Mam people

Last updated
Mam
Mam people.jpg
Total population
865,884
Regions with significant populations
Flag of Guatemala.svg  Guatemala 842,252 [1]
Flag of Mexico.svg  Mexico 23,632 [2]
Languages
Mam, Spanish
Religion
Catholic, Evangelical, Maya religion
Related ethnic groups
Ixil, Tektitek
Woman of the Mame culture. She lives in Pavencul Ejido, Municipality of Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico Dona Mati.JPG
Woman of the Mame culture. She lives in Pavencul Ejido, Municipality of Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico

The Mam are an indigenous people in the western highlands of Guatemala and in south-western Mexico who speak the Mam language.

Contents

Most Mam (617,171) live in Guatemala, in the departments of Huehuetenango, San Marcos, and Quetzaltenango. [3] [4] The Mam people in Mexico (23,632) live principally in the Soconusco region of Chiapas. [2]

In pre-Columbian times the Mam were part of the Maya civilization; the pre-Columbian capital of the Mam kingdom was Zaculeu.

Many Mam live in and around the nearby modern city of Huehuetenango. The city of Quetzaltenango or Xela was originally Mam. Many more Mam live in small hamlets in the mountains of northern Guatemala, keeping many of their native traditions. Many Mam are bilingual and speak both Spanish as well as the Mam language, part of the Maya language family, the latter typically as their first language.

See also

Related Research Articles

Kʼicheʼ are indigenous peoples of the Americas and are one of the Maya peoples. The Kʼicheʼ language is a Mesoamerican language in the Mayan language family. The highland Kʼicheʼ states in the pre-Columbian era are associated with the ancient Maya civilization, and reached the peak of their power and influence during the Mayan Postclassic period.

Mam is a Mayan language spoken by about half a million Mam people in the Guatemalan departments of Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango, San Marcos, and Retalhuleu, and the Mexican state of Chiapas. Thousands more make up a Mam diaspora throughout the United States and Mexico, with notable populations living in Oakland, California and Washington, D.C.

Maya peoples People of southern Mexico and northern Central America

The Maya peoples are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical civilization. Today they inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. "Maya" is a modern collective term for the peoples of the region, however, the term was not historically used by the indigenous populations themselves. There was no common sense of identity or political unity among the distinct populations, societies and ethnic groups because they each had their own particular traditions, cultures and historical identity.

Huehuetenango Department Department of Guatemala

Huehuetenango is one of the 22 departments of Guatemala. It is situated in the western highlands and shares borders with the Mexican state of Chiapas in the north and west; with El Quiché in the east, with Totonicapán, Quetzaltenango and San Marcos to the south. The capital is the city of Huehuetenango.

Huehuetenango Municipality in Guatemala

Huehuetenango is a city and municipality in the highlands of western Guatemala. It is also the capital of the department of Huehuetenango. The city is situated 269 kilometres (167 mi) from Guatemala City, and is the last departmental capital on the Pan-American Highway before the Mexican border at La Mesilla.

Quetzaltenango Department Department of Guatemala

Quetzaltenango is a department in the western highlands of Guatemala. The capital is the city of Quetzaltenango, the second largest city in Guatemala. The department is divided up into 24 municipalities. The inhabitants include Spanish-speaking Ladinos and the K'iche' and Mam Maya groups, both with their own Maya language. The department consists of mountainous terrain, with its principal river being the Samalá River. the department is seismically active, suffering from both earthquakes and volcanic activity.

San Marcos Department Department of Guatemala

San Marcos is a department in northwestern Guatemala, on the Pacific Ocean and along the western Guatemala-Mexico border.

The Jakaltek (Jacaltec) language, also known as Jakalteko (Jacalteco) or Poptiʼ, is a Mayan language of Guatemala spoken by 90,000 Jakaltek people in the department of Huehuetenango, and some 500 the adjoining part of Chiapas in southern Mexico. The name Poptiʼ for the language is used by the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala and the Guatemalan Congress.

Spanish conquest of Guatemala 1524–1667 conflict between Spain and what is now Guatemala

The Spanish conquest of Guatemala was a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, in which Spanish colonisers gradually incorporated the territory that became the modern country of Guatemala into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. Before the conquest, this territory contained a number of competing Mesoamerican kingdoms, the majority of which were Maya. Many conquistadors viewed the Maya as "infidels" who needed to be forcefully converted and pacified, disregarding the achievements of their civilization. The first contact between the Maya and European explorers came in the early 16th century when a Spanish ship sailing from Panama to Santo Domingo was wrecked on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511. Several Spanish expeditions followed in 1517 and 1519, making landfall on various parts of the Yucatán coast. The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a prolonged affair; the Maya kingdoms resisted integration into the Spanish Empire with such tenacity that their defeat took almost two centuries.

Cuilco Municipality in Huehuetenango, Guatemala

Cuilco is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Huehuetenango. It is located in the Cuchumatanes mountains in the Southwestern portion of Huehuetenango. In 2018 it served approximately 57,000 people, most of them Ladinos, living in over 100 aldeas and caserios, which are smaller communities served by the municipality. While most of the population identifies as Ladino, this was not the case many years ago, when most people identified themselves as Mam Maya. Nowadays it’s mainly people living in certain Aldeas like Aldea Cancuc, Aldea Chejoj, El Chilcal, and Aldea Shequemebaj who still identify as Maya. The municipality covers a total area of 592 km2. The dirt road connecting it to the Pan-American Highway has recently been improved and asphalted, which reduces travel times considerably. However, the highway ends at Cuilco, so travellers wishing to continue on to other parts of Guatemala or to Mexico still must navigate rough dirt roads. Given the poor condition of municipal roads, travel times may exceed 8 hours from one side to the other. Export crops include corn, coffee and panela. Panela is a molasses-like substance made from processing sugar cane.

Concepción Chiquirichapa Municipality and town in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Concepción Chiquirichapa is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Quetzaltenango in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, 14 kilometers west of the departmental capital of Quetzaltenango, and 214 kilometers west of the capital Guatemala City. The municipality has a population of 17,342, 98% of whom identify as indigenous Maya-Mam and speak a dialect of Southern Mam.

Ixchiguán Place in San Marcos, Guatemala

Ixchiguán is a municipality in the San Marcos department of Guatemala. The economy is based on temporary work force on the coffee plantations, respectively on a male migrating work force in Mexico.

Indigenous peoples of Mexico Populations existing prior to the arrival of the Spanish

Indigenous peoples of Mexico, Native Mexicans or Mexican Native Americans, are those who are part of communities that trace their roots back to populations and communities that existed in what is now Mexico prior to the arrival of the Spanish.

Jakaltek people

The Jakaltek people are a Mayan people of Guatemala. They have lived in the foothills of the Cuchumatán Mountains in the Department of Huehuetenango in northwestern Guatemala since pre-Columbian times, centered on the town of Jacaltenango.

The Chuj or Chuh are a Maya people, whose homeland is in Guatemala and Mexico. Population estimates vary between 30,000 and over 60,000. Their indigenous language is also called Chuj and belongs to the Q'anjobalan branch of Mayan languages. In Guatemala, most Chuj live in the department of Huehuetenango in the municipalities of San Mateo Ixtatán and San Sebastián Coatán.

Spanish conquest of the Maya Conquest dating from 1511 to 1697

The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonisation of the Americas, in which the Spanish conquistadores and their allies gradually incorporated the territory of the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities into the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Maya occupied a territory that is now incorporated into the modern countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador; the conquest began in the early 16th century and is generally considered to have ended in 1697.

Lakandon Chʼol

The Lakandon Chʼol were a former Chʼol-speaking Maya people inhabiting the Lacandon Jungle in what is now Chiapas in Mexico and the bordering regions of northwestern Guatemala, along the tributaries of the upper Usumacinta River and the foothills of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes.

The Spanish conquest of Chiapas was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Mesoamerican polities in the territory that is now incorporated into the modern Mexican state of Chiapas. The region is physically diverse, featuring a number of highland areas, including the Sierra Madre de Chiapas and the Montañas Centrales, a southern littoral plain known as Soconusco and a central depression formed by the drainage of the Grijalva River.

Wajxaklajun Mayan ruin in Guatemala

Wajxaklajun is a ruin of the ancient Maya civilization situated adjacent to the modern town of San Mateo Ixtatán, in the Huehuetenango Department of Guatemala. Wajxaklajun is considered to be the most important archaeological site in the San Mateo Ixtatán area. The site has been dated to the Classic period. The Chuj Maya consider the city to have been built by their ancestors. The site has similarities with other nearby highland Maya ruins; it is unusual for the presence of a number of stelae, a feature more associated with lowland sites during the Classic period, probably indicating some level of exchange with lowland cities.

Cerro Quiac

Cerro Quiac is a small Maya archaeological site located at an altitude of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft), overlooking the Plains of Urbina in the Guatemalan Highlands. When investigated in 1970 it had five stone sculptures, by 1977 only four were left. The sculptures included figures and geometric decoration. The site is still used for contemporary Maya rituals. Cerro Quiac is located in the northeast of the municipality of Cantel, within the boundaries of the hamlet of Chirijquiac.

References

  1. "Resultados Censo 2018" (PDF) (in Spanish). Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Guatemala. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  2. 1 2 Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas (CDI) "Mames de Chiapas". CDI. 2006. Retrieved 2009-02-26.[ dead link ]
  3. "Radiografía del Pueblo Mam". ALMG . Retrieved 2008-05-27.[ dead link ]
  4. Ethnologue report for Guatemala Archived February 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine