The Yaqui of Mexico

PEOPLES OF THE WORLD 

Name: Yaqui (or Yoreme) 

Living Area: Sonora State (Mexico), and Arizona State (USA) 

Population: approx. 23.000 

Language: Yaqui 

Comments:    

The Yaqui or Yoreme are a Native American tribe who originally lived in the valley of the Río Yaqui in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Many Yaqui still live in their original homeland, but some live in Arizona as a result of wars between the Yaqui and the Mexican government. The Yaqui call themselves Yoreme, the Yaqui word for person (yoemem or yo'emem meaning "people"). Their language is one of 30 in the Uto-Aztecan family. The Yaqui call their homeland Hiakim, from which the name "Yaqui" is derived. They may also describe themselves as Hiaki Nation or Pascua Hiaki, meaning "The Easter People", as most had converted to Catholicism under Jesuit influence in colonial Mexico.

In the past, the Yaqui subsisted on agriculture, growing corn, beans, and squash (like many of the natives of the region). The Yaqui who lived in the Río Yaqui region and in coastal areas of Sonora and Sinaloa fished as well as farmed. The Yaqui also made cotton products. The Yaqui have always been skillful warriors. The Yaqui Indians have been historically described as quite tall in stature.

The Yaqui conception of the world is considerably different from that of their European-Mexican and European-American neighbors. For example, the world (in Yaqui, anía) is composed of five separate worlds: the desert wilderness world, the mystical world, the flower world, the dream world, and the night world. Much Yaqui ritual is centered upon perfecting these worlds and eliminating the harm that has been done to them, especially by people. Many Yaqui have combined such ideas with their practice of Catholicism, and believe that the existence of the world depends on their annual performance of the Lenten and Easter rituals.

Flowers are very important in the Yaqui culture. According to Yaqui teachings, flowers sprang up from the drops of blood that were shed at the Crucifixion. Flowers are viewed as the manifestation of souls. Occasionally Yaqui men may greet a close male friend with the phrase Haisa sewa? ("How is the flower?").

The Yaqui were never conquered militarily by the Spanish, and they defeated successive expeditions of conquistadores in battle. They were converted to Christianity by Jesuit missionaries, who convinced them in the seventeenth century to settle into eight towns: Pótam, Vícam, Tórim, Bácum, Cócorit, Huirivis, Benem, and Rahum.

For many years, the Yaqui lived peacefully in a relationship with the Jesuit missionaries. This resulted in considerable mutual advantage: the Yaqui developed a productive economy, and the missionaries used the income to extend their missionary activities further north. In the 1730s, the Spanish colonial government began to alter this relationship, and eventually ordered all Jesuits out of Sonora. This created considerable unrest among the Yaqui and led to several rebellions. The Franciscan priests who were supposed to replace the Jesuits never arrived, leaving the Yaqui with no Spanish Catholic religious leaders.

The Yaqui leader Juan Banderas, executed in 1833, had wanted to unite the Mayo, Opata, and Pima tribes, together with the Yaqui, to form an alliance separate from Mexico in the 1820s. His effort failed and the Yaqui remained within the scope of Mexican legal authority. The nation suffered a succession of brutalities by the Mexican authorities, including a notable massacre in 1868, in which the Army burned 150 Yaqui to death inside a church.

The Yaqui leader Cajemé led another effort for independence in the 1880s. Following this war, the regime of Porfirio Díaz subjected the Yaqui to further brutality. He ordered a policy of ethnic transfer, in order to remove the Yaqui from Sonora and encourage immigration from Europe and the United States. The government transferred tens of thousands of Yaqui from Sonora to the Yucatán peninsula. Some were sold as slaves and worked on plantations in Mexico; many of the slaves died from the brutal working conditions. Many Yaqui fled to the United States to escape the persecution. Today, the Mexican municipality of Cajeme is named after the fallen Yaqui leader.

Known for their Deer Dance (Danza del Venado):

The Yaqui religion, which is a syncretic religion of old Yaqui beliefs and practices and the Christian teachings of Jesuit and later Franciscan missionaries, relies upon song, music, prayer, and dancing, all performed by designated members of the community. For instance, the Yaqui deer song (maso bwikam) accompanies the deer dance, which is performed by a pascola (Easter, from the Spanish pascua) dancer, also known as a "deer dancer". Pascolas perform at religio-social functions many times of the year, but especially during Lent and Easter. The Yaqui deer song ritual is in many ways similar to the deer song rituals of neighboring Uto-Aztecan people, such as the Mayo. The Yaqui deer song is more central to the cults of its people and is strongly tied in to Roman Catholic beliefs and practices.

© Photo and Text: Wikipedia

Chinese timber-framed structures

UNESCO CULTURAL HERITAGE 

Standing as distinctive symbols of Chinese architectural culture, timber-framed structures are found throughout the country. The wooden components such as the columns, beams, purlins, lintel and bracket sets are connected by tenon joints in a flexible, earthquake-resistant way. The surprisingly strong frames can be installed quickly at the building site by assembling components manufactured in advanced. In addition to this structural carpentry, the architectural craft also encompasses decorative woodworking, tile roofing, stonework, decorative painting and other arts passed down from masters to apprentices through verbal and practical instruction. Each phase of the construction procedure demonstrates its unique and systematic methods and skills. Employed today mainly in the construction of structures in the traditional style and in restoring ancient timber-framed buildings, Chinese traditional architectural craftsmanship for timber-framed structures embodies a heritage of wisdom and craftsmanship and reflects an inherited understanding of nature and interpersonal relationships in traditional Chinese society. For the carpenters and artisans who preserve this architectural style, and for the people who have lived in and among the spaces defined by it for generations, it has become a central visual component of Chinese identity and an important representative of Asian architecture. 

Inscribed in 2009 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

© Text: UNESCO, Image: Zhao Yuchun 

Kota

EXHIBITION 
Name: Kota 
Dates: September 6 to October 8, 2011
Place: Galerie Yann Ferrandin, 5 rue Visconti, Paris (France)
Webpage: www.yannferrandin.com
A journey into the magical forests of Gabon to discover a superb selection of ancient reliquaries of the Kota, Obamba, Shamay or Mahongwé peoples.
Among the objects on display, you will have the opportunity to see this extraordinary Kota Obamba reliquary figure.
The sculpture is thick, powerful and well balanced.
The forehead occupies half the volume of the head, accentuating the fine concave face. The almond eyes are fixed with iron nails.
The wood has a thick crusty patina. The copper and brass used are of high quality.
Note the attention to detail, particularly the pattern produced at the center of the crescent, the embossed hoop encircling the forehead and neat cutting of the central plate of the face.
© Text and image: Yann Ferrandin

Carl Sofus Lumholtz

ANTHROPOLOGISTS OF THE WORLD 

Carl Sofus Lumholtz (1851 - 1922) 

Norwegian explorer and ethnographer, best known for his meticulous field research and ethnographic publications on indigenous cultures of Australia and Mesoamerican central Mexico. 

Born in Faberg, Norway, Lumholtz graduated in theology in 1876 from the University of Christiania, now the University of Oslo.

Lumholtz travelled to Australia in 1880, where he spent ten months from 1882-1883 amongst the indigenous inhabitants of the Herbert-Burdekin region in North Queensland. He wrote a book about his experience, Among Cannibals: An Account of Four Years' Travels in Australia and of Camp Life with the Aborigines of Queensland, first published in 1889, which is regarded as the finest ethnographic research of the period for the northern Queensland Aborigines. Whereas previous authors had commented only upon the aesthetic physical appearances and material culture of the region's indigenous people, Lumholtz added a level of academic research that was unique for the period. His work recorded for the first time the social relationships, attitudes and the role of women in the society. He also gave a series of two lectures on "Among Australian Natives" for the Lowell Institute for their 1889-90 season.

He spent a total of four years in Queensland, his expeditions included visits to the Valley of Lagoons and the Herbert River area. He made collections of mammals while living with the local peoples, these specimens were used for the descriptions of four new species. One of these was named for the type locality, Pseudochirulus herbertensis (Herbert River Ringtail Possum), and another commemorates his name, Dendrolagus lumholtzii (Lumholtz's Tree Kangaroo).

Lumholtz later travelled to Mexico with the Swedish botanist C. V. Hartman. He stayed for many years, conducting several expeditions from 1890 through to 1910 which were paid for by the American Museum of Natural History. His work, Unknown Mexico, was a 1902 two-volume set describing many of the indigenous peoples of northwestern Mexico, including the Cora, Tepehuán, Pima Bajo, and especially the Tarahumara, among whom he lived for more than a year. Lumholtz was one of the first to describe artifacts from the ancient shaft tomb and the Tarascan cultures. He described archaeological sites, as well as the flora and fauna, of the northern Sierra Madre region called the Gran Chichimeca. He gave a series of three lectures on "The Characteristics of Cave Dwellers of the Sierra Madre" for the Lowell Institute's 1893-94 season.

In 1905 Lumholtz was a founding member of the Explorers Club, an organization to promote exploration and scientific investigation in the field. He went on a brief expedition to India from 1914–1915, then to Borneo from 1915 to 1917, which was his last expedition.

In 1922 Lumholtz died of tuberculosis at Saranac Lake, New York, where he was seeking treatment at a sanatorium. He had published six books on his discoveries, as well as the autobiography My Life of Exploration (1921).

His works

• Among Cannibals; an account of four years' travels in Australia and of camp life with the aborigines of Queensland (1889)


• Unknown Mexico; a record of five years' exploration among the tribes of the western Sierra Madre; in the tierra caliente of Tepic and Jalisco; and among the Tarascos of Michoacan (1902) 


• Through Central Borneo; an account of two years' travel in the land of the head-hunters between the years 1913 and 1917 (1920)


• My life of exploration (1921)

© Text and photo: Wikipedia

Iskiate (chía fresca)

WORLD RECIPES 

Chia seeds have enjoyed a surge in popularity recently among health foods. There are many purported benefits of chia seeds, and legends abound about chia seeds reviving struggling athletes or warriors, with small amounts sustaining men for long periods of time.

Chia seeds have the interesting property that when they're left in water for a few minutes, the water begins to gel.  Supposedly this is helpful in digestion.  Here's a recipe for chia fresca (also called iskiate in Tarahumara language), a popular drink made with chia seeds, water, and lemon or lime.

About chia

Salvia hispanica, commonly known as chia, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae, native to central and southern Mexico and Guatemala. The 16th century Codex Mendoza provides evidence that it was cultivated by the Aztec in pre-Columbian times. It is still used in Mexico and Guatemala, with the seeds sometimes ground, while whole seeds are used for nutritious drinks and as a food source.

The word chia is derived from the Nahuatl word chian, meaning oily. The present Mexican state of Chiapas received its name from the Nahuatl "chia water or river".

Chia is grown commercially for its seed, a food that is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, since the seeds yield 25-30% extractable oil, including α-linolenic acid (ALA). Chia seeds are typically small ovals with a diameter of about 1 mm (0.039 in). They are mottle-colored with brown, gray, black and white.

Chia seed is traditionally consumed in Mexico, and the southwestern United States, but is not widely known in Europe.

Today, chia is grown commercially in its native Mexico, and in Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, Australia and Guatemala. In 2008, Australia was the world's largest producer of chia. A similar species, Salvia columbariae or golden chia, is used in the same way but is not grown commercially for food. Salvia hispanica seed is marketed most often under its common name "chia", but also under several trademarks.

Ingredients

• about 10 oz of water


• 1 Tbsp dry chia seeds


• a few teaspoons lemon or lime juice


• sugar, honey or agave nectar, to taste (optional)

How to prepare it:

Stir the chia seeds into the water; let them sit for about five minutes.  Stir again, and let sit for as long as you like. The more it sits, the more gel-like the seeds and water become.  Add citrus juice and sweetener to taste.

© Text and image: Matt Frazier (www.nomeatathlete.com)