Ch'ol

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The Ch'ol are an indigenous people of Mexico, mainly located in the northern Chiapas highlands in the state of Chiapas. As one of the Maya peoples, their indigenous language is from the Mayan language family, known also as Ch'ol. According to the 2000 Census, there were 140,806 speakers of Ch'ol in Chiapas, including 40,000 who were monolingual.

The Chiapas highlands or the central highlands of Chiapas, is a geographic, sociocultural and administrative region located in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.

Maya peoples People of southern Mexico and northern Central America

The Maya peoples are a large group of Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. They inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region that share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term embraces many distinct populations, societies, and ethnic groups that each have their own particular traditions, cultures, and historical identity.

Mayan languages language family spoken in Mesoamerica

The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million Maya peoples, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras. In 1996, Guatemala formally recognized 21 Mayan languages by name, and Mexico recognizes eight more within its territory.

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Geographical history

The Maya regions can be divided into three different eco-logical areas: Southern Lowland, Northern Lowlands, and highlands/pacific slope region. The northern area was important because of its salt production, limestone, and cacao production. The limestone was essential to the construction of the Mayan cities and sculptures. The highlands consist of volcanic areas that are surrounded by mountain ranges from the Chiapas to Southern Guatemala. The mountain peaks vary from 3,300 to 13,100 feet (1,000 to 4,000 m). Additionally, the landscape is characterized by valleys with fertile land and large lakes. These characteristics made the region appealing to explorers who later exploited the locations abundant natural resources. [1]

Maya civilization Mesoamerican civilization

The Maya civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. This region consists of the northern lowlands encompassing the Yucatán Peninsula, and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, running from the Mexican state of Chiapas, across southern Guatemala and onwards into El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain.

History of the Ch'ol in Mexico

In 1554, the Spanish military first invaded Lacandon jungle, where the Lakandon Ch'ol and other indigenous groups lived. At the end of the 1550s, the Spanish invasion forced the Ch'ol and other Mayan groups into settlements called Reducciones. Eventually, when the reducciones were split, the Ch'ol were sent to the North, to Palenque, Tilá, and Tumbalá. The people sent to these regions were the ancestors of today's Ch'ol. The Ch'ol were forced to work on encomiendas until the Spanish crown gave them a document called the "cédulas reales" which granted them the land they had worked on for generations.

Lacandon Jungle area of rainforest

The Lacandon Jungle is an area of rainforest which stretches from Chiapas, Mexico, into Honduras and into the southern part of the Yucatán Peninsula. The heart of this rainforest is located in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas near the border with Guatemala in the Montañas del Oriente region of the state. Although most of the jungle outside the reserve has been partially or completely destroyed and damage continues inside the Reserve, the Lacandon is still the largest montane rainforest in North America and one of the last ones left large enough to support jaguars. It contains 1,500 tree species, 33% of all Mexican bird species, 25% of all Mexican animal species, 56% of all Mexican diurnal butterflies and 16% of all Mexico's fish species.

In the 19th century, President Benito Juarez established a system of agrarian ejidos with the intent of changing the traditional system of production in Mexico. To establish the system, Juarez took away land from indigenous tribes such as the Ch'ol. However, the ejidos did not provide enough natural resources to support the Ch'ol people. As a result, the Ch'ol began to move into the Lacandon Jungle. Today there is conflict between the Ch'ol and the Lacandon-Yucatec speakers as the Ch'ol continue to move into the land the Lacandones now claim as their own.

Ejido communal farming unit in Mexico

In the Mexican system of government, an ejido is an area of communal land used for agriculture, on which community members individually farm designated parcels and collectively maintain communal holdings. Ejidos are registered with Mexico's National Agrarian Registry. The system of ejidos was based on an understanding of the Aztec calpulli and the medieval Spanish ejido.

Language

The language that is called Ch'ol in English is referred to as "Lak ty'añ" means "our speech". The word Ch'ol refers to both the language and the people.

The Ch'ol language consists of three branches: Sabanilla, Tilá and Tumbalá. Although some linguists consider them as three different languages, they are commonly known as dialects of the same Ch'ol language. [2] Speakers of Tilá and Tumbalá can usually understand each other. In total, there are an estimated 120,000 speakers of the Ch'ol language. The Tilá speakers inhabit Chiapas, Tila, and while the Tumbala inhabit north central Chiapas, Tumbala, Sabanilla, Misjia, Limar, Chivalita. [3] Both dialects are spoken in Vicente Guerrero, Limar, and Chivalito.

Although most Ch'ol people are monolingual, those that speak Spanish have a variation called "Castia". This form of Spanish is characterized by:

Food and culture

The Ch'ol practice Christianity. [3] However, many Mayan traditions are incorporated into the Ch'ols' Christian religious practices (more so than in other regions of Mexico). For example "cave worship has been legitimized throughout the region and local curers alternate between churches and caves to gain their powers and carry out their functions. Earth owner, the Mayan cave god, and Christ have been reconciled, and cave ceremonies have continued to be performed since the conversion of the population to Christianity." [4]

The staple food of the Ch'ol people are corn, livestock (chicken, turkey), beans, squash, bananas, greens and other fruits. A source of income for some Ch'ol includes selling livestock, (like pigs, cows and chicken) as well as fruits; this income is used to purchase soap, medicine and other essential materials.

Education and bilingualism

The growing interaction between Spanish speakers and Ch'ol speakers has created a desire for higher education and more job opportunities. The interaction has also heightened the need to learn Spanish and has caused the stigmatization of native languages including Ch'ol. However, the majority of Spanish speakers in the Ch'ol community are males, younger women, and children. Children learn to speak Spanish in primary school; they are taught in Ch'ol till fourth grade when instruction begins to be given in Spanish. In some rural villages, there are secondary schools, but for higher education most have to travel to a different town. However, the cost of doing so generally prohibits this. In México, education is mandatory through secondary school, but many Ch'ol students (especially girls) stop attending around the sixth grade due to early marriage and financial issues. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. "Ch'ol Language and the Ch'ol Indian Tribe (Tila, Tumbala, Chol Maya)". www.native-languages.org.
  2. Coon, Jessica L. "Root Words in Ch'ol (Mayan):A Distributed Morphological Approach." Diss. Reed College, 2004. Print.
  3. 1 2 "Chol". ethnologue.com.
  4. Josserand, J. Kathryn; Hopkins, Nicholas A. (2005). "Lexical Retention and Cultural Significance in Chol (Mayan) Ritual Vocabulary". Anthropological Linguistics. 47 (4): 401–423. JSTOR   25132352.
  5. Rodriguez, Lydia, Anthropologist. Personal Notes "Who Are the Ch'ol Maya." 2005