Becoming an Ancestor

Becoming an Ancestor PDF

Author: Anya Peterson Royce

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2011-11-17

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1438436793

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Powerful and beautifully written, this is the story of the Isthmus Zapotecs of southern Mexico and their unbroken chain of ancestors and collective memory over the generations. Mortuary beliefs and actions are collective and pervasive in ways not seen in the United States, a resonant deep structure across many domains of Zapotec culture. Anthropologist Anya Peterson Royce draws upon forty years of participant research in the city of Juchitán to offer a finely textured portrait of the vibrant and enduring power of death in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec of Mexico. Focusing especially on the lives of Zapotec women, Becoming an Ancestor highlights the aesthetic sensibility and durability of mortuary traditions in the past and present. An intricate blending of Roman Catholicism and indigenous spiritual tradition, death through beliefs and practices expresses a collective solidarity that connects families, binds the living and dead, and blurs the past and present. A model of ethnographic research and presentation, Becoming an Ancestor not only reveals the luminescent heart of Zapotec culture but also provides important clues about the cultural power and potential of mortuary traditions for all societies.

Cultural Politics in Colonial Tehuantepec

Cultural Politics in Colonial Tehuantepec PDF

Author: Judith Francis Zeitlin

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780804733885

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This book is a historical and archeological examination of the Isthmus Zapotec state, which was established at Tehuantepec in late prehispanic times through a campaign of conquest and colonization, and the responses that its descendant populations made to the complex political, economic, and cultural changes introduced by Spanish colonialism. Although the modern-day Isthmus Zapotecs are renowned in Mexico and among Latin Americanists for their vibrant cultural traditions and their legacy of political resistance, only isolated elements of the complex historical processes by which these patterns emerged have been studied previously. Using complementary archival and archeological sources, the book details the transformation of Isthmus Zapotec society under colonialism and the enduring structures through which its members redefined their political autonomy.

The Isthmus Zapotecs

The Isthmus Zapotecs PDF

Author: Beverly Chiñas

Publisher: Harcourt Brace College Publishers

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13:

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Originally published: Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1992.

Zapotec-English/English-Zapotec (Isthmus) Concise Dictionary

Zapotec-English/English-Zapotec (Isthmus) Concise Dictionary PDF

Author: A. Scott Britton

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13:

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Isthmus Zapotec, one of at least six known varieties of Zapotec, claims the largest number of speakers in the Zapotecean family. It is spoken in Oaxacam in Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and in the state's capital city, Oaxaca de Juarez. This is the first dictionary of Isthmus Zapotec to be published in English. In addition to over 5, 000 entries -- with etymological notes given when entry words derive from Spanish -- the dictionary contains detailed yet concise sections covering spelling and pronunciation, as well as the major points of Isthmus Zapotec grammar.

Mexico South

Mexico South PDF

Author: Miguel Covarrubius

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-08-11

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 1000149668

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This book deals with the modern, northern half of the Isthmus, its social struggles and its varied problems in adapting a backward region to the need and ways of industrial civilization. It presents a view of the modern Isthmus Zapotecs, living around Juchitan and Tehuantepec.

Ancient Zapotec Religion

Ancient Zapotec Religion PDF

Author: Michael Lind

Publisher: University Press of Colorado

Published: 2015-04-15

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 1607323745

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Ancient Zapotec Religion is the first comprehensive study of Zapotec religion as it existed in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca on the eve of the Spanish Conquest. Author Michael Lind brings a new perspective, focusing not on underlying theological principles but on the material and spatial expressions of religious practice. Using sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish colonial documents and archaeological findings related to the time period leading up to the Spanish Conquest, he presents new information on deities, ancestor worship and sacred bundles, the Zapotec cosmos, the priesthood, religious ceremonies and rituals, the nature of temples, the distinctive features of the sacred and solar calendars, and the religious significance of the murals of Mitla—the most sacred and holy center. He also shows how Zapotec religion served to integrate Zapotec city-state structure throughout the valley of Oaxaca, neighboring mountain regions, and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Ancient Zapotec Religion is the first in-depth and interdisciplinary book on the Zapotecs and their religious practices and will be of great interest to archaeologists, epigraphers, historians, and specialists in Native American, Latin American, and religious studies.

Information structure in Isthmus Zapotec narrative and conversation

Information structure in Isthmus Zapotec narrative and conversation PDF

Author: Juan José Bueno Holle

Publisher: Language Science Press

Published:

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 3961101299

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This book presents an in-depth description of information structure in Isthmus Zapotec, an Otomanguean language spoken by around 50,000 people in southeastern Oaxaca, Mexico, and represents the first book-length treatment of information structure in a Mesoamerican language. Three main observations motivate the study: Strong documentation and a relatively large and active speaker community create a unique opportunity to document information structure in Isthmus Zapotec and to study the language as it is used by speakers in everyday life;As a tonal and verb-initial language, the examination of Isthmus Zapotec represents a chance to explore the possible combinations of tone, intonation, morphology and verb-initial syntax that may occur in the coding of information structure; andThe close analysis of spontaneous speech in an endangered language contributes to our theoretical understanding of information structure and informs our knowledge of language documentation practices and revitalization efforts. Overall, the analysis presented here demonstrates the value and need for information structure studies to document and analyze naturally-occurring data.