Xiximes

{{Infobox language

| name = Xixime

| familycolor = uto-aztecan

| fam2 = Southern?

| fam3 = Taracahitic?

| states = Mexico

| region = Durango, Sinaloa

| ethnicity = Xixime

| extinct = ?

| iso3 = none

| dia1 = Hine

| dia2 = Hume

| glotto = none

| linglist = 0vt

| linglist2 = 0wg

| lingname2 = Hine

| lingname = Xixime

| linglist3 = 0wj

| lingname3 = Hume

}}

The Xixime spoke Xixime, a poorly documented, now-extinct Uto-Aztecan language.{{Cite book |last=Kroeber |first=Alfred Louis |author-link=Alfred Kroeber |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_M70pNlgDf0C&q=Uto-Aztecan+Xixime&pg=PA124 |title=Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America |date=1939 |publisher=University of California Press |language=en}} Dialects of Xixime included Hine and Hume (to the north and south of the Xixime territory, respectively).{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XHafCQAAQBAJ&q=Xixime+language&pg=PA965|title=Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volumes 7 and 8: Ethnology|last=Vogt|first=Evon Z.|date=1969-01-01|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=9781477306697|language=en}} The exact classification of the language is unknown although it may belong to the Taracahitic branch.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i3g8DwAAQBAJ&q=Xixime+hume+hine&pg=PA135|title=American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America|last=Campbell|first=Lyle|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195140507|language=en}}

A considerable amount of the scholarship and media attention devoted to the Xixime has focused on the group's reported practice of cannibalism. While a variety of colonial Spanish accounts of the Xixime report the culture engaged in frequent, ritual consumption of enemy peoples, the historical accuracy of the allegations is disputed.{{Cite thesis|title=Leave us alone, we do not want your help. Let us live our lives : indigenous resistance and ethnogenesis in Nueva Vizcaya (colonial Mexico)|url=https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/11060|publisher=University of St Andrews|date=2017-06-22|degree=Thesis|language=en|first=Rivera|last=Acosta|hdl=10023/11060}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.inah.gob.mx/en/4299-sinaloa-xixime-people-s-cannibalism-a-myth|title=Sinaloa Xixime people's Cannibalism, A Myth|website=www.inah.gob.mx|access-date=2019-09-07}}

A number of historians including Susan M. Deeds apply theories developed by Gananath Obeyesekere on Aztec sacrifice to suggest that the practice of cannibalism was "exaggerated or contrived" by the Xixime to intimidate their Spanish enemies.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r7uMcVV0J-UC&q=aztec|title=The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific|last=Obeyesekere|first=Gananath|date=1997-12-14|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691057521|pages=262|language=en}}

In 2011 José Luis Punzo argued that newly discovered bones from Cueva del Mague, Durango constituted proof of the practice, citing evidence of "boiling and defleshing."

Conquistador Nuño de Guzmán first documented the existence of the Xixime via reports collected by scouts during a 1530 expedition. In comparison with their neighbors, the Xiximes were regarded as relatively civilized by the Spanish given their urban settlements and stone buildings.

File:Acaxee Xixime map.svg

Despite initially tolerating the presence of Spanish missions in neighboring territories, the Xiximes, in 1610, began organizing violent resistance to colonial incursions. The Xiximes solicited help from the Acaxees (their northern neighbors and historical enemies) and Tepehuán arguing that Jesuit churches were "temples of disease" and that destroying them would bring immortality.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vZEQAQAAQBAJ&q=Xixime+slavery&pg=PA26|title=Defiance and Deference in Mexico's Colonial North: Indians under Spanish Rule in Nueva Vizcaya|last=Deeds|first=Susan M.|date=2010-01-01|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=9780292782303|language=en}} In response to Acaxee unwillingness to cooperate in anti-Spanish rebellion, the Xiximes began organizing attacks on Acaxee villages.

File:Francisco_de_urdinola.jpg]]

To fend off the attacks, the Acaxee requested protection from the Spanish. In response, Francisco de Urdiñola attempted to secure peace through diplomatic means, though such efforts were spurned by the Xiximes. Aided by 200 Spanish soldiers and 1,100 indigenous allies, Urdiñola attempted to quell the Acaxee-led. By October, the surrender of key rebel leaders had effectively ended the uprising.

{{Main|Tepehuán Revolt}}

The Tepehuán Revolt of 1616, which proved significantly harder to contain than the Xixime Rebellion, enjoyed widespread Xixime support.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KGQ2DwAAQBAJ&q=Xixime+revolt&pg=PA432|title=Sacred Dialogues: Christianity and Native Religions in the Colonial Americas 1492–1700|last=Griffiths|first=Nicholas|date=2017-08-31|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=9780244019631|language=en}}

{{Reflist}}

Category:Indigenous peoples of Aridoamerica

Category:Extinct Indigenous peoples in Mexico

Category:Cannibalism in North America