and Zapotec royal lineages;
The dynasty never breaks while a member of the family rules: the line goes through women if they ruled as queen regnants. However, if a son inherits the different kingdoms of the two reigning parents, the paternal line will be favoured.
A family tree of some of the rulers is available in [https://i.redd.it/xh8yrqc8hml81.png this link].

}}

=In Mixteca Costa=

==Acatepec, ''Yucu Yoo''==

1090-1097: Lady 6 Monkey War Quexquemitl (usurper, deposed),
Sub-rulers Lord 3 Aligator and Lord 1 Movement
1097-1115: Lord 8 Deer Jaguar Claw (usurper)

==Tututepec, ''Yucu Dzaa''==

?: Nizainzo Huidzo
c.357: Mzatzin
1084-1097: Lord 8 Deer Jaguar Claw (usurper)
to Tilantongo

==Zacatepec, ''Yucu Chatuta''==

1120-?: Lord 11 Jaguar Tlaloc Fire Wall

=In Mixteca Alta=

==Achiutla, ''Ñuu Ndecu''==

Pedernales-Achiutla dynasty

?: Lord 11 Flower Cloud Xicolli, with Lady 13 Wind Cloud Hair (siblings and spouses, children of Lord 4 Wind, King of Nuu Yuchi)
?: Lord 10 Aligator Digging Stick (father-in-law of Lord 2 Wind, King of Tlaxiaco)
?: Lord 8 Wind Smoked Claw (brother-in-law of Lord 12 Deer, King of Tlaxiaco)
?: Lord 7 Movement Blood Shedding Rain (son-in-law of 11 Wind, King of Tlaxiaco)
?: Lord 9 Wind Sun Fire Serpent
?: Lord 10 Aligator Jaguar with Claws like Flints (son of the previous)

==''Water Rubber Ball'' (Chacahua? Manialtepec?)==

?: Lord 9 Serpent (deposed)
?-1115: Lord 8 Deer Jaguar Claw (usurper)

==Andua==

c.887: Lord 12 Vulture Golden Eagle
?: Lord 3 Monkey Mexican Jaguar

==Bulto de Xipe/Huachino==

?: Lord 10 Movement
?: Lord 12 Lizard
?-1101: Lord 11 Wind Blood Jaguar (son of the previous)
To Tilantongo (1101-1115) and Nuu Yuchi (1115-1164)
?: Lord 6 Vulture Jaguar with Knife (son of Lord 9 Rain of Tlaxiaco)

==Chalcatongo, ''Nuu Ndaya''==

?: Lord 8 Aligator Bloody Coyote
?: Lord 3 Dog (son-in-law of Lord 8 Alligator, in the settlement of Santa Catarina Yuxia, Yuu Usa)
?: Lord 13 Jaguar War Beard (descendant)

==Cholula==

?: Lord 1 Lizard Serpent-Decorated Shield, with Lady 11 Serpent Jewel Mouth (wife)
c.1096: Lord 4 Jaguar Night Face

==''Hill of the Mask''==

class="wikitable"

! colspan=2 | Ruler!!Born!!Reign!!Consort!!Death!!Notes

bgcolor=#ceb

| align="center" colspan="7"|Tlaxiaco dynasty

bgcolor=#fff

|align="center"| Lord 8 Jaguar
Bloody Coyote

|align="center"| 1113
Tlaxiaco

|align="center"| ?

Lady 2 Vulture Jewel Fan
two children

|align="center"| ?

King at Tlaxiaco, a partition from Teozacoalco. His children possibly divided the realm.

bgcolor=#fff

|align="center"|Lord 4 Grass
Sun Face

|align="center"| ?
Son of Lord 8 Jaguar

|align="center"| ?

Lady 6 Reed Venus Face
one child

|align="center"| ?

Also king at Sosola (Acuchi).

bgcolor=#fff

|align="center"|Lord 1 Movement
Fire Serpent with Feathers

|align="center"| ?
Son of Lord 4 Grass and Lady 6 Reed

|align="center"| ?

Lady 2 House Precious Quexquemitl
one child

|align="center"| ?

Possibly survived his son, and was succeeded by his grandson.

bgcolor=#fff

|align="center"|Lord 7 Serpent
Eagle

|align="center"| ?
Son of Lord 4 House, Prince of Hill of the Mask and Lady 3 House

|align="center"| ?

Lady 3 Jaguar War Quexquemitl
one child

Lady 4 Serpent
one child

|align="center"| ?

Possibly survived his son (given the son's absence of nickname), and was succeeded by his grandson.

bgcolor=#fff

|align="center"|Lord 7 Rain
Ascending Flame

|align="center"| ?
Son of Lord 7 Serpent and Lady 4 Serpent

|align="center"| ?-1338

Lady 4 Monkey of Tilantongo,
Precious Fire Serpent
no children

|align="center"| 1338
Hill of the Mask

bgcolor=#fff

| align="center" colspan="7"|Hill of the Mask annexed to Teozacoalco

==Jaltepec, ''Añute''==

class="wikitable"

! colspan=2 | Ruler!!Born!!Reign!!Consort!!Death!!Notes

bgcolor=#ceb

| align="center" colspan="7"|Apoala-Jaltepec dynasty

bgcolor=#fff

|align="center"|Lord 10 Reed
Eagle

|align="center"| c.880?
Son of Lord 2 Grass
Death Serpent, prince of Apoala and Lady 8 Rabbit
Sun Headdress, Queen of Whirlpool of Blood-Temple of the
Spiderweb and Smoke

|align="center"| ? – after 920

Lady 2 Lizard
Venus Red and White Band
at least one child

|align="center"| after 920

bgcolor=#fff

|align="center"|Lord 3 Rain
Ballcourt with Lines

|align="center"| ?
Son of Lord 10 Reed and Lady 2 Lizard

|align="center"| ?

Lady 7 Death
Rain Flaming Knot
no children

|align="center"| ?

bgcolor=#ceb

| align="center" colspan="7"|Suchixtlán dynasty

bgcolor=#fff

|align="center"|Lady 9 Wind
Stone Quexquemitl

|rowspan="2"|100px

|align="center"| c.1010
Daughter of Lord 8 Wind
Twenty Eagles, King of Suchixtlán and Lady 10 Deer Jaguar Quexquemitl

|align="center" rowspan="2"| ? – 1090

|rowspan="2"| 1041
five children

|align="center"| 1090
Jaltepec
aged 79–80?

|rowspan="2"| Spouses, ruled jointly.

Lord 13 Grass, Lady 9 Wind's brother, ruled in the settlement of Arrow-Red Liquid

bgcolor=#fff

|align="center"|Lord 10 Eagle
Stone Jaguar

|align="center"| ?
Son of Lord 10 Flower, King of Tilantongo and Lady 2 Serpent of Suchixtlán

|align="center"| ?

bgcolor=#fff

Mixtec

Nomenclature and etymology

Overview

Mixtecs in the colonial era

Geography

Mixtec rulers

=In Mixteca Costa=

==Acatepec, ''Yucu Yoo''==

==Tututepec, ''Yucu Dzaa''==

==Zacatepec, ''Yucu Chatuta''==

=In Mixteca Alta=

==Achiutla, ''Ñuu Ndecu''==

==''Water Rubber Ball'' (Chacahua? Manialtepec?)==

==Andua==

==Bulto de Xipe/Huachino==

==Chalcatongo, ''Nuu Ndaya''==

==Cholula==

==''Hill of the Mask''==

==Jaltepec, ''Añute''==

==Juquila, ''Nuu Sitoho''==

=="Monkey"==

==Mitlatongo, ''Dzandaya''==

==''Flower Mountain'', ''Yucu Ita''==

==''Broken Mountain''==

==Place of Flints/Pedernales, ''Nuu Yuchi''==

==Quetzal==

==Río de la Serpiente==

== San Pedro Cántaros, ''Nuu Naha'' ==

==''Place of the Drum'' (Soyaltepec) (?)==

==Suchixtlán, ''Chiyo Yuhu''==

==Teita==

==Teozacoalco, ''Chiyo Cahnu''==

==Tilantongo, ''Ñuu Tnoo''==

==Tlaxiaco, ''Ndisi Nuu''==

==Totomihuacan==

==[[Tula (Mesoamerican site)|Tula]] <small>(Toltec)</small>==

==''Deep Valley''==

==Yanhuitlán==

==[[Zaachila]], ''Tocuisi'' <small>(Zapotec)</small>==

=In Mixteca Baja=

==Acatlan==

==Chila==

Language, codices, and artwork

References

=Further reading=

External links