Tzotzil people

The Tzotzil are an indigenous Maya people of the Mexican state of Chiapas, in the transition region from North to Central America. The Tzotzil language, spoken by approximately 350,000 indigenous people in Mexico and Guatemala (data from 2002 ), is one of the most vital indigenous languages ​​of Mexico.

Proper name

The Tzotzil call themselves batsil winik'otik, "true ( original ) people." The name derives from the Tzotzil proper name of the Tzotzil of Zinacantán sots'il Winik on what " bat people " means ( sots'il " bat ", Winik "man" ). One myth says that the ancestors of the Tzotzil in Zinacantán a bat vorfanden which they then worshiped as a deity.

Residential areas

The Tzotzil live in the central highlands of Chiapas in Mexico. The largest Tzotzil communities Chamula and Zinacantan where, because according to the census of 2010 over 99 % of the population Tzotzil, but in each case less than half are Spanish, north of the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, one of the major tourist attractions in Chiapas. A subset of the Tzotzil are the Nahua Tzotzil Indians; they inhabit only the cities Sayalo and San Gabriel Chiapas. It is a mixed people of both nations, but that has lost the resemblance to the primitive stocks and private people has become.

History

The Tzotzil are direct descendants of the classic Maya, who settled in the area already in pre-Columbian times. Due to the linguistic relationship, it is assumed that the Tzotzil as well as the Tzeltal and Ch'ol go back to the carrier of the late Classical period of Mayan culture, among others, in the cities of Palenque and Yaxchilan, one as a proto- Ch ' ol designated language used.