Art of The Huichol - Yarn Paintings Research Paper

Art of The Huichol - Yarn Paintings - Research Paper Example To the rest of the world they are known as huicol but in reality they are called huicol (pronounced wee-chol) or more appropriately wixaritari (pronounced wiraritari). This tribe lives in the Sierra Madre Occidental and specifically Jalisco, Nayarit, zacateas and durango. The huicol are approximately 20,000 people and have lived in the Mexican mountains for around fifteen thousand years when approximated by the ashes they used in their daily sacrifices in their worship. The huicol speak a language called uto-aztecan and have been known to have been once hunters and gatherers but now are turned to trading. This is because they live near tourist towns and do not rely on tobacco farming as before. Since the huicol are very religious and conserved they have a ritual that is called the deer-maize-peyote ritual. These rituals are intense and emotional as they consist of loud shouting’s and wailings even weeping and singing. The peyote is a plant called biologically as lophophora wil liamsi that is numerous in Mexico . This plant when ingested makes one intoxicated and sees visions in colors. These are the components that make the peyote a must ingredient in the huicol rituals and prayers. The symbolic meaning of the deer-maize –peyote ritual is unification of the huicol and the bringing back of the original huicol way of life. That is, the ritual brings together the contradictions in life like societal, historical and ideological since the deer is seen as a god and maize is spiritual.