Mythologies of the Huave Tribe

 


The Huave (also spelled Huavi or Wabi) are an indigenous people of Mexico. The autodenomination term used by the Huave themselves is Ikoots or Kunajts (the first-person inclusive pronoun, thus meaning "Us"), or Mareños (meaning "Sea People" in Spanish). They have inhabited the Isthmus of Tehuantepec for more than 3000 years, preceding the Zapotec people in settling the area. Today they inhabit several villages (most notably San Mateo del Mar, in the Tehuantepec District, and Santa María del Mar, San Dionisio del Mar and San Francisco del Mar, in the Juchitán District) on the sandspits of the Pacific Ocean and trade marine products with inland neighbors. According to the 2000 census, 13,687 people declared themselves to be Huave speakers, however, many non-speakers still identify as Huaves or Mareños. Their language is called Huave, or ombeayiüts/umbeyajts, depending on the dialect. Many Huave people work as fishermen and agriculturalists. Huave families are patrilocal and reside in homes with thatched roofs. Male members of each Huave village belong to the escalafón, which is a community organization for civic and religious affairs.


Huave (also spelled Wabe) is a language isolate spoken by the indigenous Huave people on the Pacific coast of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The language is spoken in four villages on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the southeast of the state, by around 20,000 people. The Huave people of San Mateo del Mar, who call themselves Ikoots, meaning "us," refer to their language as ombeayiiüts, meaning "our language". In San Francisco del Mar, the corresponding terms are Kunajts ("us") and umbeyajts ("our language"). The term "Huave" is thought to come from the Zapotec languages, meaning "people who rot in the humidity", according to the 17th-century Spanish historian Burgoa. However, Martínez Gracida (1888) claims the meaning of the term means 'many people' in Isthmus Zapotec, interpreting hua as "abundant" and be as a shortened form of binni ("people"). The etymology of the term requires further investigation. Neither of the above etymologies is judged plausible by Isthmus Zapotec speakers.


Huave, also spelled Huavi, or WabiMesoamerican Indian peasants of the Pacific coast of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The exact relationship of the Huave language to other Mesoamerican languages is a matter of scholarly dispute. Fishing and agriculture are the main subsistence activities, but the Huave also depend on markets in nearby towns to meet their needs for staple foods and manufactured goods. Patrilocal family units occupy thatched-roof huts that make up compact villages. All male members of the community enter the escalafón, a system of civil and religious office holding.


The Huave are a peasant people who occupy five villages and dozens of hamlets on the Pacific coast of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico (approximately 16°30′ N, 95° W). The speakers of the Huave language numbered 11,955 in 1990. The language has five main dialects, each associated with one of the five villages. The language has been significantly altered by contact with Spanish. There are three ecological zones within Huave territory: a thorn forest, which has animal life; a savanna used for pasture and farming; and a mangrove swamp, which supplies fish. One significant feature of Huave history is their loss of large portions of their lands to Zapotec people, losses that were legalized following the Mexican Revolution. The Huave joined the Zapotec and Spanish trading system in the seventeenth century, about the same time that missionaries and the Catholic church became long-term presences of the Huave community. The Huave, although they retain many Indian cultural traits, are nevertheless socioeconomically very similar to other rural peasants. In the forest, the Huave hunt for deer, rabbits, and iguanas. Except when it is converted to private farm lands, the savanna is used as a communal pasture, and the Huave graze their goats, sheep, horses, oxen, and donkeys there. Some forest land is also being converted into agricultural or horticultural land. The chief crop is maize; crops of secondary importance include beans, sweet potatoes and chilies. From the ocean, the Huave obtain a variety of species of fish for their own use, and sea perch, mullet, shrimp, and turtle eggs for sale. They fish by the use of dragnets pulled by canoes. People keep swine, chickens, and turkeys in their house yards; chicken eggs are sold. Fish and maize dishes are eaten daily, whereas meat and eggs are eaten only during festivals.



Huave is a Mexican language isolate, not known to be related to any other living language. It is spoken by around 16,000 people in southeastern Mexico. There are several Huave dialects, some of which are quite different from each other and difficult for speakers of a different dialect to understand. For this reason, linguists often consider there to be between two and four distinct Huave languages, rather than just one. Huave is an agglutinative language which has SVO word order.


     Our list of vocabulary words in the Huave language



Bibliography of Huave language resources

  Encyclopedia articles about the Huaves

  Information about the Huave people
 and their language in Spanish


Legend says the Huaves came to Mexico from Central America. The Huave Zone is located on a peninsula formed by the Gulf of Tehuantepec and the Pacific Ocean on the southeastern coast of Oaxaca, near the Port of Salina Cruz. Besides the coastal areas, Huave live in low forested hills, pastures, and swamps. The Huaves' primary livelihood is fishing. They also are involved in traditional agriculture activities. Huave women are known for weaving white cotton cloths with a variety of brightly colored geometric figures. These are used for wrapping tortillas, putting under their market products, or decorating their home altars. Every year since 1970, a textile competition has been held in San Mateo del Mar, challenging women to make the biggest and most beautiful cloths. Some winners are women whose cloths covered whole tables, were round or round, or double- sided. Recently, a handcrafts union has been trying to introduce the Huave's woven clothes into a commercial item.








































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