Huasteca culture: history, characteristics and influences

The Huasteca culture is a rich and ancient town that has been lucky enough to survive to this day.. With a very rich history and traditions, the Huastecos or Teenek have been able to combine their worldview with new European influences since the arrival of Hernán Cortés.

Below we will see this rich culture, its history and origin, its most striking characteristics, what they were like in the past and what customs they continue to keep alive.

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What is Huasteca culture?

The Huasteca culture is the name by which the Teenek people are known, a culture of Mayan origin that is based in the cultural region of Huasteca, distributed among several states of Mexico. Unlike what has happened with other pre-Hispanic peoples, the Huastecas or Teenek have managed to survive the over time, maintaining their language, traditions and ethnic identity, but incorporating influences into their culture. European.

The name Huasteca does not come from the language of this town, but from Nahuatl.

, specifically from the word “cuextécatl”, which could have two meanings: either “small snail”, in case that comes from “cuachalolotl”, or “guaje”, a type of legume, having the etymological origin of the word “huaxitl”.

It is believed that this culture It is about 3,000 years old, developing its most distinctive features around 750 AD. c. One of the most striking practices of the ancestors of the current Huastecs is cranial deformation as an indicator of status within the political hierarchy. In addition to this, their teeth were also mutilated and their noses and ears were pierced. Another of the most striking characteristics of this ancient culture was that they had a political configuration similar to that of the ancient Hellenic polis.

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History of this pre-Columbian civilization

The Huasteca culture is very old. The current Huastecs are descendants of some Mayan peoples, originally settled in southern Mexico. It is believed that the greatest moment of Huastec splendor must have been long before the rise of the Aztec Empire in Mesoamerica.

ancient times

Archaeological finds have shown that the Huasteca culture arrived in the Gulf of Mexico area at some point in the extensive period between 1500 BC. c. and 900 BC. c. These first Huastecas were settlers of Mayan origin, originating from the south of current Mexican lands.

Before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, Mexican lands were ethnically diverse regions. Thus, in the south and southwest were the Huastecs themselves, along with Tepehuas, Totonacos and Otomíes. To the north and northwest lived Nahuas, Chichimecas, Guachichiles and Pames.

The name given to the ancestral Huastec lands was Xiuhcoac, which is where the Spanish name of Huasteca comes from. This word, of Nahuatl origin, means “turquoise snake.”

Aztec conquest

Before the arrival of the Spanish and their conquest of America, the Aztec Empire already began this trend. The Mexicas, under the command of the tlatoani (king) Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, began a campaign in 1454 to conquer the Xiuhcoac region.

This war was long, lasting even after the arrival of the Spanish to the New World in 1492 and ending in 1506, when Moctezuma's successor, King Ahuizotl, was able to defeat the inhabitants of the zone.

Since then, the Huasteca was dominated by the Mexica, which encouraged cultural exchange between the Huastecs and the Aztecs.

Arrival of Hernán Cortés

The sweet victory that the Aztec Empire had achieved did not last long. In 1521 the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlán, the Mexica capital, causing the end of the golden age of Aztec rule and the collapse of this civilization.

Taking advantage of the chaos that they had just generated in the Aztec administration, European conquerors sent expeditions to subdue the peoples of the Gulf Coast and begin the colonization of their territories.

The Hispanic conquest of the Mexica territories was not an easy task, especially in Huastec lands. Hernán Cortés himself had to command an army made up of indigenous allies to defeat them. the month of October 1522.

From that moment on, the Huasteca region remained under Spanish rule, with Cortés ordering new settlements to be built and distributing large areas of land among his officials.

The Spanish settlers, perhaps driven by the myth of the Seven Cities of Cíbola, went to Huasteca lands in search of gold.. However, they were disappointed to see that precious metals were not abundant in the Huasteca, so they began to enslave the natives as a method to increase their wealth.

The Spanish Crown did not like this, which had prohibited the slave trade; however, this type of business was very common in the region. Slaves were sold and sent to the Caribbean, causing the region to lose population.

Fortunately for the Huastecas and the rest of the Amerindian peoples, the Crown intervened definitively in 1527, expropriating the lands that Hernán Cortés had distributed. New Spanish settlers settled and the treatment of the indigenous people improved significantly.

Distinctive features

Although the Huastec people continue to exist today, it is worth highlighting some differences with respect to their pre-Hispanic ancestors.

Geographic extent

The original Huastec culture encompassed the north of the current Mexican states of Veracruz, east of Hidalgo, northeast of Puebla, southeast of San Luís Potosí and part of Tamaulipas and Querétaro. Along the coast, the Huastec territory extended from Tuxpan to Pánuco.

The territorial limits in the north were marked by the Guayalejo and Tamesí rivers., although remains of possible Huastec settlements have also been found a short distance from the current Mante City. Teayo, in Veracruz, was the reference of the southwest border.

Body modifications

One of the most striking anthropological characteristics of the ancestral Huastecas is his practice of cranial deformation, attributed to ritual celebrations and political status. These deformations were a widespread custom among the Huasteca chiefs, who were the ruling class of this culture.

Besides, They pierced their ears to decorate them with bone and shell elements., something similar to modern dilations and other piercings.

Language

The Huastec language is the most characteristic language of this people, although they also use Nahuatl and Spanish.

The autoglotnym, that is, the word that the Huastecas use to refer to themselves and their language, is “teenek”, which as you can see is nothing like how we refer to them in Spanish. This word means in their language something like “men from here.”

On the other hand, the word used to refer to the Aztecs in other languages ​​comes from Nahuatl, as we have said previously. PUT SOMETHING ELSE

This language has Mayan roots, but it is believed that it began to differentiate itself from the rest of the languages ​​of the family thousands of years ago.. Until recently it shared a subbranch with the Chicomuselteca language, which became extinct in the 1980s.

Currently this language has just under 200,000 speakers, it is spoken in the states of San Luis Potosí, Veracruz and Tamaulipas and is quite popular. attention to the fact that it is far from the great linguistic domain of the rest of the Mayan languages, that is, southeastern Mexico, Guatemala and El Savior.

The first description of this language accessible to Europeans was written by Andrés de Olmos, Franciscan missionary known for his work as a philologist, not only of this language, but also of Nahuatl and Totonac.

Below we will see some words in this language:

The numerals: p'opo, ou (0), jún (1), tsáb (2), óx (3), tse' (4), bó' (5), akak (6), búk (7), waxik (8), belew (9) and laju (10.)

And some basic phrases:

Good Morning: tajk'anenek. Good Afternoon: waklanenek. See you: tayej ku tsu'uxin. Yes (it's okay): alwa its. No: I was going, I was going Thank you: k'aknamalits tam, jalbinchi yán. I don't understand: yab u exbayal. Welcome: alwa kix ulits; alwa' ultaláb. I speak Huastec: naná' in káw tenerek; naná' in t'ilom tenerek. What's your name?: Janta' bij?

Economy

Based on archaeological remains, It has been observed that the first inhabitants of the area who dominated agriculture were the Otomi, a culture that settled on the banks of the Pánuco River.

The Huastecs arrived in the region around 1,500 BC. C, standing out for its production of clay containers. Even so, the main economic activity of this town was agriculture, and continues to be so today, along with livestock farming and the production of wooden elements.

Agriculture

The fact that the Mexica called the Huasteca region Tonacatlapan, which means “land of food,” tells us how prosperous Huasteca agriculture was. The reason for this was the great fertility of the region, which allowed the cultivation of a diversity of food plants.

Among the crops that produced the most we have corn, pumpkins, beans, chilies, cassava and sweet potatoes, and they used seasonal agriculture, when the rains began. Before planting, they had the habit of burning the farmland.

Hunting and gathering

Although quite developed agriculture, The collection of wild plants was also a common practice among the Huastecas. These people took advantage of what nature offered them, such as small chili peppers, wild fruits, honey, salt, seafood and animals to hunt.

Pottery

Huastec ceramics were important to the region, especially when they were influenced by other cultures from the main Mayan area and those from the center of the modern state of Veracruz. The Huastecas produced this ceramic and marketed it. This trade reached the Rio Grande in the north and Zempoala in the south..

Traditions and customs

Unlike what has happened to many pre-Columbian cultures The Huastecas have preserved their roots, although evolving with the contact of European cultures.

It is thanks to this preservation of their culture, despite European influences, that it is possible to know more or less what their ancestral culture was like.

Xantholo

The Xantolo, or festival of the dead, is one of the most important celebrations for the Huasteca culture, in line with the rest of Mexico.

On November 1, wakes are held with incense, and altars are raised praying to the deceased and remembering them by displaying photos of them. The next day, November 2, the relatives of the deceased decorate their graves with vivid floral decorations.

The Huastecas believe that it is during the month of November when their deceased come and accompany them throughout that time. That is why on the last day of the month they decorate the altars with dried flowers and fruits to say goodbye to the deceased.

Huapango

The huapango comes from colonial times. The Spanish brought with them their music and dances, which were learned by the indigenous people., mixing them with their traditions and musical styles and creating a new one. Later, slaves from Africa also contributed their compositions, creating from this mix a lively musical style: Son Huasteca.

Healing rituals

One of the pre-Hispanic customs of the Huastecas are healing rites. These are taken under the guidance of healers who, According to ancestral Huastec beliefs, they communicate with the “baatsik”, supernatural entities that are capable of stealing the human soul. When the human soul is stolen, according to Huastec beliefs, that is when the body begins to get sick.

This healer has the mission of recovering the stolen soul and, in this way, healing the person. These rituals must be done in the Huasteca language., since the Baatsik do not understand another language. The healing process lasts three days.

After successfully recovering the soul, the patient receives therapeutic cleansing. These are done in a somewhat curious way: the healers rub their bodies with branches, eggs and with live chickens. All this is done before the images of jumps placed on an altar.

This tradition has been mixed with Spanish influences, evident in the fact that the saints belong to the Catholic calendar. Furthermore, in this phase of the ritual the prayers are carried out in Spanish.

Historical political organization

The Huastec government system was based on theocratic and caciquista, that is, religion was the legitimizing element of power combined with the figure of the cacique, the ruling class. Each of the important Huastec cities was governed by a chief. These cities were more or less independent, in the style of the Greek city-states of antiquity. They only joined together in times when the presence of an external threat endangered the pre-established order.

The political organization of this culture was totally hierarchical, with the chiefs, priests and soldiers being in charge. Below them was the social class made up of nobles and warriors. Below these upper classes were merchants and artisans. Finally, at the last step of the Huasteca political structure were the peasants.

The title of chieftain was hereditary, passing to the first-born male or nearest adult descendant.. In case the heir was not of the appropriate age, the Huastecs appointed a type of regent. If there was no heir, an important person from the community was chosen.

Mythology

Today, most Huastecas are Catholic, however, their ancestors had a rich polytheistic religion. Although the original religion is, for practical purposes, extinct, some of its elements survive in the peculiar version of Catholic Christianity practiced by the Huastecas.

The original Huasteca gods could have the form of a human, animal or thing. Most of these gods were related to everyday aspects of Huasteca culture, from life and death, the Sun and the Moon, agriculture, diseases, culture, birth...

Among the gods that we can highlight from the Huastecas, some exclusive to this culture and others coming from the Aztecs, we have Tlazoltéotl, the goddess of crops, Teteoinan, the mother of the gods, Xochiquetzal, the goddess of love and flowers, Cipac, the god who taught men how to grow corn, and Ehécatl, the god of the north wind and bringer of the rains.

Regarding their way of conceiving what the Universe was like, the Huastecas had a peculiar worldview. For them, the world had been created at a time when, before everything, there had only been sea and darkness. The gods took a fish and divided it into two parts, making one of those halves what became the Earth, and the other half was what became the Heaven.

In turn, the Huastecs considered that the cosmos consisted of three different planes:

• In the lower one were the cold deities and the dead.
• In the intermediate, or terrestrial plane, humans and animals lived.
• In the upper one, was where the gods of hot nature were found.

Bibliographic references

• Stresser-Pean, G. (2001) Tamtok. Huastec archaeological site. Volume I. Institute of Culture of San Luis Potosí, COLSAN, CONACULTA, French Center for Mexican and Central American Studies.
• Stresser-Pean, G. (2000) San Antonio Nogalar. The Tamaulipas mountain range and the northeastern border of Mesoamerica. Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology, COLSAN, Autonomous University of Tamaulipas, French Center for Mexican and Central American Studies.