Nicarao people

Nicarao
Nahua community in Rivas, Nicaragua
Nahua community in Rivas, Nicaragua
Nahua community in Rivas, Nicaragua.
Total population
20,000+
Regions with significant populations
Western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica
 NicaraguaEstimated 20,000[1][2]
 Costa Rica~1000
Languages
Nawat, Nicaraguan Spanish
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Nahuas, Pipil people, Mexica

The Nicarao are an Indigenous Nahua people who live in western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] They are the southernmost Nahua group located at the southern frontier of Mesoamerica. They spoke the Nahuat language before it went extinct in both countries after Spanish conquest.[10][11]

The Nicarao are descended from Toltecs who migrated from North America and central and southern Mexico over the course of several centuries from approximately 700 CE onwards.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] This branch of the Nahua originated in Chiapas, which was inhabited by Nahuat-speaking Toltecs for hundreds of years before they migrated further into Central America.[21][10][22][23][24][25][26][27] Around 1200 CE, the Nicarao split from the Pipil people, moved into what is now Nicaragua, seized most of the fertile lands in the area, and eventually separated and formed their own chiefdoms.[28][29][30] The migration of the Nicarao has been linked to the collapse of the important central-Mexican cities of Teotihuacan and Tula, as well as the Classic Maya collapse. The Nicarao settled throughout western Nicaragua, inhabiting Rivas, Jinotega, Chinandega, Nueva Segovia, Masaya, Madriz, Matagalpa, Esteli, Leon, Granada and Managua. In addition the Nicarao controlled Tiger Lagoon, Lake Xolotlan, Lake Nicaragua, and the islands of Ometepe and Zapatera.[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] The Nicarao also settled in Bagaces, Costa Rica after displacing the Huetar people who were already there, resulting in tribal warfare between the Nahuas and the Huetares which lasted until Spanish arrival.[39][40]

The Nicarao called their land Nicānāhuac which means "here lies Anahuac" in Nahuatl and is a combination of the words Nican (here),[41] and Ānāhuac, which in turn is a combination of the words atl (water) and nahuac, a locative meaning "surrounded". Therefore the literal translation of Nicanahuac is "here surrounded by water".[42][43][44][45][46] It is a geographical name that refers to the large bodies of water surrounding the land they inhabited, the Pacific Ocean, lakes Nicaragua and Xolotlan, and the rivers and lagoons.[47][48] In addition the term "Nicarao" was not what the Nahuas of Nicaragua called themselves, in fact the term is considered an insult to their community. Nicarao was a derogatory term imposed on them by the conquistadors as a form of mockery.[49][50]

As a Mesoamerican group, the Nicarao shared many blended cultural traits with both indigenous North American and Mexican belief systems as well as their Toltec parent tribe, including an identical Toltec calendar, similar pottery and effigies, similar organizational treaties, the use of screenfold books, the worship of the Great Spirit and closely related sky deities, Nagual mysticism, the practice of animal and Tonal spirituality, and expertise in medical practice.[51][52][53][54][55]

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  5. ^ "Central American Nahua".
  6. ^ "The Kingdom of this world".
  7. ^ Peralta, De; M, Manuel (1901). "The Aboriginals of Costa Rica". Journal de la Société des Américanistes. 3 (2): 125–139. doi:10.3406/jsa.1901.3365.
  8. ^ "Do you know the origin of the word Guanacaste". 25 July 2018.
  9. ^ "Guanacaste is a practically autonomous ethnolinguistic area and different from the rest of the country". 22 July 2020.
  10. ^ a b Mc Callister, Rick (2013). "Náwat – y no náhuatl. El náwat centroamericano y sus sabores: Náwat pipil y náwat nicarao". Revista Caratula.
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  21. ^ Campbell, Lyle (January 1, 1985). The Pipil Language of El Salvador. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 10–12. ISBN 978-3-11-088199-8.
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  24. ^ "The Toltec Empire". 23 May 2020.
  25. ^ Macri, Martha J.; Looper, Matthew G. (2003). "NAHUA IN ANCIENT MESOAMERICA: Evidence from Maya inscriptions". Ancient Mesoamerica. 14 (2): 285–297. doi:10.1017/S0956536103142046 (inactive 1 November 2024). JSTOR 26308175. S2CID 162601312.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
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  28. ^ Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y tierra-firme del mar océano; por el Capitán Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés; Primer Cronista del Nuevo Mundo; publícala la Real Academia de la Historia.- Tomo IV.- Libro XLII.- Capitulo XIII.
  29. ^ Manuel Orozco y Berra (1864). "Geografía de las lenguas y carta etnográfica de México: precedidas de un ensayo de clasificación de las mismas lenguas y de apuntes para las inmigraciones de las tribus" (PDF). Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  30. ^ Fowler 1985, p. 37.
  31. ^ "National Autonomous University of Nicaragua" (PDF).
  32. ^ Preparation of a hygiene plan for the Nicaraos microenterprise cocoa industry in the department of Masaya.
  33. ^ "Municipality of San Jose de Cusmapa". 18 June 2020.
  34. ^ "Nahoas. Territorio indígena y gobernanza".
  35. ^ "Laguna de Asososca: The Ultimate Guide to This Hidden Gem". 20 April 2022.
  36. ^ "Laguna de Asososca o Laguna del Tigre".
  37. ^ "Nicaraguan Anthropology". 31 March 2007. Archived from the original on 2016-08-09.
  38. ^ "Culture of Esteli". 26 August 2020.
  39. ^ Brinton, Daniel G. (1897). "The Ethnic Affinities of the Guetares of Costa Rica". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 36 (156): 496–498. JSTOR 983406.
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  53. ^ Frost, Melissa June (August 10, 2017). "Herbs That Madden, Herbs That Cure: A History of Hallucinogenic Plant Use in Colonial Mexico" (PDF). University of Virginia. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
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  55. ^ De Burgos, Hugo (2014). "Contemporary Transformations of Indigenous Medicine and Ethnic Identity". Anthropologica. 56 (2): 399–413. JSTOR 24467313.