Mixtec

Mixtec, Middle American Indian population living in the northern and western sections of the state of Oaxaca and in neighbouring parts of the states of Guerrero and Puebla in southern Mexico. Historically the Mixtec possessed a high degree of civilization in Aztec and pre-Aztec times.

The modern Mixtec are primarily farmers who practice slash-and-burn cultivation and use the hoe and digging stick or oxen and the plow. Corn (maize), beans, and squash are the staple crops. Other subsistence activities are hunting, fishing, herding, gathering wild foods, and producing and selling items of woven palm fibre. Settlement patterns vary; there are central villages (which may be vacant except during fiestas or market days, the families living on their farms most of the time), and there are dispersed villages with family groups living scattered over the countryside.

Weaving (of cloth and palm fibre) and ceramics are common crafts. Dress is largely traditional or semitraditional. Men wear a white cotton shirt and trousers, straw hat, and sandals. Women wear a wraparound skirt, a long tunic (huipil), and a shawl (rebozo). Women generally are barefoot and may go without the huipil, nude above the waist, in the coastal areas.

Although nominally Christian, most Mixtec believe in an assortment of pre-Christian spirits and deities, and in some areas they worship stone idols representing the rain god. Hills, caves, streams, springs, and swamps may also be sacred. Agricultural rituals and the harvest feast are important, and curanderos (shaman-healers) are common. Christian fiestas and masses for patron saints are also celebrated, with church brotherhoods (cofradías) organizing the festivities.