Zapotec peoples

The Zapotec Zapotec or belong to the indigenous people of Mexico and the Mexican state of Oaxaca live in southern Mexico. They speak Zapotec and called themselves Be'ena'a zaa zaa or Peni, cloud people ', but the later dominant Aztecs referred to the competing and west of the Zapotec Mixtec -based as Mixtecapan, people from the clouds country ' or Mixtecatl, cloud people '.

The name Zapotec is derived from the Aztec language, Nahuatl. Referred to as the Zapotec tzapotecah (singular: tzapotecatl ), residents of the place where sapote grows '.

History

In pre-Hispanic times were the Zapotec support a highly developed culture in southern Mexico ( Oaxaca ). First traces of settlement can be traced to 1500 BC. The center of their cultural development was Monte Albán. Already in the first development phase of Monte Albán emerge font and number characters. In the relief art and ceramics Olmec influences can be read. It can be found steles engraved with portraits strangely contorted human figures, the so-called Danzantes which dancers '.

In the heyday of the Zapotec culture (300 to 900) ( Monte Alban III) were included suggestions from Teotihuacán and developed independently. In ceramics, the Zapotec made ​​masterful figure vessels (Fig. urns ), which were used as sacrificial containers. Furthermore, they had attained a high level of skill in the processing of metal, stone and feathers. In grave chambers colored wall paintings have survived.

In the post-classical period (10th - 15th century), the Zapotecs lived in conflict with the Mixtecs, the parts of their settlement area had brought under their control. Before the Spanish conquest, there was the seat of the Zapotekenherrschers in Zaachila while Mitla was a cult center and residence of the high priest of importance.

Probably the most important Zapoteke is the former president of the Republic of Mexico, Benito Juárez, who in the 1860s the defense against the French under Napoleon III. and against the Habsburg Maximilian I - who claimed the throne as Emperor of Mexico - led and successfully completed.

Presence

According to an estimate of 1997 785.000 Zapotecs live in Mexico. Their language, Zapotec or Diidzaj, which is spoken in their seven idiomatic variants still in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and in the state of Oaxaca, is a member of along with the language of the neighboring Mixtec the Otomangue language family.