Pareja Huichola

Explore 11-21-08 #416
a beautiful elder indigenous Huichol couple working on their artisan beadwork together - they are both wearing glasses, i have never seen this before. these traditional Huichol bracelets, pendants and necklaces are created with the tiniest glass beads and the designs include shamanistic symbolism.


www.mexconnect.com/mex_/huichol/huichol2.html

The Huichols are a hearty and enduring people numbering about 18,000, most of which live in the Jalisco and Nayarit, two rugged and mountainous states in North Central Mexico.

They are descendents of the Aztecs and are related to their Uto-Aztecan speaking cousin, the Hopi of Arizona. They are representatives of a pre-Columbian shamanic tradition which is still functioning according to the ceremonies of their remote past. Having withstood the Spanish Invasion, they are still striving to keep their culture alive and viable, despite the ever increasing physical and cultural encroachment of their Mexican neighbors.
The Huichol romanticize their past, when game was plentiful and they were free to roam the vast mountain ranges and deserts of their homeland. This was a time of freedom for them, before they became tethered to the growing of maize.
Agriculture in their mountainous homeland is very difficult and crops can fail easily. They seek assistance from the forces of nature through an elaborate cycle of ceremonies to ensure their crops success and their own survival.