article
Gourdvines, fires, and Wixárika territoriality
Journal of the Southwest • 42 (1) • Published In 2000 • Pages: 129-165
By: Liffman, Paul M..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The Huichol claim that ritually-constructed genealogies and social bonds grow along ancestral migration pathways, similar to how gourdvines spread along the surface of the soil. Such ancestral vines are thought to connect the ceremonial fires in the shrines of extended family compounds to a great temple from which the settlements’ founding ancestors first borrowed fire. When a settlement grows and divides like a vine, descendants must borrow and register new fires, with their shrines ultimately becoming temples. This process of growth and attachment to land is ceremonially expressed in an annual cycle of temple rites, and in the retracing of the gourdvine paths of divine descent in pilgrimages to places of creation, especially to the birthplace of the sun, Wirikúta.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Traditional history
- Mythology
- Cosmology
- External migration
- Real property
- Community structure
- Inter-community relations
- Settlement patterns
- Extended families
- Family relationships
- Congregations
- Prayers and sacrifices
- Animism
- Sacred objects and places
- Topography and geology
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Huichol
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2016
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Middle America and the Caribbean
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Northern Mexico
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Teferi Abate Adem ; 2015
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date given
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1933-2000
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- southern Sierra Madre Occidental (Nayarit, Jalisco, Durango, and Zacatecas), Mexico
- NotesAdditional notes
- Paul M. Liffman
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-165)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 87643843
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Huichol Indians