The Zapotèques are alive people in the State d' Oaxaca, with the Mexico, and going back to the period précolombienne.
History
Knowledge concerning the origins of the zapotèque people is vague. The beginning of their civilization is estimated in a very vague way, towards 1500 av. JC. Until the Spanish invasion , at the 16th century they were the most important group of the valley of Oaxaca. It is estimated that they founded many aspects of the méso-American culture by inventing the city-State, calculation bases 20 of them, the rebuses and a system of calendar which were sometimes allotted to Olmèques.
The archeologists distinguish several phases in zapotèque civilization starting from the occupation from their historical center of Monte Albán.
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Period I: of 500 av. JC to 200 av. JC. The population of Assembles Albán reached approximately ten thousand inhabitants with significant excavation work. The increase would follow the domination of the villages of the valley of Oaxaca.
- Period II: of 200 av. JC to 250 a. JC. Excavation work intensifies what would indicate more important resources. It is at this period that ceramics characteristic of this culture appears, with an influence of the Mayas. The worship of dead develops with complex burials.
- Period III: of 250 a. JC with 700 a. JC. The golden age of zapotèque civilization gives place to the construction of the monuments still present on the current site. The dynasty of Zaachila however establishes its capital with Téozpotlan whereas the company becomes theocratic. The god of the rain, Pitao, is révéré in four different forms. The city of Mitla is founded for this period.
- Period IV: of 700 a. JC with 1000 a. JC. The site of Assembles Albán seems to be gradually abandoned because, it is an assumption, scarcity of wood and the exhaustion of the grounds.
- Period V: of 1000 a. JC with 1500 a. JC. The tombs of the site will be used as cemetery in Mixtèques of high ranking when they settle in the valley. Indeed thorough towards the south by Toltèques and Chichimèques, they enter in conflict with Zapotèques. They also conquered Mitla. In 1280, a royal marriage between the two people with the close cultures sealed an alliance against the Aztec ones. Their descendant, Cocijo-pij, died in 1563. Last zapotèque king, it was pilot Spanish conquest.
Information
The name that they give each other is Benezaa or Ben-Zoa or Vinizza which mean people of the clouds . The name of Zapotèque would have been given to them by the Aztèques in nahuatl. Zapotèques thought that their ancestors came from a tree called zapote . The reference to the cloud brings them closer to the Mixtèques (Mixtecatl can result in man-cloud ).
At the time of the Spanish conquest, Zapotèques would have been between three hundred and thousand and one million.
Zapotèque civilization is characterized in particular by the culture Maïs. Zapotèques also employed the Stuc in their religious architecture, and invented a writing based on Pictogramme S. Their capital is called Monte Albán.
According to the Spaniards, the zapotèque company comprised castes. The political directors, the clergy and the people lived separately. They could not marry between them, wore different clothing and did not eat same food. The peasants paid a tribute and the leaders organized the political life, cultural and nun of the city.
They venerated the ancestors and believed in the existence of an underground paradise. From where importance of the worship of deaths.
Zapotèques spoke nine different languages.
Today
Zapotèques always currently form a Mexican ethnos group. More than four hundred and thousand people still speak this language. The old Mexican president Benito Juarez, which fought against the French and against the emperor Maximilien is Zapotèque.
Zapotèques are famous today for their tolerance with respect to certain forms of male Homosexualité. Indeed, the men having a “heart of woman” (indicated under the term of Muxhe ) are socially accepted like an additional kind. Owing to the fact that the Virginité of the women before the Mariage is regarded as essential, it is not rare to see young men forming couples with muche , which are often regarded as people of pleasant company. These couples are however generally transitory, the couples heterosexuals being the standard for the formation of the family core. However, the great tolerance of Zapotèques for the muche contrast with the Mexico, thus, it is not rare to see muche immigrating in zapotèque country to live there peacefully. It is necessary to also note the particularly advantageous position of the woman in certain areas. ; See on this subject: Juchitán de Zaragoza
Cartoon
Zapotèque is one of the many insults pronounced by the character of the Capitaine Haddock in the albums of Tintin.
Nests zapotèques
" nests zapotèques" (in English: zapotec nests ) is an artifice used in the breeding of the cochineals.
See too
Simple: Zapotec
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