Guarijio people
|
GuarijÃo territory in magenta | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 2,840 (2005[1]) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Mexico(  Chihuahua,  Sonora[2]) | |
| Languages | |
| Huarijio language, Spanish[1] | |
| Religion | |
| traditional tribal religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mayo,[2] Tarahumara[3] |
The GuarijÃo people are an indigenous people of Mexico. They primarily live in 17 villages near the West Sierra Madre Mountains in Chihuahua and the Sonoran border.[1] Their homelands are remote and reached either on foot or horseback.[4]
Name
The GuarijÃo people are also known as the HuarijÃo, Maculái, Macurái, Macurawe, VarihÃo, VarijÃo, Varohio, or VorijÃo people.[1]
Language
The GuarijÃo language is a Tarahumaran language of the Uto-Aztecan language family, written in the Latin script. A dictionary and grammar have been published for the language.[1] Children primarily learn Spanish in school.[4]
History
GuarijÃos lived between the Tarahumara to the south and east and Mayo to the west. Spanish Jesuit missionaries arrived in their territory in the 1620s. The Jesuits established a mission in ChÃnipas, where some GuarijÃo and Guazapare people rebelled against them. After the Spanish military retaliated, the GuarijÃo dispersed and split into two distinct communities—one in Sonora and the other in Chihuahua[2]
Culture
These people enjoy seclusion in spacious villages. A festival, called tuburada, brings them together socially on momentous occasions, including the planting and harvesting of maize.[5] A tubrada includes feasting, ceremonial smoking of Nicotiana rustica, processions with fireworks, and dancing.[6]
Subsistence
GuarijÃo adapted farming to their dry climate and grow amaranth, beans, maize, and squash. They supplement these crops with wild plants harvested from the forest.[4]
See also
- Jean Bassett Johnson (1915–1944), American anthropologist who studied the GuarijÃo in the 1930s
- Wimmeria mexicana, a plant used by GuarijÃo people for medicinal tea
Notes
References
- Yetman, David (2002). The Guarijios of the Sierra Madre: Hidden People of Northwestern Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0826322340.