TOTONACAS: clothing, religion and customs

The call Mesoamerican cultural zone It is one of the most important regions in human history, being an area in which they inhabited dozens of important cultures before the European conquest, all of them different and very individuals. To talk about a people less known in this region but just as important and interesting, in this lesson from a Teacher we must talk about Totonacas: clothing, religion and customs.

The Totonac they were one Mesoamerican and pre-Columbian civilization, being the first for being part of the cultural area called Mesoamerica and that was in the zone of Central and North America; and pre-Columbian for being one of the peoples existing in the American continent before the arrival of the European colonizers and their destruction of everything.

It is considered that the Totonacs existed between the year 300 and until the arrival of the Europeans, although they were changing their area depending on many factors and events. From all these centuries we must highlight the 9th century,

An interesting and important element to get to know a culture is its clothing, being especially relevant in the case of the Totonacs, since the current members of this culture also sometimes wear these clothes.

• Totonac men They wore clothing that consisted of shorts, a shirt similar to the one currently worn by sailors, a piece of cloth similar to a scarf on the neck, hat woven by themselves with elements of the area and finally they wore leather slippers animal.
• On the other hand, the women wore a white dress with a decorated embroidery on the neck. Sometimes Totonac women wore a white blouse and skirt, although they could be decorated with trees, which in their culture were considered symbols of life. Above this, Zapotec women used to have a cotton or wool coat, and they walked barefoot or with plastic sandals.

The Totonacs were a very religious people, since much of their day to day was focused on religious ceremonies. For them, it was very important pray and give sacrifices to the gods to achieve good health, a strong family and a crops that served to survive and not go hungry.

The Totonacs, like the rest of Mesoamerican cultures, were polytheists, so they believed in the existence of numerous gods, each of them with a role and a defining element. Among all these gods the most important were:

• The God sun, whom they adored with sacrifices so that he would not disappear
• The Corn Goddess, to those who sacrificed animals and flowers to make the harvests good and numerous
• The God of thunder, being the one who controlled the seas and other forms of water.

One of the peculiarities of the Totonacs was that they had a hierarchy regarding their gods, following the order of main gods, secondary gods, owners, minor owners and gods of hell. This division by branches allowed the Totonacs to understand which gods it was most important to praise and which ones less, allowing an aid in knowing which gods needed more sacrifices and which less.

One of the main elements of the Totonacs, and one that almost no Mesoamerican beliefs had in common, was that they considered that the soul was created by the goddesses, giving greater importance to female goddesses than other surrounding cultures.

To conclude this lesson on Totonacs: dress, religion and customs, we must list some of the main customs of this Mesoamerican people, in order to understand the influence they have had on cultures and civilizations later. Some main customs of the Totonacas are as follows:

• They made the call Flying Game, in which from a pole of about 30 meters the Totonacs threw themselves on ropes to go down to the ground, a tradition that continues to this day.
• They played the ball game, both as a sports competition and to decide who would be sacrificed to the gods. It is said that the winner of the game was the one who sacrificed himself to the gods, as it must be a great honor to be sacrificed for them.
• They made the call Ninin, in which numerous rituals and ceremonies related to funerals were performed, and which years later would join the Christian traditions on death.
• Due to the importance of the Sun God, the Totonacs performed numerous acts in which they danced with symbols representing the deity, thereby asking for mercy.

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