academicanarchist
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New Book
My latest book on 16th century Augustinian missions on and beyond the Chichimeca frontier will be available soon. Here is the link:
http://www.brill.com/conflict-and-conversion-sixteenth-centu...
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DENNIS
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109 Euros. That's a lot of Pacifico. How about a Kindle edition?
Jes kiddin. Good luck with sales.
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BajaBlanca
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Where or what is Chichimeca?
Sounds very interesting, thanks for sharing here.
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David K
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Best luck to you Robert! Books are a passion containing many hours of time to create with only a few seconds of reward but years of appreciation.
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academicanarchist
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The Chichimecas
The groups collectively known as the Chichimecas were nomadic hunter-gatherers who occupied a large territory in the central plateau between the
Sierra Madre Oriental and Occidental. The two texts written by Augustinian missionary Guillermo de Santa María, O.S.A, in 1575 and 1580 provide
important ethnographic details regarding the different Chichimeca groups, and their motives for going to war with the Spanish. Santa María described
the four principal Chichimeca linguistic groups, who were the Pames, Guamares, Guachichiles, and Zacatecas.
The Pames were the groups that lived closest to Spanish settlements, and their territory stretched on the west from Acámbaro, Yurririapúndaro, and
Ucareo to Ixmiquilpan, Meztitlán, and Panuco on the east, although they also mixed with P’urépecha and Hñähñú. According to the Augustinian they were
the least hostile to the Spanish, and engaged in the theft of Spanish livestock near Ixmiquilpan, that they atet. Franciscan and Dominican
missionaries attempted to evangelize the Pames at the time that Santa María wrote, and the missionaries congregated the natives at different
communities that included Querétaro, San Pedro Tuliman, Posinquia, and Xichú. There were also two Pames communities subject to Acámbaro on the
Michoacán frontier that were Santa María and Yrapúndaro.
The Guamares were considered to be the most warlike of the Chichimeca groups, and were divided into four or five smaller linguistic subgroups that
spoke similar languages. Their territory bordered Spanish settlements along the Río Lerma in Jalisco and western Michoacán into what today are
Guanajuato and El Tunal in San Luis Potosi. Santa María had personal experience with Guamares from the Augustinian doctrina at Huango on the frontier
in Michoacán, near Laguna Cuitzeo. The Augustinian settled Guamares and P’urépecha at Pénjamo and Cuerámaro around 1555. Another Guamar settlement
was El Mezquital, the site of modern Celaya.
Santa María identified the Guachichiles as the most numerous Chichimeca linguistic group, and he had personal experience with groups he settled at Ayo
el Chico in what today is Jalisco just north of Chapala. Their territory was north of the Río Lerma from Ayo el Chico and Arandas in Los Altos de
Jalisco, what today is Léon, Guanajuato, Villa de Lagos, and as far north as Mazapil in northern Zacatecas close to Parras, Coahuila. There
territorial range also included El Tunal Grande in what today is San Luis Potosi. The last major Chichimeca language group was the Zacatecas, who
lived in the area around the mining center established at Zacatecas. Santa María had little or no personal contact with Zacatecas groups, and provides
little detail regarding them.
Santa María wrote general observations regarding the culture and economy of the Chichimecas. The Chichimecas were matrilocal, meaning that the husband
moved to live with his wife’s family. The Chichimecas did not engage in agriculture. The diet consisted of wild plant foods such as fruit and
particularly cactus fruit, roots, and the leaves, heart, and roots of the maguey. They also prepared fermented drinks from maguey, cactus fruit, and
mesquite. Hunting supplemented the collection of wild plant foods. There was a clearly defined division of labor. Women cooked, cared for children,
and collected wild plant foods. Men hunted and engaged in warfare. Santa María emphasized that women did much of the work, and referred to Chichimeca
women as “slaves” to their fathers and husbands. This clearly defined division of gender roles and the unwillingness of men to shift their roles made
the missionaries’ efforts at modifying their culture and social structure even more difficult, as the Chichimecas were unwilling to abandon their
traditional way of life.
Santa María reported that the Chichimecas did not keep idols, maintain temples, pray, or make sacrifices as did the sedentary natives in central
Mexico. However, he did describe dancing rituals and sacrifices of captives taken in war. This suggests that the Chichimecas did have deities, but
did not practice a more formal religion as did the sedentary natives living below the Chichimeca frontier. Santa María did note that they did address
the sky and certain stars, and sought protection from thunder and lightening, which most likely were central elements of their religious beliefs. The
Chichimecas also had a ball game (juego de pelota) which most likely also had religious significance similar to that among the sedentary natives in
central Mexico.
The Chichimecas were warlike, and Santa María wrote that they went to war for trivial reasons. Nevertheless, the Augustinian documented the causes for
their attacks against the Spanish. Chichimeca warriors fought nude armed with bows and arrows, as they were depicted in the Ixmiquilpan church murals
and on the facade of the Augustinian doctrina San Pablo Yurririapúndaro, established beyond the frontier in Chichimeca territory (see Figure 5).
There were two reasons for Chichimeca resistance to the Spanish advance, and Santa María noted that the Chichimecas initially interacted with the
Spanish peacefully. The first cause was the Spanish enslavement of women and children. The second was the invasion of their territory by Spanish
livestock that consumed the plant foods the Chichimecas depended on, particularly cactus stands and mesquite. Chichimecas hunted and killed Spanish
livestock, which became an immediate cause of friction between the natives and the Spanish. As the Spanish established livestock ranches, farms, and
mines in Chichimeca territory, the conflict escalated. Chichimeca warriors raided the Spanish settlements that intruded in their territory. The
Spanish retaliated by enslaving thousand of Chichimecas, particularly in the 1570s and 1580s.
The Chichimecas reportedly were extremely cruel in warfare, killing men, women, and children. Santa María noted that Chichimeca warriors killed as a
“pleasure and pastime, as if they killed a hare or deer.” The sacrifice of captives was for Santa María a cruel practice “the devil or their bad
customs have shown them” to desensitize them to death and killing in war. They were fierce and formidable enemies.
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