Mazatec

The Mazatec are an Indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit the Sierra Mazateca in the state of Oaxaca and some communities in the adjacent states of Puebla and Veracruz.

Some researchers have theorized that the Mazatec, along with Popoloca speakers, once inhabited the lowlands of the Papaloapan basin, but were driven into the adjacent highlands by the expansion of Nahuas.

Language family

The Mazatecan languages are part of the Popolocan family which, in turn, is part of the Otomanguean language family.

Traditional religious rituals

Mazatec tradition includes the cultivation of entheogens for spiritual and ritualistic use. Plants and fungi used for this purpose include psilocybin mushrooms, psychoactive morning glory seeds (from species such as Ipomoea tricolor and Ipomoea corymbosa), and Salvia divinorum. This latter plant is known to Mazatec shamans as ska María Pastora, the name containing a reference to the Virgin Mary.

Notable Mazatecs

• María Sabina
• Julieta Casimiro

See also

• Indigenous peoples in Mexico
• Mixtec

Notes

• Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics, 4. William Bright (series general ed.) (OUP paperback edition, 2000ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-509427-5. OCLC.
• CDI [Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas] (2004–2007). . Información: Los pueblos indígenas de México (in Spanish). CDI. Archived from on 2007-06-09.
• Karttunen, Frances E. (1994). . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN978-0-8135-2030-8. OCLC.
• Mooney, James (1911). . Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.X (New Advent online reproductioned.). New York: Robert Appleton and Company.
• Valdés, Leander J., III; José Luis Díaz; Ara G. Paul (1983). "Ethnopharmacology of ska María Pastora (Salvia divinorum, Epling and Játiva-M)". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 7 (3): 287–312. doi:. hdl:. PMID.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links