Mazatec

Mazatec, Mesoamerican Indians of northern Oaxaca in southern Mexico. The region is mostly mountainous, with small valleys, and its flora and fauna are diverse. The Mazatec language is most closely related to those of the Chocho, Ixcatec, and Popoloca. The people are agricultural, depending primarily on corn (maize), beans, squash, and chilies. Meat and eggs are considered luxuries. Cultivation is done mainly with digging stick and hoe. Houses are rectangular, with thatched roofs; they are congregated in towns and villages. Crafts such as weaving and pottery are dying out, their products replaced by commercial goods. Women still wear the huipil (a long, loose cotton tunic) and ankle-length underskirt; men wear white cotton pants and shirts. Cloth is industrially woven.

The Mazatec elect their own municipal authorities at two-year intervals; candidates must have the approval of the council of elders. Townspeople contribute compulsory communal labour. The Mazatec are Roman Catholic with syncretistic elements. A mayordomo is elected or appointed in each town to take care of the patron saint and to organize and partially finance the saint’s annual fiesta. Spirits of caves, hills, and springs are also reverenced, however, and the Mazatec believe widely in witchcraft. Mazatec shamans have a long history of using diviner’s sage, a hallucinogenic plant of the mint family. They ingest its fresh leaves or leaf preparations for spiritual rituals and healing ceremonies, and as a medicinal herb. Early 21st-century population estimates of the Mazatec range from approximately 139,000 to more than 250,000 individuals.