Zoque
Encyclopedia
The Zoque are an indigenous people
of Mexico
; they speak variants of the Zoque languages
.
This group consists of 41,609 people, according to the 2000 census. They live mainly in the northerly sector of Chiapas
state, principally in the municipios and towns of Amatán, Copainalá, Chapultenango, Francisco León, Ixhuatán, Ixtacomitán, Jitotol, Ocotepec, Ostuacán, Pantepec, Rayón, Totolapa, Tapilula, Tecpatán, Acala, Blanca rosa, and Ocozocoautla. They also live in the northern part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
, in the state of Oaxaca, including the Selva Zoque
. Their language is also called Zoque, and has several branches and dialects. The Zoque are related to the Mixe
. They follow the Roman Catholic religion.
In the pre-Hispanic period, the Zoque lived throughout Chiapas, and as far away as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and parts of the state of Tabasco
. They are believed to be descendants of the Olmec
who emigrated to Chiapas
and Oaxaca
. They had a good social and commercial relationship with the Mexica
, which contributed to the economic prosperity of their culture in Chiapas. In 1494 they were invaded and defeated by the Aztecs, during the reign of Ahuizotl, and forced to pay tribute
.
The Spanish conquest of the Zoque lands commenced in 1523, under the leadership of Luis Marin. The Zoque were parceled out amongst the settlers, where they endured forced labor and were obliged to pay high tribute. Diseases, exploitation and the miserable conditions under which they lived contributed to a significant decrease in their numbers.
The situation of the Zoque did not improve with Mexican independence, since they continued to be exploited by the mestizo
s and criollos. It was not until 1922, when they were assigned ejido
s (common lands), that their living conditions improved somewhat.
announced they have found a dignitary’s tomb inside a pyramid that may be the oldest type of burial discovered in Mesoamerica
. The grave dates from about 2,700 years ago.
This tomb was built by the Zoque Indians in Chiapa de Corzo
, in southern Chiapas
. It may be about 1,000 years older than the better-known pyramid tomb of the Mayan
ruler Pakal at the Palenque
archaeological site, also in Chiapas. Pre-Hispanic cultures built pyramids mainly as representations of the levels leading from the underworld to the sky.
Archaeologists started to dig into the pyramid mound in April in order to study the internal structure when they discovered a wall whose finished stones appeared to face inward. They later uncovered the 13 ft. by 9 ft. tomb chamber about 19 ft. or 22 ft. beneath what had been the pyramid's peak
The burial site held a man believed to be aged at about 50 who was buried with jade and amber collars & bracelets, pyrite and obsidian artifacts, along with pearl ornaments and ceramic vessels. His face was covered with a funeral mask with obsidian eyes. The ornaments and some of the 15 ceramic vessels found in the tomb show influences from the Olmec culture, which is considered the "mother culture" of the region. . A woman’s nearby tomb, also about 50, and contained similar ornaments.
The man was buried in a stone chamber. He is believed to be a high priest or ruler of Chiapa de Corzo, a prominent settlement at the time. Markings in the wall indicate that wooden supports were used to create the tomb, but collapsed under the weight of the pyramid built above. The body of a 1-year-old child was laid carefully over the man's body inside the tomb. A 20-year-old male was tossed into the chamber with less care, probably sacrificed at the time of the burial
Archaeologist Emiliano Gallaga told the Associated Press
(AP) that based on the layering in which it was found and the tomb's unique wooden construction, "we think this is one of the earliest discoveries of the use of a pyramid as a tomb, not only as a religious site or temple."
This finding has raised the possibility that Olmec pyramids might contain similar tombs of dignitaries, especially at well-known sites such as La Venta
. Olmec pyramids have not been excavated, mostly due to the high water table and humidity of their Gulf coast sites not being as conducive to preserving buried human remains. Experts said that despite the Chiapa de Corzo tomb's location, it is not clear the later Maya culture learned or inherited the practice of pyramid burials from the Zoques or Olmecs.
"While I have no doubt it relates to Olmec, there is no tie to Maya at this time per se," archaeologist Lisa Lucero of the University of Illinois, who was not involved in the Chiapa de Corzo project, told AP
skirts in various colors. More recently they wear kneelength dresses in various bright colours with white lacy trims. Up to the recent past it was customary for married women to undress the upper halve of the body while working in the heat. Younger generations of women have become more timid about exposing their chests.
Their houses are mainly rectangular, with one or two rooms. Traditionally the walls were made of adobe, or mud bricks, whitewashed inside and out, and the houses had earthen floors and roofs consisting of four sloping sides of tile or thatch. More recently they are constructed with concrete blocks, cemented floors, and corrugated iron roofs. The kitchen is usually a separate structure from the main house.
As with other groups, agriculture
is their prime economic activity. The crops vary according to the topography of the terrain. For the most part they raise maize
, beans, chiles
, and squash
. Their commercial crops are coffee, cocoa, peppers, bananas, mamey
, sweetsop, and guava
. The soil is of poor quality, and therefore the output is low. They raise pigs and domesticated fowl in small quantities to augment their diet.
The Zoque also work in the construction industry in the cities.
Indigenous peoples of Mexico
Mexico, in the second article of its Constitution, is defined as a "pluricultural" nation in recognition of the diverse ethnic groups that constitute it, and in which the indigenous peoples are the original foundation...
of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
; they speak variants of the Zoque languages
Zoque languages
The Zoque languages are languages of the Zoquean branch of the Mixe–Zoquean language family indigenous to southern Mexico.The Zoque languages are spoken in the in northern Chiapas and far eastern Chiapas around Chimalapa, and in Ayapa Tabasco altogether by around 88,000 indigenous Zoque people...
.
This group consists of 41,609 people, according to the 2000 census. They live mainly in the northerly sector of Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
state, principally in the municipios and towns of Amatán, Copainalá, Chapultenango, Francisco León, Ixhuatán, Ixtacomitán, Jitotol, Ocotepec, Ostuacán, Pantepec, Rayón, Totolapa, Tapilula, Tecpatán, Acala, Blanca rosa, and Ocozocoautla. They also live in the northern part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
Isthmus of Tehuantepec
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is an isthmus in Mexico. It represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, and prior to the opening of the Panama Canal was a major shipping route known simply as the Tehuantepec Route...
, in the state of Oaxaca, including the Selva Zoque
Selva Zoque
The Selva Zoque , which includes the Chimalapas rain forest, is an area of great ecological importance in Mexico. Most of the forest lies in the state of Oaxaca but parts are in Chiapas and Veracruz....
. Their language is also called Zoque, and has several branches and dialects. The Zoque are related to the Mixe
Mixe
The Mixe or Mije is an indigenous group inhabiting the eastern highlands of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. They speak the Mixe languages which are classified in the Mixe–Zoque family, and are more culturally conservative than other indigenous groups of the region, maintaining their language to this...
. They follow the Roman Catholic religion.
In the pre-Hispanic period, the Zoque lived throughout Chiapas, and as far away as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and parts of the state of Tabasco
Tabasco
Tabasco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa....
. They are believed to be descendants of the Olmec
Olmec
The Olmec were the first major Pre-Columbian civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco....
who emigrated to Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
and Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
. They had a good social and commercial relationship with the Mexica
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
, which contributed to the economic prosperity of their culture in Chiapas. In 1494 they were invaded and defeated by the Aztecs, during the reign of Ahuizotl, and forced to pay tribute
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
.
The Spanish conquest of the Zoque lands commenced in 1523, under the leadership of Luis Marin. The Zoque were parceled out amongst the settlers, where they endured forced labor and were obliged to pay high tribute. Diseases, exploitation and the miserable conditions under which they lived contributed to a significant decrease in their numbers.
The situation of the Zoque did not improve with Mexican independence, since they continued to be exploited by the mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
s and criollos. It was not until 1922, when they were assigned ejido
Ejido
The ejido system is a process whereby the government promotes the use of communal land shared by the people of the community. This use of community land was a common practice during the time of Aztec rule in Mexico...
s (common lands), that their living conditions improved somewhat.
Archeology
On 17 May 2010 archaeologists in southern MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
announced they have found a dignitary’s tomb inside a pyramid that may be the oldest type of burial discovered in Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
. The grave dates from about 2,700 years ago.
This tomb was built by the Zoque Indians in Chiapa de Corzo
Chiapa de Corzo
Chiapa de Corzo may refer to:*Chiapa de Corzo - a Mesomerican archaeological site located in the Chiapas highlands, Mexico*Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas - the modern township and municipality, central Chiapas, Mexico...
, in southern Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
. It may be about 1,000 years older than the better-known pyramid tomb of the Mayan
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
ruler Pakal at the Palenque
Palenque
Palenque was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that flourished in the 7th century. The Palenque ruins date back to 100 BC to its fall around 800 AD...
archaeological site, also in Chiapas. Pre-Hispanic cultures built pyramids mainly as representations of the levels leading from the underworld to the sky.
Archaeologists started to dig into the pyramid mound in April in order to study the internal structure when they discovered a wall whose finished stones appeared to face inward. They later uncovered the 13 ft. by 9 ft. tomb chamber about 19 ft. or 22 ft. beneath what had been the pyramid's peak
The burial site held a man believed to be aged at about 50 who was buried with jade and amber collars & bracelets, pyrite and obsidian artifacts, along with pearl ornaments and ceramic vessels. His face was covered with a funeral mask with obsidian eyes. The ornaments and some of the 15 ceramic vessels found in the tomb show influences from the Olmec culture, which is considered the "mother culture" of the region. . A woman’s nearby tomb, also about 50, and contained similar ornaments.
The man was buried in a stone chamber. He is believed to be a high priest or ruler of Chiapa de Corzo, a prominent settlement at the time. Markings in the wall indicate that wooden supports were used to create the tomb, but collapsed under the weight of the pyramid built above. The body of a 1-year-old child was laid carefully over the man's body inside the tomb. A 20-year-old male was tossed into the chamber with less care, probably sacrificed at the time of the burial
Archaeologist Emiliano Gallaga told the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
(AP) that based on the layering in which it was found and the tomb's unique wooden construction, "we think this is one of the earliest discoveries of the use of a pyramid as a tomb, not only as a religious site or temple."
This finding has raised the possibility that Olmec pyramids might contain similar tombs of dignitaries, especially at well-known sites such as La Venta
La Venta
La Venta is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco. Some of the artifacts have been moved to the museum "Parque - Museo de La Venta", which is in Villahermosa, the capital of Tabasco....
. Olmec pyramids have not been excavated, mostly due to the high water table and humidity of their Gulf coast sites not being as conducive to preserving buried human remains. Experts said that despite the Chiapa de Corzo tomb's location, it is not clear the later Maya culture learned or inherited the practice of pyramid burials from the Zoques or Olmecs.
"While I have no doubt it relates to Olmec, there is no tie to Maya at this time per se," archaeologist Lisa Lucero of the University of Illinois, who was not involved in the Chiapa de Corzo project, told AP
Contemporary Culture
The Zoque traditional dress is worn almost exclusively by women, and on special occasions. Some elderly men in remote communities wear white cotton shirts. The women traditionally wear short-sleeved white blouses, with colourfully embroidered open necklines, and long poplinPoplin
Poplin, also called tabinet , is a strong fabric in a plain weave of any fiber or blend, with crosswise ribs that typically gives a corded surface.Poplin traditionally consisted of a silk warp with a weft of worsted yarn...
skirts in various colors. More recently they wear kneelength dresses in various bright colours with white lacy trims. Up to the recent past it was customary for married women to undress the upper halve of the body while working in the heat. Younger generations of women have become more timid about exposing their chests.
Their houses are mainly rectangular, with one or two rooms. Traditionally the walls were made of adobe, or mud bricks, whitewashed inside and out, and the houses had earthen floors and roofs consisting of four sloping sides of tile or thatch. More recently they are constructed with concrete blocks, cemented floors, and corrugated iron roofs. The kitchen is usually a separate structure from the main house.
As with other groups, agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
is their prime economic activity. The crops vary according to the topography of the terrain. For the most part they raise maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, beans, chiles
Chili pepper
Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...
, and squash
Calabaza
Calabaza is a term that can be applied to a variety of gourds and melons grown throughout the world.-Etymology :The word calabaza is derived from the Persian term for melon . The French term "calabasse", and hence "calabash" is based on the older Spanish...
. Their commercial crops are coffee, cocoa, peppers, bananas, mamey
Mammee apple
Mammea americana, commonly known as mammee, mammee apple, mamey, mamey apple, Santo Domingo apricot or South American apricot, is an evergreen tree of the family Calophyllaceae, whose fruit is edible...
, sweetsop, and guava
Guava
Guavas are plants in the myrtle family genus Psidium , which contains about 100 species of tropical shrubs and small trees. They are native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America...
. The soil is of poor quality, and therefore the output is low. They raise pigs and domesticated fowl in small quantities to augment their diet.
The Zoque also work in the construction industry in the cities.
- This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of 19 June 2006.