Tzotzil people
Tzotzil women on a street in San Juan Chamula
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (~298,000) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Chiapas | |
| Languages | |
| Tzotzil and Mexican Spanish | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Maya people |
The Tzotzil are an indigenous Maya people of the central Chiapas highlands in southern Mexico. As of 2000, they numbered about 298,000. The municipalities with largest Tzotzil population are Chamula (48,500), San Cristóbal de las Casas (30,700), and Zinacantan (24,300), in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
The Tzotzil language, like Tzeltal and Ch'ol, is descended from the proto-Ch'ol spoken in the late classic period at sites such as Palenque and Yaxchilan. The word tzotzil originally meant "bat people" or "people of the bat" in the Tzotzil language (from tzotz "bat"). Today the Tzotzil refer to their language as Bats'i k'op, which means "true word" in the modern language.
Houses are built of wattle and daub or lumber, usually with thatched roofs. Traditional men's clothing consists of shirt, short pants, neckerchief, hat, and wool poncho. Traditional women's clothing is a blouse or long overdress (huipil), indigo dyed skirt (enredo), cotton sash, and shawl.
Based on linguistic and archaeological data, scholars believe that the common ancestors of the contemporary Tzotzil and Tzeltal peoples entered Chiapas between 100 BCE and 300 CE. According to Spanish chronicles, just before the Spanish Conquest the Tzotzil exported quetzal feathers and amber to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán. They also produced salt from wells near Ixtapa and traded it throughout the Chiapas highlands, and continued to do so after the Conquest.
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