Balancing the World: Huichol Art and Culture

Melissa S. Powell

For the first time, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology,

presents a significant collection of Huichol art from the early part of the last century

collected by anthropologist Robert M. Zingg (1900–1957) for the Laboratory of

Anthropology. These unique works represent important ties to Native American,

prehispanic, and Hispanic art histories and cultures. Known today for colorful, decorative

yarn paintings, which are renowned in the global art market, the origins of modern

Huichol art are found in the earlier Huichol religious arts of the Zingg ethnographic

collection.

The Huichol are a Native American people of western Mexico who for many

centuries have retained their unique culture and prehispanic religious beliefs. Their

remote location in the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains, primarily in the states

of Jalisco and Nayarit has allowed for greater resistance than any other indigenous group

to the forces of Christianization and acculturation. The Huichol people today continue to

create traditional art and practice ancient rituals that predate the time of Spanish contact.

The Uto-Aztecan language of the Huichol is related to the language of the ancient

Aztecs of central Mexico, to the Cora, to the Tohono O’odham and Hopi of Arizona, and

to the Tanoan languages of the Northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico. The word

Huichol (pronounced wee-chol) was a name given by the Spanish explorers, while

Wixarika (pl. Wixaritari) is the Huichols’ name for themselves.

smaller than villages and pueblos. It may take a walk of several hours to reach the nearest

neighbors.

The large circular or oval Huichol temple, tuki, is the location of community

ceremonies. Officials of the temple are known as “keepers of the votive bowls” and serve

five-year terms, fulfilling religious cargos (obligations). God houses with thatched,

gabled roofs, xiriki, are smaller family shrines dedicated to particular ancestor gods.

Robert M. Zingg

From 1934–1935, Dr. Robert Mowry Zingg was the first American anthropologist to

conduct extended ethnographic fieldwork among the Huichol in the community of

Tuxpan de Bolaños. Zingg lived with Huichol families and participated in everyday life,

although he was most interested in mythology and ceremonialism.

Among the highlights of the Zingg collection are outstanding examples of textiles

that were intricately woven on backstrap looms by Huichol women. Some of the ancient

designs which have endured over the centuries are even seen in the Mesoamerican

codices. The Zingg collection also features richly decorated votive gourd bowls, prayer

arrows, and other offerings to the gods. Oversized shamans’ chairs and diminutive gods’

chairs are unique to Huichol ceremonies. Featherwork is made by Huichol artists to

summon the gods. Colorful macaw feathers, beaded jewelry, deerskin quivers,

embroidered clothing, and hats adorned with squirrel tails all attest to a time and a culture

where art objects were made for everyday and ceremonial use, not tourist consumption.
 When he first arrived in Tuxpan in 1934, Zingg set up a small trading post in the

god house appointed to him as living quarters. In this way it took him four months to win

the goodwill of the community and to become “part of the scenery.” While the

voluminous ethnography he eventually produced was intended for an academic audience,

he was not always an impartial observer of Huichol culture, and he interjects numerous

human touches throughout. For instance, Zingg marvels at the height of a seven-foot

Huichol man and recounts small personal incidents such as providing a salve for a

woman who burned her foot while stirring a pot of corn beer. During his stay Zingg also

vaccinated hundreds in the community against smallpox.

Music is an important part of Huichol culture, and Zingg delighted in the pleasure

the Huichol took in the strange music he played for them on the phonograph he had

packed in to Tuxpan by mule, tunes with boisterous college cheers and Southern

spirituals being among their favorites.

Zingg observed many elaborate ceremonies of “extraordinary beauty” that were

given nearly weekly within each community, as much of Huichol life revolves around an

annual ceremonial and agricultural cycle. The ceremonies that Zingg documented, some

of which lasted for days, included rain ceremonies, ceremonies to prepare the soil for

seed, the First Fruits Ceremony, and the Ceremony of the Parched Maize. In describing

one such occasion he stepped out of the role of anthropologist and remarked, “[T]here

were at least fifty thousand dollars worth of orchids used in this feast—at New York

prices”.

Among Zingg’s accomplishments, he recorded an extensive cycle of myths, the

sacred oral history of the Huichol. The mythology is sung for twelve hours at a time and
recounts Huichol histories and creation stories. As Zingg noted, again and again the plot

is framed as a contest between the Sun God and the rain gods.

Balancing the World

The annual ceremonial cycle of the Huichol is divided into dry and wet season

observances. The purpose of the ceremonies is to keep the sun and rain in proper balance

for the success of agriculture. The dry season gods are male and the wet season goddesses

are female. Accordingly, dry season ceremonies pertain to deer and peyote, while wet

season ceremonies focus on abundant rain and fertile crops. As Zingg learned, the cycle

of wet and dry seasons is viewed as a contest between the gods of the dry season and the

goddesses of the wet season, and “the outcome of this epic battle is the very procession of

the seasons.” Zingg explains, “By prayer, offering, and ceremony, the Huichols think that

they cast the balance each year, in favor of one or the other, and thus themselves

participate in the swing of the seasons so necessary for their happiness, health, and

prosperity.”

The concept of balance is thus central to Huichol art and culture. The balancing of

opposites, such as the wet and dry seasons, or darkness and light, is a prevalent theme in

Huichol art. Huichol ceremonies are performed and offerings are made to keep the world

in harmony and balance, ensuring successful crops and hunting, fertility, health, and well-

being. Today, the Huichol say that they continue to make art and perform the centuries-

old rituals not just for their own people, but for the benefit of everyone in the world.

Huichol shamans, mara’akate, are religious practitioners who balance between

the mundane and supernatural worlds. The shamans preside over ceremonies and serve
the community by singing the sacred mythology and communicating with the gods and

spirits. They are also diviners of illness and healers. This mediating role of shamans is

sometimes played out in public demonstrations of physical balance. For instance, shaman

Ramón Medina Silva executed dangerous leaps on a cliff overlooking a waterfall to

demonstrate his abilities.

Art for the Gods

Huichols recognize a pantheon of deities and ancestors, all addressed by kinship terms.

The gods personify elements of the natural world including rain, sun, fire, clouds, water,

plants, deer, and other animals. Some of the principal deities are the Sun Father, Tau;

Grandfather Fire, Tatewari; and Elder Brother Deer, Kauyumari, who is the Huichol

culture hero, a trickster, and a messenger between the human and divine. The mother of

all the gods is Great Grandmother Growth, Takutsi Nakawe, the goddess of creation,

fertility, and the underworld. Other female goddesses, including the Corn Mother, Tatei

Niwetzika, are associated with the earth and water.

When Zingg arrived in Tuxpan, he found that most Huichol adults were occupied

with making art. As he observed, the Huichol constantly create offerings which serve as

visual prayers to the gods. As part of the ceremonial cycle, the Huichol make pilgrimages

to leave offerings at sacred sites. In the past and today, Huichol art is made to

communicate with the gods and ancestors.

As Zingg noted, “By far the greater part of the symbolic art of the Huichols

adorns the gods . . . the gods live in the best houses, are offered the rarest and most

expensive food, so also for their exclusive use and pleasure is almost all of the elaborate
symbolic art.” Prayers to the gods for rain, health, and successful crops are encoded in

Huichol art and symbols on votive offerings, beadwork, and clothing.

Ceremonial offerings to the gods are the precursors to the art of modern Huichol

yarn painting. Early Huichol votive art evolved into art produced for sale beginning in the

1950s, when artists adapted traditional techniques, designs, and materials to “paint” in

yarn. Sophisticated and vibrant Huichol yarn paintings have now become renowned in

the global art market.

The Peyote Pilgrimage

Each year the Huichol make a pilgrimage to the desert of Wirikuta in the state of San

Luis Potosí to re-enact an annual ritual hunt for the sacred peyote cactus. Lophophora

williamsii is a hallucinogenic cactus that produces visions when eaten, and prevents

exhaustion and thirst. The use of peyote, hikuri, is central to Huichol religion and

considered a divine sacrament used to communicate with the gods. The peyote collected

during the annual ritual hunt is brought home to be used in ceremonies throughout the

year.

Peyote is found in the Chihuahuan Desert and the lower Rio Grande Valley, but it

is not native to today’s Huichol Sierra territory. Each year groups of Huichol make the

long pilgrimage to Wirikuta by walking for 40 days, a difficult three hundred-mile

journey to the east, perhaps retracing a route to the home of their ancestors. In recent

decades, driving part of the way has become more common, as fences, towns, and

highways block the way.

represents, and is said to be, corn and deer, part of a sacred trinity. Peyote is considered

the footprint of the deer and so is ritually tracked and hunted with a bow and arrow. Deer

are scarce today, although they were still trapped in nets in Zingg’s time. As

anthropologist Peter T. Furst writes, “It is impossible to overstate the importance and

symbolic role of the deer hunt in Huichol religion. Deer is peyote and vice versa, and

both are maize, the sacred food”.

Comparisons to the Pueblo Southwest

In addition to a common Uto-Aztecan language family, the Huichol culture area and the

Pueblo Southwest share a tradition of maize agriculture that originated in Mesoamerica

and was adopted by the native peoples of the Southwest. Use of the backstrap loom by

both the Huichols and Puebloans is also part of a widespread Middle and South American

loom-weaving tradition that extended into the US Southwest.1 The Huichol and the

Southwest Pueblo cultures were influenced by the precolumbian cultures of

Mesoamerica, although neither is part of the pattern of large, urban centers and social

class differences characteristic of state-level society. There was certainly prehistoric trade

and interaction with the cultures of Mesoamerica, however, in addition to the exchange of

ideas and beliefs.

Zingg, who spent his youth in northern New Mexico, noted a similarity in “the

richness of the ceremonial life of both the Huichols and the Pueblos.” He and other

scholars have drawn parallels between the two cultures, including the importance of

cardinal-point directions and elaborate religious symbolism in art and decoration

pilgrimages have also been compared to the ceremonial salt journeys of the Hopi and

Zuni.

Other practices and beliefs are common to both cultures. The rite of presenting

newborn children to the sun is known from both the Huichol and the Pueblos. Although

deer veneration is more central to the Huichols, it also holds great significance to the

Keresan-speaking Pueblos. The Hispanic communal organization of ecclesiastical-civil

officers first imposed by the Franciscans in the eighteenth century and the use of canes of

office are found in both Huichol and Pueblo society. Masked clowns are present during

Huichol rain ceremonies, mocking participants and guests. One Huichol clown comically

fell down “dead” when Zingg “shot” him with his camera. Despite the hilarity of their

antics, ceremonial clowns are highly sacred religious figures to Huichol and Pueblo

people alike. In addition, the concept of balancing opposites, so central to Huichol

culture, is also basic to the Pueblo worldview and is seen in Pueblo architecture,

government, and ceremony.

Some items of Huichol material culture are intriguingly similar to Pueblo

examples, including prayer sticks and feathers. Huichol ceremonial sandals resemble

woven sandals found in Basketmaker and Ancestral Pueblo sites of the Southwest; both

are unlike the footwear of the Aztecs which covered the foot and heel.

Several researchers have noted the similarity between Huichol temples and

Southwest Pueblo kivas (ceremonial rooms). The sacred hole in the Huichol temple,

which is covered with a volcanic-stone disk, tepari, is similar to the Pueblo sipapu, the

place of emergence in kivas. Like kivas, Huichol temples contain architectural features
such as fireplaces, low benches, niches, and foot drums. As anthropologist Stacy Schaefer

has noted, “[T]he tuki is the center of the universe, the navel from which life enters the

world. Much like the kiva in the Pueblo Southwest, the tuki, then, becomes a kind of

terrestrial/celestial stage where the ancient customs and beliefs are constantly rekindled.”

Zingg also noticed the resemblance, but he concluded that the relationship between the

Huichol temple and the Pueblo kiva was too general for positing historical contact,

pointing out that clan ancestors do not emerge from the hole in the tuki. He argued that a

stronger connection between the tuki and kiva could be demonstrated if similar

ceremonial structures were seen in the intermediate area, which is not the case in the

archaeological record of Southern Chihuahua.

Contrasting the Huichols and Pueblos, Zingg observed that the Huichol lack clans

and moieties that are fundamental to the social organization of Pueblo society. The

Huichol live in isolated rancherías, a very different settlement pattern than the communal

pueblos of the Southwest.

Origins

Today there is no consensus among scholars on Huichol origins. No archaeology has

been done within Huichol communities in the Sierra, only in surrounding areas, making a

full assessment of Huichol origins problematic. Some scholars believe that the Huichol

are related to the socially-complex ancient West Mexican culture of the Pacific Coast

(400 BC–AD 500), noting a similarity in shape of prehistoric West Mexican circular

ceremonial structures to today’s Huichol temple. This version of Huichol origins holds

that Huichol culture has existed where it is today in the Chapalagana region of the Sierra

Madre Occidental since AD 200. However, Peter T. Furst and others find that such a
proposed West Mexican origin for the Huichol does not appear to be supported by early

Spanish accounts or by the available linguistic evidence.

Furst and other scholars instead argue that the Huichol are relatively recent

arrivals to their Sierra homeland. They believe that the ancestors of the Huichol were the

Chichimec Guachichil, a hunting and gathering culture of arid northern Mexico, with a

similar name to the Huichol. They maintain that at least a portion of Huichol ancestry,

and the Huichol language, is derived from the ancient Guachichiles, who are thought to

have migrated to the Sierra Madre Occidental around the time of Spanish contact.

Significantly, the original homeland of the semi-nomadic Guachichiles was in north-

central Mexico near San Luis Potosí, the desert where the Huichols return each year on

pilgrimages to gather peyote.

Given the similarities to other prehispanic cultures, as well as shared elements

with Southwest Pueblo culture, it seems that Huichol ancestors were involved in the

diffusion of ideas and the exchange of goods and raw materials between northwest and

north-central Mexico and the Pueblo Southwest. Ancestors of the Huichols may have

been traders who specialized in the exchange of items such as salt, feathers, seashells,

and peyote cactus. Ancient migrations, culture contact, and the exchange of goods and

ideas in the distant past all likely account for the blending of cultural traits we see in

Huichol culture today. Clearly, more research on Huichol origins is needed. As Furst

notes, however, “There is little question that some traits Huichols, Coras, and Tepecanos

share with the Pueblos predate the Spanish invasion.”2

Spanish History
After the arrival of the Spanish, most Huichol took refuge in the highlands. The Cora and

Huichol were not defeated by the Spanish until 1722. Franciscan missionaries made

inroads in the eighteenth century when three missions were established in northern

Huichol territory. The Huichol lost much of their traditional land base during a series of

wars and rebellions, including the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821) and the

Mexican Revolution (1910–1920). Following the government’s confiscation of the

Church’s land holdings, the violent Cristero Revolt (1926–1935)—which took place

shortly before Zingg’s arrival in the Sierra—created further turmoil and led to the forced

temporary resettlement of the Huichols of Tuxpan to the lowlands.

Furst has argued that the Huichol were never fully conquered or Christianized. He

notes, “[T]he Spanish built churches and established governmental and ceremonial

centers in the Huichol country, as they did among the nearby Cora. But the Huichol

settlement pattern of widely scattered, independent nuclear and extended family ranchos

and rancherías . . . favored resistance to Catholic intrusion and conversion.”3

Indeed, there has been relatively little blending of native and Catholic practices in

Huichol culture. Religious observances such as Holy Week have been added, but they

have not replaced the traditional Huichol ceremonial cycle. Zingg noted that traditional

ceremonies were performed in the rancherías or temples, while Catholic ceremonies were

centered around the church or community house only from New Years to Holy Week. In

this respect, Huichol culture exhibits much less assimilation to Catholicism than other

Mexican indigenous communities.

The Huichol Today

thousand Huichol people. It is estimated that about half of the Huichol population lives in

cities outside the Sierra, including Guadalajara, Tepic, Zacatecas, and Mexico City. The

population has grown since the time of Zingg, who in 1938 estimated that there were four

thousand Huichol. This dramatic increase is due in part to better nutrition, health care,

and antibiotics. While population is expanding, the Huichol have less land than they did

at the turn of the last century, due to land encroachment—a major threat still facing the

Huichol today.

In many ways, the Huichol have resisted outside influences and much of their

traditional culture and religion has endured for centuries. Culture change is a constant

process, however, and the Huichol have made adaptations to the modern world and

chosen to engage on their own terms. As Huichol yarn paintings have become highly

sought after and collected internationally, more Huichol people have become involved in

the market economy. Despite these changes, and greater interaction with the world

beyond the Sierra, the traditional Huichol rituals and arts continue and many Huichol

keep to the old ways.