CULTURA ZAPOTECA

The Zapotec culture is the expression of the

people, Zapotec pre-Columbian that historically
occupied the south of Oaxaca, as well as part of
the southern state of Guerrero, part of the south
of the state of Puebla and the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec (Mexico). In the pre-Columbian era,
the Zapotec were one of the most important
civilizations of Mesoamerica.

Origin
The Zapotec name comes from the Nahuatl "Tzapotcatl",
which means people of Zapote, originally this village is
autocalled "ben'zaa" or "viniz" that means in Zapotec
language "people of the clouds". Among the myths that
exist are said to be descendants of the rock the arenas.
Little is known about the origin of the Zapotecs. Unlike
the majority of the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica,
had no tradition or legend on their migration, but they
thought they were born directly of the clouds, as if they
were legitimate sons of the gods. Hence the name that
they themselves are attached: be'neza

Evidence
Archaeological evidence indicates that their culture
dating from 2500 years ago. Approximately between the
XV and XIV to. C., took place the first important urban
development of the Zapoteca culture, with its center in
San Jose Mogote. Developed in the years 500 a.C.-1000
d.C., during the Preclassic horizon, the Zapotecs were
established in the central valleys of the current state of
Oaxaca. Thus, while Teotihuacan flourished in the
center of Mexico and the Mayan cities in the southeast,
Monte Alban, ceremonial center built on top of a hill,
was the most important city of the region of Oaxaca.

Cultural Development
Zapotec Bottle with human figure of traits felnicos.
Left archaeological evidence in the ancient city of Monte
Alban; in the form of buildings, stadiums for the ball
game, magnificent tombs and valuable goods, including
the precious metalwork. Monte Alban was the main city
of the western hemisphere and the center of a Zapotec
state that dominated a large part of what we now know
as the current state of Oaxaca.
The Zapotecs developed a agriculture very varied. They
grew several species of Chile, beans, squash, cocoa and,
the most important of all: the corn in the Early Classic
period gave sustenance to numerous villages. To have
good harvests they worshipped the sun, rain, the land
and the corn.

Housing
The first Zapotec were sedentary, lived in agricultural
settlements, who worshiped a pantheon of gods headed
by the rain god, Cocijo - represented by a symbol of
fertility that combined the symbols of the earth-jaguar
and sky-snake, common symbols in the mesoamerican
cultures. A hierarchy of priests regulated religious rites,
which sometimes included human sacrifices. The
Zapotecs worshiped their ancestors and, believing in a
world of paradise, developed the cult of the dead. They
had a great religious center in Mitla and a magnificent
city at Monte Alban, where prospered a highly
developed civilization, possibly more than 2000 years
ago. In art, architecture, writing (hieroglyphic),
mathematics, and astrology (calendars), the Zapotec
people seem to have had cultural affinities with the
Olmec, the ancient Maya, and later with the Toltecs.

Food
The Zapotec diet is based on maize, beans and pumpkin,
Mesoamerican commodities, as well as bananas,
chickpeas, peas, sweet potatoes, garlic and onions. The
rice is consumed a lot but it is only cultivated in the
central and northern part of the Isthmus. These
products of the land, combined with the meat and the
salted fish provided a varied and balanced diet.

Were polytheistic, that means that believed in several

gods. Their main god was called Xipe Totec and he was
known by three names:
Totec: is the main god, that governed them.
Xipe: is the creator god, the one who made everything as
it is now.
Tlatlauhaqui: God of the sun.
Other of the main gods were:
Pitao Cocijo: God of thunder and rain.
Pitao Cozobi: Sweetcorn.
Coqui Xee: The uncreated.
Quetzalcoatl: God of the winds.
Xonaxi Quecuya: God of earthquakes.
Coqui Bezelao: the God of the dead.
Pitao Cozana: God of the ancestors.
Quetzalcoatl: God of the winds.
Xonaxi Quecuya: God of earthquakes.

They also had certain superstitions, as the "tonal. This

consisted in that each time a mother waited a breeding,
the day of birth was put ashes in the shack where he
lived the newborn and the next day the footprint of the
animal that was formed would be the "totem" of the
child: that animal that represents it and gives it its
personality.
Another belief called "nahualismo" was that the Dark
Wizards took advantage of its "Totem" and became the
animals to do evil in the night.