Cora people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cora are an indigenous ethnic group of Western Central Mexico that live in the Sierra de Nayarit and in La Mesa de Nayar in the Mexican states of Jalisco and Nayarit. They call them selves naáyarite and this is the ethnonym that have given name to the present day state of Nayarit. The Cora currently number around 16,000 people according to the Ethnologue 1993 surveys.
They cultivate maize, beans and Amaranth and raise some cattle.
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[edit] History
The Cora were displaced from their original habitats during the violent Spanish incursions under the conquistador Nuño de Guzmán and now live in a considerably smaller area than they originally did.
[edit] Religion
The Cora religion is largely syncretic that is a mix between the traditional religion of the Cora and Catholicism.
Cora religion has three principal divinities. The supreme god is called Tayau which means "our father", he is a sun god who travels the sky during the day, and sits in his golden chair at noon, the clouds are believed to be smoke from his pipe. In earlier times sthe priests of Tayau, the Tonatí, were the highest authority of the Cora communities. His wife is Tetewan the underworld goddess associated with the moon the rain and the direction west. Her alternate names are Hurima and Nasisa. Their son Sautari "the flower picker" is associated with maize and the afternoon. Otheer names for him are Hatsikan "big brother" and Tahás and Ora. He is also associated with jesucristo.
Some Cora myths have clearly mesoamerican origins, for example the myth of the creation of the fifth sun. Other are s hared with the Huichol forexample the myth of the human race hailing from a man and a dog-woman the only survivors of a mythical cataclysmic deluge.
[edit] Language
The Cora language is an Uto-Aztecan language (Corachol branch) related to Huichol.
[edit] Links
[edit] References
- Miller, Wick. (1983). Uto-Aztecan languages. In W. C. Sturtevant (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 10, pp. 113-124). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.
- Dahlgren Jordan, BArbro. (1994). Los Coras de la Sierra de Nayarit. Instituto de Investigaciones Antropologicas. UNAM. Mexico.
- McMahon, Ambrosio & Maria Aiton de McMahon. (1959) Vocabulario Cora. Series de Vocabularios Indigenas Mariano Silva y Aceves. SIL.
- Casad, Eugene H.. 2001. "Cora: a no longer unknown Southern Uto-Aztecan language." In José Luis Moctezuma Zamarrón and Jane H. Hill (eds), Avances y balances de lenguas yutoaztecas; homenaje a Wick R. Miller p. 109-122. Mexico, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia.
