Chinantec

ETHNONYMS: The Chinantec are subdivided by dialect, habitat, and culture into at least four main groups. "Huhmei," "Wa-hmi," and "Dzah-hmi" are the ethnonyms used by groups inhabiting central, eastern, and western subregions, respectively. No ethnonyms are reported for northern and northwestern groups.

Orientation

Identification. The name "Chinantla" derives from the Nahuatl word chinamitl, meaning "enclosed space" or "near the canes." There is no Chinantec term to describe this region. The unity of the contemporary Chinantec derives from the group's self-differentiation from neighboring non-Chinantec communities rather than from any internal political or social cohesion. A paucity of research, particularly comparative work, makes it difficult to determine what is shared Chinantec culture and what is peculiar to a particular village or hamlet. Few data exist on pre-Conquest Chinantec culture. The terms "traditionally" and "in the past" here refer to the period between the Spanish Conquest and the mid-1950s.

Location. The Chinantec reside, as their ancestors did aboriginally, in northern Oaxaca, Mexico, within the Papaloapan River Basin, generally to the south and east of the Santo Domingo and Valle Nacional rivers, which join near the city of Tuxtepec. Today there are fourteen Chinantec townships, each with several lesser dependent communities. The area is very mountainous and characterized by high humidity and extremely heavy rainfall.

Linguistic Affiliation. Chinantec is a branch of the Otomanguean Language Family. Its closest linguistic relations are with Amuzgan and Popolocan, but Chinantec has been separated from them for about 3,500 years. Fourteen dialects are recognized.

Demography. There were 12,000 Chinantec speakers in 1876, the date of the earliest population estimate. The 1980 census reports an estimated 67,000 Chinantec speakers, 17,000 of whom speak no Spanish.

History and Cultural Relations

The origin of the Chinantec is unknown. It is possible that they migrated from the west near the Tehuacán Valley to their present location as recently as a.d. 1000. By the fifteenth century Chinantec settlements were concentrated in the well-watered, fertile lowland valleys near present-day Valle Nacional. The Chinantla was successfully invaded in 1454-1455 by Nahuatl speakers and then again in the early sixteenth century by the Spanish. Three closely spaced epidemics of European-introduced diseases soon decimated an estimated 80 percent of the Chinantec population, and by the 1570s many Chinantec lived in dispersed hamlets of eleven to fifteen persons. To facilitate political control and religious conversion, colonial authorities forcibly congregated these Chinantec in concentrated communities in the highlands. A great simplification in social structure was one result. Most of the Chinantec region was not held in encomienda but instead administered directly by the crown. Although the Spaniards had hoped to find vast deposits of gold there, the area came instead to be valued for cotton and cochineal. By the nineteenth century the best lands had been taken by foreign companies, and many lowland Chinantec were again displaced. Even after the 1910 Mexican Revolution, coffee, banana, and tobacco production remained in foreign hands. Development programs instituted since 1947 by the Papaloapan River Commission displaced other lowland Chinantec.

The Chinantec region is contiguous with Zapotec communities to the south and those of the Cuicatec to the west, Mazatec to the north, and Mixe to the southeast.

Settlements

History and variable terrain have contributed to the diversity of Chinantec settlement patterns—notably, congregated, semicongregated, and dispersed. Each town has a number of smaller, dependent hamlets, which are abandoned when their soil becomes exhausted. Settlements range in size from town centers of about 1,000 to hamlets of just one nuclear family. Some larger communities are subdivided into corporate, exogamic barrios that control lands, milling machinery, and religious chapels. Only in the lowlands do towns follow the standard Spanish grid pattern. Although most highland houses possess an adjoining garden plot, they lack obstructing hedges or fences. Lowland houses are rectangular and windowless, with doors at both ends, wooden posts, and thatched or tin roofs. Highland houses are also rectangular but have windows. They are generally adobe with tile or tin roofs, although some are concrete.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities . Traditionally, the Chinantec used digging sticks to cultivate maize, beans, and squashes. Forced displacement into the upper-mountain regions brought about adoption of the European bull-drawn plow. The Chinantec cultivate these same three crops today, supplemented by raising fowl and pigs and some wild and cultivated fruits and nuts. Today, as in the past, slash-and-burn gardening is most common. There still is no irrigation, and few farmers use fertilizer. Fishing continues to be important in the lowlands. Coffee is of increasing significance as a cash crop. During the nineteenth century many Chinantec subsistence farmers also worked as peons on local, foreign-owned plantations in the riverside regions. Today many Chinantec of both sexes are temporary or permanent labor migrants to Mexican cities and the United States.

Industrial Arts. The Chinantec have few technological activities other than farming. Since at least the 1950s, most items have been purchased. Only limited domestic production of fiber bags and baskets, fishing nets, pottery, and huipiles (handwoven women's garments) persisted into the present.

Trade. In the past the subsistence crops were neither exported nor traded. All other products were obtained from resident merchants or itinerant peddlers, who were usually Cuicatec in the lowlands and Zapotec in the highlands. Coffee export to the national market dates at least to 1900. At various historical periods, native markets were found in highland communities, but they often had to be suspended owing to intercommunity tension. These trade patterns persist, although the advent of a highway, connecting roads, and motor transport enables the Chinantec to leave their communities to make purchases in Oaxaca, Tuxtepec, and Valle Nacional.

Division of Labor. Women and men both engage in agriculture, although the nature and extent of women's participation varies by community. Women are also responsible for all domestic tasks, including care of pigs and fowl. These contemporary patterns appear to have historical precedent. Today both sexes also engage in cash-generating activities. Children traditionally participated in agricultural activities from about the age of 7. They continue to do so today as classes permit.

Land Tenure. Most townships have communally owned tracts, with members permitted indefinite occupancy and use, although the land cannot be alienated. In the past, corporate groups such as barrios or age grades also controlled limited communal lands. In addition, communities may have smallholder plots. In riverside communities plantations were expropriated from foreign companies by the federal agrarian reform program and awarded to Chinantec peasants who cultivate and govern them as ejidos.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. Descent is strictly bilateral. There is no evidence of lineages or other extended kinship groups, nor of kinship units owning specific pieces of land.

Kinship Terminology. Chinantec kinship fits George P. Murdock's general definition of the Hawaiian classification, but in classifying the parental generation and descending lineal generations it approaches Type b, European, in the Lowie-Kirchhoff scheme.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Marriage was traditionally arranged by the groom's parents, directly or through an intermediary. This custom continues in attenuated form. Female virginity was, and still is, not essential. In some areas short periods of bride- or groom-service were formerly expected; elopements were frequent, in part because ritual gifts and other aspects of the wedding were so expensive. Polygyny was apparently practiced prior to the Spanish Conquest and, to a limited extent, thereafter. Today, as in the past, divorce is not permitted, but marital separations sometimes occur, in which case the abandoning partner is fined.

Domestic Unit. The conjugal pair, their minor children, and sometimes a surviving parent are the most common domestic unit. Sons, or occasionally daughters, may live with their parents for a short time following marriage. Single-person households are rare.

Inheritance. Customs vary by locality, and in communities where most lands are communal, there may be little other than the house and house site to inherit. In general, sons inherit more often than daughters and receive equal shares. The house is typically inherited by the youngest son (or daughter), who is expected to care for the elderly parents until their death.

Socialization. The mother, along with older siblings, carries out most child socialization. There are no specific children's games but rather ones improvised with natural products like earth or flowers. Children are given responsibilities at a young age. Communities vary greatly in their attitudes toward formal schooling, from those that place great stock in it to those that are indifferent. In the past, only boys were formally educated, but now girls also attend school.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. Although considerable variation is seen among communities, the core of all Chinantec social Organization is the nuclear family, with a tendency toward extension through Catholic compadrazgo, or godparent sponsorship. In the past, many Chinantec communities were organized around corporate groups, such as barrios, age grades, and status groups (e.g., widows). In some communities, barrio structures were elaborate and could include socio-ritual organizations and marriage prohibitions. Today barrios are of small importance. Age grades formerly contributed to men's status; after successfully fulfilling a series of ranked community responsibilities, they became respected elders, or ancianos. Such individuals were viewed as collectively responsible for the community's welfare. Today, as in the past, women in most communities do not participate in formal political activities, but they are not submissive to men and enjoy high social status.

Political Organization. Chinantec political organization, as throughout rural Mesoamerica, consists of a civil-religious hierarchy (cargo system). In most communities the post-Conquest pattern survives: all married men are obliged to serve in unremunerated public office; men living in outlying hamlets usually must serve in the center. All matters affecting community welfare are discussed in public assemblies composed of all men under age 50. A council of elders, which survives in conservative communities, is an extraconstitutional body responsible for protecting the community from internal dissension and the threat of supernatural forces. Although the elders cannot override the municipal president, no major decision is made without consulting them. In the past, the collectivity of ancianos appointed officeholders and had the authority to sanction those who refused to serve. Today state law requires that town officers be elected by universal suffrage. In less conservative communities, the president and elected authorities are now counseled by groups of bilingual, middle-aged married men.

Social Control. Traditional discipline was not harsh and rewards and punishments for both children and adults were generally verbal, with the exception of the public execution of witches accused of causing epidemics (e.g., of whooping cough). The chief concern of the police was to prevent quarrels, fires, or other damage caused by excessive alcohol consumption. Today, punishment is still lenient. The ritual elders, in conjunction with municipal authorities, are responsible for maintaining the public peace. Gossip and fear of witchcraft are the main means of social control.

Conflict. The Chinantec were not and are not today violently competitive; particularly in the highlands, homicide and even physical fighting are rare. Nevertheless, long-standing friction between neighboring Chinantec communities, between head towns and dependent hamlets, and even between barrios continues to be common. In communities where both Chinantec and mestizos reside, intergroup relations are fraught with conflict.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Chinantec religion after the Spanish/Catholic Conquest had many syncretic elements (e.g., a bisexual "Father and Mother of Maize"). Chinantec cosmology posited two worlds, day and night, in eternal struggle. Creation myths varied but most were based on humans descending from monkeys or monkeys as the ancients. Deference, respect, and gratitude are shown to prominent features of the natural environment and the creatures inhabiting it; failure to do this is punished by sickness. Although the Chinantec are still nominally Catholic, there have been Protestant inroads in some communities.

The best evidence of pre-Christian expressive culture is the sizable Chinantec collection of folklore about the sun and moon, animal "tricksters," and "owners" or "kings" of animal and fish species, prominent mountain peaks, the earth, and other natural phenomena. There are divining specialists who gain access to the supernatural world by using hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms or seeds of the Rivea corymbosa vine. Use of these substances is not restricted to specialists.

Religious Practitioners. Most Chinantec communities are served by parish priests who visit once or twice a year on major holidays. These visits are supplemented by another priest contracted to celebrate Mass on other important fiesta days. In the absence of a resident priest, communities rely on trained laypeople to perform rosaries. Particularly in the highlands, there is a long history of fractious relations with local priests; many of these conflicts persist to this day. Traditional, divination specialists still exist in some communities.

Ceremonies. Differential disposal of male and female placentas continues in some communities: a girl's is buried under the family hearth, and a boy's is hung on a nearby tree branch. Chinantec rites to assure the harvest, once common, persist in places in attenuated form. One or more elders may still undertake an annual pilgrimage to churches in neighboring villages or major towns in the Oaxaca Valley in an effort to assure the village welfare. The principal festivals are the annual pre-Lenten carnivals, organized by bachelors, which reenact the arrival of the Spanish conquerors. Also important are the annual fiestas that honor each community's patron saint and the New Year's Day ceremony marking the investiture of new officials.

Arts. No evidence of traditional Chinantec arts, crafts, drama, or other aesthetic expression has been found. In some highland communities, a well-developed complex of dances is performed for carnival. Village bands play at all ceremonial occasions.

Medicine. A rich tradition of medicinal-herb use predates the Spanish Conquest. Today, curing is by herbal, spiritual, and mechanical techniques. There are few indigenous Chinantec healers, and people are reluctant to go to either physicians or specialized curers; most health care is administered by women at home.

Death and Afterlife. A person is born with several souls. Death can be caused by kidnapping one of them. All souls leave the body at death. Among the Chinantec there is no fear of a soul or a ghost returning to haunt the living. Although never elaborate, death rites varied. The cadaver was usually rolled in a straw mat or a sheet or placed in a wooden box. In the lowlands, objects (e.g., clothing, flowers, food) were often buried along with the corpse. There was generally some form of ritual purification after burial. In the highlands, there were no grave objects or ritual purification. Today graves are prepared by municipal officials, and the body is accompanied to the cemetery by municipal musicians.

Bibliography

Bevan, Bernard (1938). The Chinantec: Report on the Central and South-Eastern Chinantec Region. Vol. 1, The Chinantec and Their Habitat. Publication 24. Mexico City: Instituto Panamericano de Geografia Historia.

Hopkins, Nicholas (1984). "Otomanguean Linguistic Prehistory." In Essays in Otomanguean Culture History, edited by J. Kathryn Josserand, Marcus Winter, and Nicholas Hopkins, 25-64. Publication no. 31. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology.

Weitlaner, Roberto J., and Howard F. Cline (1969). "The Chinantec." In Handbook of Middle American Indians, edited by Robert Wauchope. Vol. 7, Ethnology, Part One, edited by Evon Z. Vogt, 523-552. Austin: University of Texas Press.

C. H. BROWNER AND ARTHUR J. RUBEL

We wish to thank Sarah L. Cline for graciously providing access to the field notes and papers of her late father, Howard F. Cline.