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Popoluca
The Popoluca are a group of Amerindians containing approximately 30,000 people. Latin America contains approximately 49,000,000 Amerindians. They live in a state known as Vera Cruz, primarily in the southeastern portion of this state. Several branches of the Popoluca people exist, including the Zoque branch and the Mixe branch. The Zoque branch consists of the Sierra Popoluca, the Texistepec Popoluca, Zoque Popoluca in Oaxaca, and the San Andres Tuxtla group. The Mixe branch includes the Oluta and Sayula Popoluca groups. Together, the Mixe branch and the Zoque branch comprise the Mixe-Zoque Popoluca group.
Most of the Sierra Popoluca people live in Soteapan. This town consists exclusively of people who speak the Popoluca languages. The Popoluca Indians live in a group of small villages in Vera Cruz. The Popoluca society appears to be somewhat primitive by modern standards. The technology that the Popoluca Indians regularly use is relatively simple. There is no mechanization, and the Popoluca only utilize power originating from human labor. In the Popoluca society, there are no large businesses. All of the economic production among the Popoluca Indians results from the labor of individuals. There are no sophisticated labor systems involving the division of labor among workers.
Despite the apparent primitiveness of the Popoluca economy, this Indian group is not entirely primitive. The concept of money is familiar to the Popoluca people. The Popoluca use products that are produced in modern industrial factories. Furthermore, some of the Popoluca laborers export products to other states. They have exported certain crops for many years. Compared to many of the other Mexican Indian groups, the Popoluca have a significantly sophisticated economic system.
Some of the Popoluca Indians’ economic practices may not appear to be rational when viewed by an outsider. When building houses, the Popoluca Indians will typically mobilize many laborers, but their architectural practices often have low productivity by modern standards. In addition, the Popoluca often lend money to other people without charging interest. In the Popoluca Indian culture, land is the most significant tangible property. However, the Popoluca never buy or sell land for monetary gain. The Popoluca Indians often trade using the method of barter, and they often choose not to exploit opportunities that could provide financial gain. For example, the Popoluca typically depend on outside individuals and companies to handle the financial aspects of their corn trade, even though the Popoluca would have an apparent opportunity to receive a greater profit from the corn trade.
One particular aspect of the Popoluca Indians that anthropologists have studied is ethnobotany. Ethnobotany is a rather general term, and it applies to the systematic study of the various types of plants that people utilize for a variety of purposes. Humans use plants for numerous purposes. Some of the most common human uses of plants include food production, the use of medicinal plants, and producing raw materials such as wood. Many people still rely on relatively primitive methods of medical care. Traditional medicinal techniques are one type of relatively primitive medical care. Nations that do not have advanced economies often implement these techniques, since they generally do not have modern health-care structures. According to the World Health Organization, these traditional medicine techniques are the main health care source for approximately eighty percent of the population of the world.
The Popoluca Indians of Vera Cruz have a significant reliance on medicinal plants for their health care. They appear to have developed a system whereby they select and continue to use the plants that they find the most effective for health care purposes. They often use specific plants that are effective in treating specific regional diseases. Despite the tremendous diversity of plants in Mexico, human practices such as cattle breeding appear to pose a serious threat to some of the medicinal plants that the Sierra Popoluca use. Scientific researchers continue to try to determine and classify the various medicinal plants that the Popoluca Indians use.
Anthropological researchers have devoted considerable attention to the languages of the Popoluca Indians. The relationship between the language of the Sayula Popoluca Indians and the Spanish has been of considerable interest to scholars. Linguists have identified several distinct periods in the study of the language of the Sayula Popoluca. For approximately 450 years, the Sayula Popoluca Indians have been in contact with people who speak Spanish. The Spanish language has been the primary source of influence for numerous phonological changes in the Sayula Popoluca language. Between 1650 and 1900, several new phonemes from Spanish became integrated into the Popoluca language. When the Popoluca first initiated contact with Spanish speakers, the Popoluca language consisted of approximately fifteen phonetic units and six vowel sounds.
The linguistic units that transferred from Spanish to the Popoluca language consistently changed between 1520 and 1650. Some of the changes included shifts in stresses, changes in vowel sounds, and the integration of consonant sounds from Spanish into the Popoluca language. Furthermore, the deletion of final vowels and vowel epenthesis occurred during this period. Between 1650 and 1900, new phonemes began to occur in the Popoluca language. In addition, new medial clusters became common. The Popoluca language often takes verbs from the Spanish language. When this occurs, the Indians treat the new verbs as they would treat normal Popoluca verbs. This process continues to occur between these languages. By 1900, the Sayula Popoluca language included approximately nineteen consonant phonemes. From 1900 to the present time, several new adjustments have occurred in the Popoluca phonemes. Linguists continue to study the relationship between Spanish and the language of the Sayula Popoluca Indians.
The Popoluca Indians in Mexico consist of approximately 30,000 people. Other Indian groups in this part of Mexico include the Mazahua, Mixe, and Zoque Indians. The Popoluca Indians hold the belief that butterflies serve to represent the spirits of people who have died. Unlike other cultures which regard butterflies as insects that represent beauty in nature, the Popoluca believe that they contain human spirits. Some Popoluca villages in the state of Vera Cruz hold this belief. One major group of Popoluca Indians who believe that butterflies have supernatural aspects consists of the Popoluca Indians of Ocotal Chico. This is a remote group of Popoluca Indians; they live in a mountainous region of Mexico.
Additional Reading
Popoluca
Mexico Native Americans
Mixe-Zoquean Languages
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