Chatinos
 Chatino children. | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Mexico:approx 23,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Mexico(Oaxaca) | |
| Languages | |
| Chatino,Spanish,San Juan Quiahije Chatino Sign Language | |
| Religion | |
| predominantlyRoman Catholic | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Zapotec |
TheChatinosare anindigenous people of Mexico.Chatino communities are located in the southeastern region of the state ofOaxacain southern central Mexico. Their nativeChatino languageare spoken by about 23,000 people (Ethnologue surveys), but ethnic Chatinos may number many more. The Chatinos of San Juan Quiahije call themselvesneq-a tnya-jand their languageChaq-f tnya-b.
Chatino populations are found in the followingOaxacan municipalities,mostly in the area around Juquila:Santos Reyes Nopala,San Juan Quiahijeor KichinA kiqyaC,San Miguel Panixtlahuacaor KchinA SkwiE,Santiago Yaitepecor KeG XinE,Santa Cruz Zenzontepecor QyaC ytiB,San Juan Lachaoor TsoH,Santa María Temaxcaltepecor XyanA,Santa Catarina Juquilaor SqweF andTataltepec de Valdésor LoA qoJ.[1]
The region that the Chatinos inhabit is rich in natural resources. Traditionally many Chatino people have been involved inagriculture,which depends very much on the climate, so some Chatinos have had to emigrate to the corners of the district of Juquila to work on coffee plantations. Most Chatino communities have public services, and there arerunwaysfor airports in manymunicipalities.Federal bilingual schools, high schools, andtelesecundarias(distance education programs for secondary and high school students) have been established.
The traditional authorities of this people are organized in a system based on civil and religious roles, in which advice from elders is treated as the greatest authority. They believe in the Holy Grandmother, the Holy Father Sun, the Holy Mother Earth, and the Holy Mother Moon. In addition, they worship the deities of water, wind, rain, the mountain, and fire.
Chatino languages
[edit]Chatino is a family of indigenous Mesoamerican languages, which is classified under theZapotecanbranch of theOto-Mangueanlanguage family.The Chatino people have close cultural and linguistic ties with theZapotec peoples,whoseZapotec languageform the rest of the Zapotecan branch of the Otomanguean language family.
According to Campbell,[2]there are three main Chatino languages, which exhibit varying degrees ofmutual intelligibility:Zenzontepec Chatino, Tataltepec Chatino, and Eastern or Highland Chatino.[3]
Varieties of Eastern or Highland Chatino are the most widely spoken. The Zenzontepec language is also spoken in Tlapanalquiahuitl and Tlacotepec; the Tataltepec language is used only in thatmunicipio.[4]
External links
[edit]- (in Spanish)Chatinos, Instituto Nacional Indigenista– Ethnographic description of the Chatino people
- "Chatino – History and Cultural Relations".Countries and Their Cultures.Advameg, Inc.Retrieved2010-07-23.
References
[edit]- ^"Chatino of Oaxaca".Mexican Textiles.Retrieved2010-07-23.
- ^Campbell, Eric. 2013. "The Internal Diversification and Subgrouping of Chatino", International Journal of American Linguistics 79:395-420.
- ^"Oto-Manguean, Zapotecan, Chatino".Ethnologue.Retrieved2010-07-23.
- ^Greenberg, James B. "Chatino." InDavíd Carrasco(ed).The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures.:Oxford University Press, 2001.ISBN9780195188431
| More than 100,000 people | ||
|---|---|---|
| 20,000 – 100,000 people | ||
| 1,000 – 20,000 people | ||
| Less than 1,000 people | ||
