The Mazatec are an Indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit the Sierra Mazateca in the state of Oaxaca and some communities in the adjacent states of Puebla and Veracruz.
 Mazatec girls performing a dance in Huautla de Jimenez | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| ~305,836 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Mexico (Oaxaca) | |
| Languages | |
| Mazatec, Spanish | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholic, and Traditional religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Popolocas |
Some researchers have theorized that the Mazatec, along with Popoloca speakers, once inhabited the lowlands of the Papaloapan basin, but were driven into the adjacent highlands by the expansion of Nahuas.[1]
Language family
editThe Mazatecan languages are part of the Popolocan family which, in turn, is part of the Otomanguean language family.
Traditional religious rituals
editMazatec tradition includes the cultivation of entheogens for spiritual and ritualistic use. Plants and fungi used for this purpose include psilocybin mushrooms, psychoactive morning glory seeds (from species such as Ipomoea tricolor and Ipomoea corymbosa), and Salvia divinorum.[2][3][4] This latter plant is known to Mazatec shamans as ska María Pastora, the name containing a reference to the Virgin Mary.[3]
Notable Mazatecs
editSee also
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Notes
edit- ^ Wauchope, R. (2015). Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volumes 7 and 8: Ethnology. United States: University of Texas Press. pg 325
- ^ Jean Basset Johnson (1939) The elements of Mazatec witchcraft, Etnologiska Studier 9:128-150.
- ^ a b Valdés et al. (1983)
- ^ Osiris Sinuhé González Romero (2022-02-10). "Mazatec Shamanic Knowledge and Psilocybin Mushrooms". Chacruna. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
References
edit- Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics, 4. William Bright (series general ed.) (OUP paperback edition, 2000 ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-509427-5. OCLC 32923907.
- CDI [Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas] (2004–2007). "Mazatecos - Ha shuta Enima". Información: Los pueblos indígenas de México (in Spanish). CDI. Archived from the original on 2007-06-09. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- Karttunen, Frances E. (1994). Between Worlds: Interpreters, Guides, and Survivors. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-2030-8. OCLC 28150669.
- Mooney, James (1911). "Mazatec Indians". Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. X (New Advent online reproduction ed.). New York: Robert Appleton and Company. Retrieved 2007-05-02.
- Valdés, Leander J., III; José Luis Díaz; Ara G. Paul (1983). "Ethnopharmacology of ska María Pastora (Salvia divinorum, Epling and Játiva-M)". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 7 (3): 287–312. doi:10.1016/0378-8741(83)90004-1. hdl:2027.42/25229. PMID 6876852.
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External links
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