 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2013) |
 Mixtec king and warlord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw (right) Meeting with Four Jaguar, in a depiction from the pre-Columbian Codex Zouche-Nuttall. | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Approximately 830,000[1][2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
Mexico ( Oaxaca, Puebla,  Guerrero,  Chiapas) | |
| Languages | |
| Mixtec, Spanish | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism with elements of traditional beliefs | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Zapotecs, Trique |
| People | Mixtec ñuù savi, nayívi savi, ñuù davi, nayivi davi |
|---|---|
| Language | Mixtec sa'an davi, da'an davi, tu'un savi,.. |
| Country | Mixteca Ñuu Savi, Ñuu Djau, Ñuu Davi,.. |
The Mixtecs (/ˈmiːstɛks, ˈmiːʃtɛks/),[3] or Mixtecos, are Indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec culture was the main Mixtec civilization, which lasted from around 1500 BCE until being conquered by the Spanish in 1523.
The Mixtec region is generally divided into three subregions based on geography: the Mixteca Alta (Upper Mixtec or Ñuu Savi Sukun), the Mixteca Baja (Lower Mixtec or Ñuu I'ni), and the Mixteca Costa (Coastal Mixtec or Ñuu Andivi). The Alta is drier with higher elevations, while the Baja is lower in elevation, hot but dry, and the Coasta is also low in elevation but much more humid and tropical. The Alta has seen the most study by archaeologists, with evidence for human settlement going back to the Archaic and Early Formative periods.[4] The first urbanized sites emerged here. Long considered to be part of the larger Mixteca region, groups living in the Baja were probably more culturally related to neighboring peoples in Eastern Guerrero than they were to the Mixtecs of the Alta.[5] They even had their own hieroglyphic writing system called ñuiñe.[6] The Costa only came under control of the Mixtecs during the military campaigns of the Mixtec cultural hero Eight Deer Jaguar Claw. Originally from Tilantongo in the Alta, Eight Deer and his armies conquered several major and minor kingdoms on their way to the coast, establishing the capital of Tututepec in the Lower Río Verde valley. Previously, the Costa had been primarily occupied by the Chatinos.
In pre-Columbian times, some Mixtec kingdoms competed and allied with each other and with Zapotec kingdoms in the Central Valleys. Like the rest of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, the Mixtecs were conquered by the Spanish invaders and their indigenous allies in the 16th century. Pre-Columbian Mixtecs numbered around 1.5 million.[7] Today there are approximately 800,000 Mixtec people in Mexico, and there are also large populations in the United States. The Mixtec languages form a major branch of the Oto-Manguean language family.
- ^ Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indios (CDI) (2000): Lenguas indígenas de México. Viewed 30 November 2006.
- ^ Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior: Lazos. Síntesis informativa Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, 24 January 2005. Viewed 30 November 2006
- ^ "Mixtec". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Joyce, Arthur (2009). Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos: Ancient Peoples of Southern Mexico. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0631209782.
- ^ Gutiérrez, Gerardo (7 February 2017). "Classic and Postclassic Archaeological Features of the Mixteca-Tlapaneca-Nahua region of Guerrero: Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me the Classic was Over". After Monte Albán: Transformation and Negotiation in Oaxaca, Mexico. University Press of Colorado. pp. 367–362. ISBN 978-1-60732-597-0.
- ^ Lind, Michael (2008). "Arqueología de la Mixteca" (PDF). Desacatos. 27: 13–32.
- ^ archaeology.about.com › ... › Archaeology 101 › Glossary › M Terms