2000 Tukipa Ceremonial Centers in The Co PDF

Journal of the Southwest
Tukipa Ceremonial Centers in the Community of Tuapurie (Santa Catarina Cuexcomatitlán):

Cargo Systems, Landscape, and Cosmovision
Author(s): Johannes Neurath
Source: Journal of the Southwest, Vol. 42, No. 1, Ritual and Historical Territoriality of the
Nayari and Wixarika Peoples (Spring, 2000), pp. 81-110
Published by: Journal of the Southwest
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Tukipa Ceremonial Centers
in the Community of Tuapurie
(Santa Catarina Cuexcomatitldn):
Cargo Systems,Landscape,and Cosmovision
Johannes Neurath
Two types of civil-religious hierarchies(also known as cargosystems)

exist in the Huichol communities of the Chapalagana River canyon
area. The town centers (cabeceras)of these communities are seats of
cargo systems very similarto those in many indigenous communities of
Guatemala and other parts of Mexico. In the case of the community
of Tuapurie (Santa Catarina Cuexcomatitlan), the list of cargos in-
cludes the traditional governor (tatuwani), juez, capitan, alguacil, and
the six mayordomos.The second type of hierarchyis that of the tukipa
(temple place), ceremonial centers of prehispanicorigin. The great ma-
jority of tukipa officeholders belong to the xukurPikate (jicareros in
Spanish), a group comprised of about twenty-five people. Two distinct
festival cycles correspond to the two different cargo hierarchies.At the
town center the principal festivals include the Change of Staffs (Cam-
bio de Varas) and festivals of the Catholic calendar, such as Carnival
(Las Pachitas) and Holy Week (cf. Jauregui, Neurath, and Gutierrez
n.d.; Neurath n.d.). In the tukipa ceremonial centers, communal agri-
cultural festivals are combined with pilgrimages and initiation rites for
children and adults (cf. Neurath 1998). !
In this paper I discuss the tukipa hierarchy,with a focus on the in-
terrelationshipsamong social organization, cosmovision, and ritualland-
scape.2 These interrelations are manifested in the tukipa cargo system
and in the architecture of the buildings and space that comprise the
1. A hierarchyof agrarianauthorities (comisariado de bienescomunales,etc.) also ex-

ists in this community.
2. In the past few years, research on cosmovision and ritual geography has assumed
great importance in Mesoamerican studies (see Broda 1982, 1988, 1991a, 1994; Lopez
Austin 1980, 1990, 1994; Tichy 1982). This research focuses on material expressions
of cosmovisions that, through ritual activities, remain tied to the landscape (Broda 1993,
1994). The importance of cosmovision for studies of cargo systems has been addressed
by Andres Medina (1987). As early as 1947 Villa Rojas took steps in this direction, but
his approach was not recognized by the specialists working on civil-religious hierarchies
at that time (cf. Torres 1994b).

82 + Journal of the Southwest
ceremonial center itself. For the Huichols of Tuapurie, the sacred sites
that together comprise the ritualgeography of the community are places
of deified ancestors. These ancestors (kakaiyarite) were the first group
of deer hunters and peyote pilgrims (hikuritamete). At some point in
the mythic past, they left the dark original world (the ocean and the
underworld) "underneath the west" and headed toward the desert in
the east to look for "the place of sunrise" (Paritekia). Many accounts of
this mythic journey exist, but the most important point is that upon ar-
riving in the eastern desert the deer named Tamaatsisurrendered him-
self to the hunters voluntarily. For that reason its heart (Hyari) was
transformedinto peyote (hikuri), the psychoactive cactus whose effects
those hunters were the first to experience. At the same time, a child sac-
rificed himself, throwing himself onto a fire and transforming himself
into the sun. With the creation of the sun, the whole set of basic oppo-
sitions between ocean and desert, night and day, and the wet and dry
seasons were established (Neurath 1998). After this creation, the wet,
original world began to dry. The ancestors who ate peyote were them-
selves transformed into that cactus, while others turned to stone and
are today seen as particularboulders, rocks, and peaks. The female an-
cestors, however, did not dry out completely, and so were transformed
into springs and lakes. Because not all of the ancestors could travel as
far as Paritekia,the sacred sites were distributed all over the earth.
As a result of their sacrificesand their experiences with peyote, then,
the ancestors became deities. These ancestral hikuritamete, however,
are not a thing of the past. Instead, they continue to exist in the tukipa
ceremonial centers, where each of the officeholders represents one of
them. At the same time, each of the architectural structures of the
tukipa ceremonial center itself represents a particular corresponding
site in the larger Huichol ritual geography, so that the tukipa serves as
a social and architecturalmodel of that ritual universe. The basic cos-
mic opposition between ocean (below) and desert (above), for exam-
ple, is manifested in the plaza of the central ceremonial center, where
the semi-subterraneanstructures on the west side contrast with the ele-
vated temples on the east. The gods and their ritual places are also pres-
ent in the tukipa, where they correspond to the five directions (west/
below, east/above, south/right, north/left, and center). In this way,
the architecture of the tukipa sets the stage for rituals in which the
members of the hierarchy revive the original community of ancestors
and represent ancient cosmic processes.

Tukipa Ceremonial Centers < 83
Before beginning to analyze the tukipa as a model of the Huichol

cosmos, however, it is also necessary to understand the term nierika
(pl. nierikate), the Huichol concept that, among other things, refers
to what we call "representation."Interestingly, the word also refers to
the face, and specificallythe cheek. That is, nierika entails the "gift of
sight" that is obtained through the process of initiation. Nierikate are
"instrumentsfor seeing" (like mirrors), graphic images (like yarn paint-
ings), or visions that reveal the "hidden reality"or the "true being" of
a thing. A nierikamust also have five "replicas"that correspond to the
four cardinal directions and the center (cf. Negrin 1986; Negrin and
Neurath 1996). The Huichols say that a tukipa is a nierika of the uni-
verse, and the ceremonial center shows the actual structure of the cos-
mos just as it was created by the deified ancestors long ago.
BACKGROUND
In the extensive ethnographic literature on the Huichols, informa-

tion concerning tukipa ceremonial centers is quite scarce. Nonetheless,
a series of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century missionary reports do
contain detailed descriptions of the idols, temples, and ritual sites of the
Nayaritas, an ethnic category created by the Spanish that included the
Huichols. Of particular importance is a 1673 document written by
FrayAntonio Arias y Saavedra.3It offers a brief description of the reli-
gion of the Coras of the Mesa del Nayar (Tzacaimuta). La Mesa was a
natural stronghold from which a powerful indigenous noble lineage
dominated a large mountainous territory known as El Gran Nayar that
remained partially independent of Spanish control until 1722. Most
importantly for the present discussion, Arias also describes a system of
symbolic correspondences in which temples and idols of particulargods
are associated with both cardinal and solsticial points, as well as with
different sacred sites across the landscape. Specifically,from Arias's re-
port the following associations may be reconstructed:
1. Idols of nude men corresponded to Narama, the god of the salt
flats and producer of pulque and chile. At the same time, this god was
associated with a peak called "horsehead" or Ychamet, "the house of
3. Published in different versions by Santoscoy 1899; McCarty and Matson 1975;

and Calvo 1990.

84 < Journal of the Southwest
agave and mezcal." It was also said that Narama lived in the ocean, at
the place where the sun goes down at the summer solstice.
2. Nicanori, the goddess of fishermen and bird hunters, was vener-
ated in the form of idols that represented birds, eagles, human heads,
and figures depicted from the waist up. This goddess lived in an exten-
sion of the ocean where the sun sets on the equinoxes.
3. Idols of women corresponded to the goddess Usuu, which is an
undersea rock called Matanche (silver-plated tick), located where the
sun sets at the winter solstice (probably the white rock of San Bias,
called Haramaratsieby the Huichols).
4. The north was associated with Naicuru, the crab god that made
peyote. It was venerated in certain caves and in cliffs with springs com-
ing out of them.
5. The south was associated with Tzotonaric, an old god who could
take the form of a serpent known by the name Chebyma. He was con-
sidered the creator of the sacred plant called tapat and was invoked to
win over women, to speak to the bodies of the dead, and to fly in the
air. Drawings of nude women were found in the places dedicated to
this god.
6. The temple of Tzacaimuta was located in the center of the Na-
yaritauniverse. Ritualswere performed here for the solar god Piltzintli,
creator of the animals and patron of war, lightning, and thunder. He
was also associated with the east, Jesus Christ, and Don FranciscoNaia-
rit, the first Cora king. The latter's dried cadaver,along with the mum-
mies of three other kings, was kept in the temple of Tzacaimuta. The
blood of deer and human sacrificialvictims (especially Huaynamotecan
prisoners) was offered to the mummified sun-god and to the deceased
kings. With the help of Tzotonaric, two priests communicated with the
mummies, speaking to them in a special loud voice or through their
dreams.4
According to Jesuit missionary Jose de Ortega, author of the book
La maravillosa reduction y conquista de la provincia de San Josephdel
Gran Nayar, Nuevo Reino de Toledo(1754), the principal god of the
Coras was a white rock called Tayaoppa- "the father of living peo-
4. After the conquest of the Gran Nayar in 1722, the elite-sponsored religious wars
of the Nayaritasdisappeared. Today the temple of the sun is in ruins, and only a single
cranium attributed to the king of Nayar remains. However, this skull continues to receive
ritual attention in the Catholic church of the contemporary town of Mesa del Nayar
(Guzman 1996, and this volume).

Tukipa Ceremonial Centers + 85
pie"- and the first king was considered the adopted son of this idol.
Other principal gods included Tate, "Our Mother," an idol made of
two white rocks, and Quanamoa, the crucified creator of objects like
sandals, hats, axes, machetes, and knife sharpeners.In addition to these
principalgods, twelve others had temples in different areas. People vis-
ited these sanctuariesfor specific reasons related to hunting, commerce,
or fertility.We do not know from these missionary reports, however, if
direct relations between places (deities) and offices (priests) like those
that may be observed in the contemporary Huichol tukipa existed at
that time. Still, it seems quite likely that contemporary indigenous
groups' ritual spaces and systems for coordinating the calendar of festi-
vals with specific sacred sites in the region are very similar to those de-
scribed by Arias.
No early sources on the Huichols are as interesting as those for the
Coras. The first descriptions of tukipa ceremonial centers are found in
Franciscan missionary reports from the mid-eighteenth century (cf.
Rojas 1992). The comments of the agronomist Rosendo Corona, who
visited Santa Catarina Cuexcomatitlan in 1888, also offer some inter-
esting details about the tukipa there.5
The pioneers of Huichol ethnography- Lumholtz, Diguet, and
Preuss- on the other hand, documented a great number of ceremonial
centers and ritual sites. Lumholtz developed a systematic analysis for
his study of art, in which he demonstrated how different ritual objects
correspond to specific gods and sacred places across the landscape
(Lumholtz 1986 [1900, 1904]). Despite the fact that he clearly recog-
nized the importance of the tukipa hierarchy,he did not provide much
detail. In his UnknownMexico,the classic work on the indigenous peo-
ples of the Sierra Madre Occidental, he mentions that the twenty-two
"officials of the pagan temple" of Santa Catarina at that time carried
the names of different gods and held offices both in the ceremonial
5. According to Rosendo Corona, "The caligiiey (tuki) is a circular edifice made of

adobe with a straw roof; it measures about 20 varas in diameter and has a single door
without any window or ventilation. In the interior, on the wall facing the entrance, are
about fifteen niches with little equipal-sty\cchairs, flowers, dried fruits, rancid meat, left-
over bones, etc. . . . and in the center, a deer head with small unlit wax candles. All
around can be seen many deer antlers stuck to the walls. This building is a place where re-
ligious festivals are celebrated. In front of the caligiiey there is a good-sized plaza sur-
rounded by various small huts with tall and thin doors. Each one is consecrated to a dif-
ferent god, such as the Sun, the Moon, the Wind, Fire, Water, and others" (Rojas 1992:
211, ed. trans.).

centers and at the sacred site corresponding to the deity that the office-
holder represented (Lumholtz 1902: 2, 150). It is not clear, however,
whether Lumholtz was aware that the officials of the temple were also
hikuritamete who undertook the "peyote hunt" described in another
part of his work. The work of Diguet (1992: 123) also contains brief
mention of the Santa Catarinatukipa.
Among these early researchers, the German ethnographer Konrad
Theodor Preuss advanced the study of Huichol cosmovision farthest.
By studying three different ethnic groups he was able to demonstrate
that the tukipafestivalsof the Huichols, the rnitotefestivalsof the Coras,
and the xurawet festivals of the Mexicaneros (Nahuas from Durango
and Nayarit) have a common structure (Preuss 1908b, c; Neurath and
Jauregui 1998). One of his most interesting works concerns the cere-
monial gourd bowl of the Jesus Maria Coras. This article describes a
system of symbolic correspondences in which the different decorative
motifs of this object refer to important elements of the ceremonial
plaza where the mitote festival is celebrated, and they also refer to the
different principal elders of the community. At the same time, Preuss
explains how the twelve elders correspond to twelve elder gods who
were considered the first human beings, and how the dance plaza is an
image of the Cora universe (Preuss 1911, 1912). Preuss also correctly
analyzed the large tukipa temples of the Huichols as replicasof the cos-
mos, and he described the officeholders of these temples as representa-
tives of the different gods (Preuss 1907b, 1908a, b).6
Later, in the 1930s, the U.S. anthropologist Robert M. Zingg
worked in the community of Tuxpan de Bolanos. Because Zingg men-
tions only five "custodians of the votive bowls" (xukuri'ikate) in Ra-
tontita, the cargo hierarchyof that tukipa was apparentlyin crisis, pre-
sumably as a result of the Cristero Warthat had recently been fought in
the region (Zingg 1982: 1, 350).
Among the more recent studies on Huichol religion, sensationalist
writings that deal only superficiallywith cosmovision and even less with
ceremonial organization predominate. Principal among these are de-
contextualized studies of peyote use, so-called "shamanism," and the
famous Huichol yarn paintings. For too long the fascinating theme of
Huichol ritual geography has been ignored, and a holistic analysis of
6. Preuss published few articles based on his nine months of fieldwork among the
Huichols. His fieldnotes, along with a voluminous manuscript concerning Huichol reli-
gion, were lost during the Second World War (Ziehm 1968).

the interrelationships among sacred sites, ritual, social organization,

and cosmovision has not been developed.
Of all the anthropologists who have done research among the Hui-
chols since the 1960s, Phil C. Weigand is the only one to show any in-
terest in social organization. He published interesting data concerning
the tukipa hierarchyof the community of Wautia (San Sebastian Tepo-
nahuaxtlan), but considers that it "no longer functioned adequately"
(Weigand 1992: 141) and that the ceremonial centers "are disappear-
ing rapidly or are being fundamentally modified" (1996: 20). Appar-
ently this is why Weigand considered the study of these ceremonial
centers to be of little importance. However, such research would have
been very useful for his archaeological studies concerning the circular
structures of the Teuchitlan tradition (cf. Weigand 1993 and this vol-
ume). Moreover, recent ethnographic projects carried out in the com-
munities of Tuapurie, Tateikie (San Andres Cohamiata), and Wautk
show that the situation is not exactly as gloomy as Weigand predicted.
Indeed, the tukipa hierarchies enjoy a great vitality and continue to
play a central role in the social organization and religious life of these
communities. Modifications that inevitably occur do not necessarily
mean "acculturation."7
Most researchersagree that the tukipa was the highest level of polit-
ical organization in precolonial times and that missionariesfounded the
present communities at the beginning of the eighteenth century (Wei-
gand 1992: 189; Fikes 1985; Rojas 1992, 1993). It has also been pro-
posed that the architectureof the tukipa is historicallyderived from the
circularstructures of the nearby pre-Columbian Teuchitlan tradition in
the lake basin region south of the Santiago River near the volcano of
Tequila (Weigand 1992: 194; 1993). Today, the various tukipa are sub-
ordinated to the three or four town centers that serve as the adminis-
trative heads of the comunidndesindigenas. As the center of a territorial
subdivisionwithin such a community,the tukipaunites variousmncherias
and so can properly be called a tukipa district (Weigand 1992). There
are three of these districts in the community of Tuapurie or Santa Cata-
7. Certainly, circumstances do not make it easy for anthropologists interested in the

study of tukipa hierarchiesto collect information. The status of the xukuri'ikateis not the
same as any other people, but is instead liminal and sacred. Consequently, all of the deal-
ings that involve the jicareros are extremely delicate, and many things are kept secret
from those who are not initiated. At the same time, the ritual humor of the peyoteros
(the hikuritamete) leads them to reverse their statements and to invert reality with jokes
that are not alwayseasily understood by the anthropologist.

rina Cuexcomatitlan: Tuapurie itself, Xawiepa (Pochotita), and Keu-

ruwitia (Las Latas). My own fieldworkwas carriedout principallyin the
tukipa of Keuruwitia, one of the ceremonial centers that has probably
best conserved the ancient architectural plan of concentric circles
found in the Teuchitlan tradition. In the following paragraphsI briefly
describe the cargo system and architecture of this ceremonial center.
THE TUKIPA HIERARCHY
There are various ceremonial offices in the tukite (temples) of

Tuapurie. These include the kumitsariu (commissioner), kawiterutsixi
(councilmen), Hrikweikame,nauxatame, tikari mahana, hikuritamete
(peyoteros), and a series of offices for particularfestivals. The kumit-
sariu actuallybelongs to the civil-religious hierarchyof the town center,
and he is its representativein the tukipa. The kumitsariualso has a rep-
resentative called the agente municipal in each of the rancheriasthat
form part of the tukipa district.
The ultimate authority in each tukipa district rests in a council of up
to five elders, the kawiterutsixi. In general, these include the commu-
nity's most experienced and knowledgeable elders in politics, religion,
and traditional medicine. Their most important role is to protect
knowledge of the myths and ceremonies. These men have passed
through the highest community offices and generally are well-known
maraâkate(curers and singers, the plural form of mara'akame).The
office of kawiteru is held for life, and kawiterutsixi have the last say
in truly important matters. Moreover, they decide on the assignment
of all the other offices (cf. Weigand 1992: 140). Although the kawite-
rutsixi pertain to specific tukipa districts within the community, their
authority subsumes the members of the town center's civil-religious
hierarchy.
The meaning of the term "kawiteru"is very interesting: Although
etymologicallyit seems to be derived from the Spanish "cabildero"(town
councilman; Iturrioz, according to Liffman, pers. com.), in Huichol
the term kawitu means "history" or "myth," a word that Huichols say
is derived from kawiya caterpillarthat is said to have marked the paths
of the first peyote pilgrims (Negrin 1977: 16). The principalroutes said
to be marked out by that caterpillarhave a seemingly endless number
of landmarks,and each of these corresponds to a mythological episode
that in some sense is written into the landscape.When hikuritametefol-

Tukipa Ceremonial Centers > 89
low these routes, they in turn "read"them. According to the Huichols,

the kawiterutsixi are so called because they truly know the myths. At
the same time, they have carried out many cargos as peyoteros and
therefore know the true pilgrimage routes of the kawi caterpillars.
A series of one- or five-year offices exist beneath the lifetime kawi-
terutsixi in the tukipa hierarchy.However, it is important to remember
that the tukipa hierarchy is not the same in each ceremonial center.
Still, the majority of the officeholders of any tukipa hierarchywill per-
tain to the group called xukuritamete (bowl-people, jicareros) or hiku-
ritamete (peyoteros). The word hikuritame derives from hikuri (pey-
ote), while the term xukuritamete or xukuri'ikatederives from the fact
that these men take the gourd bowl (xukuri) of a deified ancestor. As is
well known, the principal task of the peyoteros is to collect peyote in
the desert of Wirikuta (in northern San Luis Potosi), but this is only
one of their obligations. The hikuritamete also oversee the large agri-
culturalfestivalscelebrated in the tukipa. They also carryout deer hunts
and pilgrimages to sacred places that correspond to the five cardinaldi-
rections. Finally,the hikuritamete organize and provide labor for com-
munal work parties that benefit the community or important private
individuals.The peyoteros carry out nearly all of these activities during
the dry season, whereas the rainy season is when they and the rest of
the civil-religious government rests (cf. Neurath 1998).
A hikuritame cargo lasts for five years. Today, in the community of
Tuapurie, the long peyote pilgrimages are carried out only in the first,
third and fifth years of the cycle. But in order to be eligible to become
a curer and/or singer (mara'akame),an individual must carry out five
pilgrimages to Wirikuta, which means that he or she must complete
at least two cycles as a hikuritame (cf. Fikes 1985).8 After five years, a
hikuritamemay ascend one step in the hierarchy.
Hikuritamete are distinguished from other Huichols by three attri-
butes: a circular mirror (nierika), a small stoppered gourd that holds
tobacco (yakwai), and during the dry season, the white turkey feathers
that they wear in their hats (figure I).9
8. Other non-communal means of shamanic initiation also exist, but these are not
discussed in this paper.
9. The turkey is the animal that baptized the sun. According to Preuss (1907a), the
feathers of the turkey are a solar symbol, and the peyoteros are the sun's helpers in its
struggles against the forces of darkness.For Seler (1902-23: 366), the mirrorof the pey-
oteros corresponds to the tachieloni or itlachiaya ("instrument for seeing"), the insignia
of the Mexica god of fire and of Tezcatlipoca. Mexica priests also used gourd flasksof to-
bacco (yetecomatl) similarto the HuichoPs yakwai (Seler 1902-23: 371).

Figure 1. Guardians of the Three
Holy WatersofKutsala. Photo
courtesyof the American Museum
of Natural History (#43517).

When they walk as a group, they tend to proceed single file in an or-
der reflecting their internal hierarchy.The ritual humor of these pey-
oteros is very peculiar. It consists of irreverent or obscene jokes, word
play (symbolic inversions), and ridiculing the authorities or foreign eth-
nic groups (Tepehuans, mestizos, or gringos). During the festivals,var-
ious hikuritamete usually act as sacred clowns (tsikwakitsixi).The pey-
oteros also have their own particular dance, always accompanied by
their own musicians who play the miniature violin (xaweri) and guitar
(kanari). The peyoteros also have cow-horn trumpets Cawate) that
they use occasionally, and the cargo-holder Elder Brother Wind (Ta-
maatsi }ekaTeiwari) has a conch-shell trumpet (kixa). With their inter-
minable jokes, musicians who accompany them in all of their activities,
and the stomping dance that they never seem to tire of performing, the
peyoteros form a small community with its own perpetuallyfestive and
liminal atmosphere (figure 2).
As mentioned, each hikuritame represents one of the deified ances-
tors and therefore carries the name of the god whose "gourd bowl he
has taken" (Kindl 1995, 1997). Although most hikuritamete are men,
some of the offices corresponding to female deities are occupied by
women. At the same time, the wives of the hikuritametealso have their
own offices and important ritualobligations. The directors of the group
of jicareros are the yirikweikameand the nauxatame. Both are singer-
curers (mara'akate)who have previously held office as jicareros. Having
"passedthrough" lower cargos, they are no longer considered hikurita-
mete. The ^rikweikameis a representativeof the god Our Grandfather
Fire (Tatewari), the fire. During the dry season he directs the peyote
pilgrimage and sings during most of the ceremonies in which the hiku-
ritamete perform. In the rainy season his post is occupied by the tikari
mahana, the "singer of darkness." The nauxatame is the "confessor"
and representative of Tatuutsi Maxakwaxi (Our Great-Grandfather
Deertail). As Lemaistre (1991: 36) describes it, during the pilgrimage
to Wirikuta,the nauxatame is in charge of burning the rope with knots
that represents the sexual transgressionsconfessed by the pilgrims. The
'irikweikame'sexpenses are very high and include the sacrificeof many
cattle. This office is apparentlyonly accessible to the rich. It is not sur-
prising, then, that the }irikweikame of Keuruwitia during the time of
my fieldwork for this article owned a large herd of cattle and was con-
sidered one of the wealthiest people in the community. Nonetheless,
the 'irikweikamemust also be a well-known mara'akamewho is highly

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25ttSanOmlifflJH90H^HHffi^MHHNI

dedicated to religious matters because members of the public con-

stantly criticize his actions.
Most important Huichol deities appear in the list of peyoteros.
Among these are Tatewari (Our GrandfatherFire), Tayau (Our Father
Sun), Tatuutsi Maxakwaxi(Our Great-GrandfatherDeertail), Tamaatsi
Parietsika(Our Elder Brother Sunrise, the deer-peyote god associated
with the east), Tamaatsi}ekaTeiwari (Our Elder Brother Wind Neigh-
bor), Tamaatsi 'iriya (Our Elder Brother's Arrow), Tamaatsi Wakki
(Our Elder Brother Tepehuan), Kauyumarie (the "trickster"), Kam*-
kime (a wolf god), Xurawe Temai (Young Star or Morning Star), Na*r*
(the god of the downpours and fire-rain[nai], the husband of the god-
dess Takutsi Nakawe), Tsakaimuta(a deer-god of Mesa del Nayar, Na-
yarit), Kwixuxure (Red-Tailed Hawk), Takutsi (Our Grandmother,
the old goddess of fertility), Tatei Kewimuka (Our Mother of Mesa
del Nayar, the western rain goddess), Tatei Nâriwame (Our Mother
the Messenger, the mother goddess who is a "cloud serpent" [haiki]),
Tatei Yirameka(Our Mother of the Sprouting Maize, the northern rain
goddess who lives in a cave near the mestizo town of El Bernalejo),
Tatei Xapawiyeme (Our Mother Fig Tree [xapaj of Rain, the goddess
who lives in Lake Chapala and corresponds to the south), Tatei 'utk-
naka (a mother goddess associated with the catfish), and Tatei Werika
'nmari (Our Mother Young Eagle, the goddess of the sky). In Santa
Catarina there is also an officeholder for Watakame (the first cultiva-
tor), and in Pochotita a female hikuritame represents Tatei Haramara
(Our Mother Ocean).
In the future I hope to understand more about the internal struc-
ture of this hierarchy,but a few preliminaryobservations may be made.
Five of the peyoteros, in addition to occupying one of the posts men-
tioned previously,represent the 'awataniete (antlered ones), a group of
predators or mythical hunters. They are also in charge of the cardinal
directions (Wawatsari:jaguar [tiwe] south; 'ututawi:puma [maye] north;
Tsipkawe: wolf f'irawej west; Tutuhauki:lynx [kapuwi] east; Tututaka-
Pitsiteka:wild-cat [mitsu] center). In contrast to the rest of the peyo-
teros, these five also commit themselves to making five pilgrimages to
Wirikuta;this requires that they participate in the tukipa hierarchyfor
two consecutive cycles.
As was mentioned in the introduction to this paper, the peyoteros
repeat and renew the original journey and ideal community of the an-
cestors. By subjecting themselves to difficult self-sacrifices,they seek to
repeat the ancient cosmogonic offerings and the moments of transfer-

mation and creation that led to the emergence of all things (Negrin
1985: 30). For this reason, the ritual activities of the hikuritamete in-
clude a wide range of sacrificialpractices:hunting deer, killing cattle in
ceremonies, fasts, abstentions from eating salt and having extramarital
sex, undertaking arduous walks to sacred sites,10and enduring long
sleepless nights during ceremonies. They look for two inseparablethings
in these sacrificialpractices: initiation and fertility. The hikuritamete's
ongoing search for visions is necessary for the reproduction of ancestral
knowledge and for initiation. In addition, having visions or dreaming
of the rain-serpentsis also necessary for bringing on and sustaining the
wet season. The relationship between agriculturalrites and rites of ini-
tiation is one of the most interesting aspects of Huichol religion, and in
future work it should be a primaryfocus of study.
TUKIPA ARCHITECTURE
AND RITUAL LANDSCAPE
To understand the role of the hikuritamete, it is necessary to be-

come acquainted with the system of symbolic correspondences that
connect offices, temples, gods, and ritualplaces within Huichol cosmo-
vision. As mentioned, although the peyoteros represent the different
deities of the Huichol pantheon and are in charge of their respective
temples, the tukipa itself is one of the most important sites in Huichol
ritual geography because its architecture forms a particularlycoherent
model of the cosmos.
In Keuruwitia the temples are distributed around the central plaza
in line with the more distant places that they represent. As we shall see,
many of the gods that appearin the list of hikuritametealso have a tem-
ple or specific place in the tukipa. Around the temples are officehold-
ers' houses followed by the communal fields dedicated to the ceremo-
nial center and the permanent ranches of the people of the community.
ThePart Below
The tuki (or, in Nahuatl, kalliwei, "great house"), the principaltem-

ple of the tukipa, is dedicated above all to Tatewari (Our Grandfather),
the fire. It is a round, semi-sunken structure (its floor level is about fifty
10. Today the longest pilgrimages are nearly alwayscarried out in trucks.

96 > Journal of the Southwest
Figure 3. TempleSanta Catarina. Photocourtesyof the American Museum of

Natural History (#43299).
centimeters below the level of the plaza) with an adobe wall and a
steeply pitched thatch roof sustained by two posts (figure 3 and figure
8 in Weigand).
Based on its size, it is clear that it is the most important temple of
the tukipa, so it is not surprisingthat its most important caretakeris the
'kikweikame, the leader of the hikuritamete. It is also quite significant
that the building is on the west side of the dance plaza because its inte-
rior represents Kamikita, the dark "wolf country" located "below in
the west"; that is, on the coast of Nayarit, in the ocean, in the bottoms
of the canyons, and inside the earth. In contrast, the central dance
plaza outside represents the desert of Wirikuta, "up in the east."
The coast, the ocean, and the rainy season are places (or times)
where the forces of life and fertility are liberated. They are areasof tati-
kariya concept that can be translated as "our darkness," or "our mid-
night." The rainy season (witarita), is also metaphorically called tika-

ripa, "when it is dark" (cf. Preuss 1907a; Schaefer 1989; Fikes 1985,
1993; Neurath 1996). In many ritual contexts, the tukipa officers look
down upon the unformed, chaotic, and feminine principles associated
with tatikari- sexual energy and spontaneous impulses. Although it
represents pleasure, tatikari is also associated with illness11and a series
of monsters.
At the extreme western edge of the interior of the tuki (the side op-
posite the door) is an altardedicated to the goddess of the ocean (Tatei
Haramara), identified with the great white rock off San Bias, Nayarit
(point 3 on figure 4). In the center of the tuki is a place for lighting
the ceremonial fire that, like all fires of this type, is considered a "bed"
of the god of fire. A thick trunk placed on the western edge of the
hearth and oriented north-south is the "pillow," while the smaller
pieces of firewood oriented east-west are the fire's otate (Mexican bam-
boo) "mattress."A pit topped with a flat round stone (tepari) is found
next to the hearth, and this stone is engraved with a spiral made up of
two serpents. The engraving representsthe cloud-serpents (haikiterixi).
The tepari is the place of Tatuutsi Maxakwaxi(Our Great-Grandfather
Deertail), the deertail being Tatewari'smuwieri (ceremonial arrow with
feathers).
Both the fire and the sacred pit in the center of the tuki correspond
to important sacred places. The hearth represents Teekata (point 1 on
figure 4), which is itself a miniature tukipa constructed on a long shelf
in a deep canyon north of 'aukarikaMountain, near the town of Tua-
purie (figure 5). As an important mara'akameof Santa Catarinainsisted
to me, this "town of the gods" is really the only tukipa; all of the other
groups of buildings called "ceremonial centers" are "only copies." Of
the severalsmall temples at Teekata, the shrine of Tatewari(Tatewarita)
is primarybecause it is located exactly at the center of the universe (fig-
ure 6). All tukite are replicas of this small shrine. The other temples of
Teekata are dedicated to different gods- Tayau, Kauyumarie, Kami-
-
kime, Haramara,Kwewimuka, Xapawiyeme, and Ni'ariwame and re-
fer to the sacred sites that these gods have in other places. Very close to
this place is the circular enclosure of Tatutsa, the shrine of Tatuutsi
Maxakwaxi,which is represented by the central tepari in the tuki (point
2 on figure 4).
1 1. For example, the winds that blow in from the ocean in the east are considered
harmful.

Figure 4. Thetukipa ofKciinnvitia.

On the south side of the interior of the tuki and on either side of the
door on the east side are adobe banquettes upon which people sit dur-
ing the ceremonies (see figure 8 in Weigand, this volume). The kumit-
sariu'splace is on the extreme south of this banquette, and for this rea-
son this whole half of the tuki is sometimes called "the kumitsariu's
side." The hikuritamete normally sit in round-bottomed chairs (yuwe-
nite) on the north side of the temple, "the peyoteros' side." The en-
trance to the tuki corresponds to a boulder on the road from Santa
Catarinato Teekatathat is considered "the door to Teekata."The posts
supporting the roof of the tuki are considered to be hauri (candles or
pitch-pine trees like those that hold up the sky at the ends of the uni-
verse). Hence, the roof of the tuki represents the sky. An *uwenichair
that hangs from the center of the ceiling pertains to the "fire above"
because Tatewari(who is associatedwith such chairs) is the vertical axis
at the center of the universejoining all that is below with all that is above.
The xirikite are small rectangular temples built around the edge of
the dance plaza. Those dedicated to male gods have their entrance on
one of the taller and narrower sides of these rectangular buildings,
while those dedicated to female deities have their entrance on one of
the wider sides.12Proceeding in a clockwise direction away from the
tuki, the first xirikiis that of Takutsi. The floor of this small temple, like
the floor of the tuki itself, is slightly below the level of the plaza; it is lo-
cated on the extreme northwest of the plaza and is oriented toward the
cave of Takutsa in the Chapalagana River canyon (near the rancheria
of Tekatsata), where the goddess Takutsi is said to have lived (point 4
on figure 4). Takutsi is the personification of tatikari (our darkness).
This deity is the grandmother of all growth who weaves the world (cf.
Schaefer 1989) and makes the plants grow with her miraculous staff.
On the other hand, when Takutsi is transformed into her aspect as the
monstrous Nakawe she is a perverse, destructive being. As leader and
singer of the hewixi- an ancient race of giants who lived on the Nayarit
coast- she was despotic, abusive, and imperfect. But her violent myth-
ical death was also an important creative act because whole species
originated from her hair and other body parts. At the same time, the
death of Takutsi also served to establish the order of the world and to
end her ancient matriarchalrace (Neurath 1996). A very significant de-
tail is that the shrine to Takutsi is located to one side of the temple of
12. Xirikitemples are found not only in tukipa compounds, but also in many other sa-
cred sites as well as on private ranches, where they are dedicated to kin-group ancestors and
to the mother goddess of maize (Tatei Niwetsika).

Eiiiiii

Tukipa Ceremonial Centers * 101
the fire god (the tuki). The two deities, who are considered the oldest
people in the world, form an original, antagonistic couple.13
ThePart Above
In contrast to the coast and the rains, the desert and the dry season
are the space/time where one looks for revelations of order and ances-
tral knowledge. It should be recalled that as a form of ancestralknowl-
-
edge, nierika- "the gift of seeing" taHyari(our heart/soul/memory)
is obtained only through sacrifice and visionary experiences. Sacrifice
implies abstaining from the things associated with tatikari:sleep, bath-
ing, and above all, salt and sex. This search for visions of ta'iyariis com-
munal and refers to the original world the ancestors created through
their cosmogonic sacrifices (cf. Negrin 1977, 1985, 1986). The same
notion of ta'iyari also refers to the geometric structure of the ritual
landscape, in which each place corresponds to one of the five cardinal
directions. It is necessary to know all this in order to appreciatethe fact
that the plaza of the tukipa- just like the roof of the tuki itself- repre-
sents the ordered and luminous upper world, specificallythe desert of
Wirikuta. In the following paragraphsI briefly describe the temples in
this part of the tukipa.
In the northeast of the plaza is a group of two xirikite. On the left is
the temple of the rain goddess, Tatei Ni'ariwame. The building is ori-
ented toward the shrine of Ni'ariwatawi, about an hour's walk from
Keuruwitk (point 5 on figure 4). The xiriki next to it corresponds to
Kwixuxure(Red-Tailed Hawk).
On the east side of the tukipa are three xirikite. To the left is the
temple of the wind god, Tamaatsi }eka Teiwari. This building is ori-
ented toward the peak of Keuruwi (La Lata) to the east of Keuruwitia
(which means "below Keuruwi").14At the summit of this peak is a
small shrine dedicated to the god of the sun, the patron of the district,
TamaatsiYuikwamuta.lsIn a cliff north of this peak is a small shrine to
the wind (point 6 on figure 4).
13. The husband of Nakawe is Nairi, the god of the torrential rains and of the fire-
rain. "Fire-rain"is fire that has not been controlled, like that which appeared in the be-
ginning before it was confined to the hearth. Takutsi is the wife of Tatewari.
14. The word keuruwi refers to the verticallyplaced staffs of wood that, in the tradi-
tional architecture of the Huichols, form part of the undergirding for the roof.
15. Tuikwamuta (the place of the yuikwaxeme [chocote]tree) is the sacred name of
Keuruwitia.To the east of each important Huichol town is alwaysa peak with a shrine to
the town's patron god.

102 > Journal of the Southwest
The other two xirikite on the east side are small "pyramids,"ele-
vated stone platforms about 1.5 meters high upon which temples are
placed. The doors of these temples are reached by masonry stairways.
The temple located in the middle of this group is the most elevated; it
is dedicated to TamaatsiKauyumarieand represents Paritekk (the place
of the sunrise) or Reu'unax*(Cerro Quemado) at the extreme eastern
edge of the Huichol universe (point 7 on figure 4). To the right of Ta-
maatsi is the xiriki of the sun (Tayau), which is a bit smaller than the
temple to Elder Brother. This xiriki also corresponds to Paritekk or
Reu'unax* (point 8 on figure 4). The elevated constructions of these
shrines, both oriented to the east, contrast with the buildings located
on the other end of the plaza, the tuki and the xiriki of Takutsi.
At the extreme south of the plaza, oriented toward the town of
Santa Catarina, is the house of the kumitsariuand the jail (point 9 on
figure 4). In the southwest part of the plaza is a group of three xirikite:
to the left is Tatei Xapawiyeme,temple of the goddess of the rainswho
lives in Lake Chapala, a place associated with the south. The temple in
the middle corresponds to Tatei Kewimuka, the rain mother of the
west, who is represented at Mesa del Nayar (point 1 1 on figure 4).16To
the right is the xiriki of Tatei Yirameka and Tamaatsi Teiwari Yuawi,
which represents sacred places in the north, near the mestizo town of
El Bernalejo (point 12 on figure 4). These three shrines, located in the
extreme southwest of the plaza, contrast with the temples of the female
deities located in the northeast.
SOME ASPECTS OF TUKIPA RITUAL
The relationships between the temples of the ceremonial center and

the sacred sites found across the landscape indicate the importance of
ritual interaction and exchange between living humans and their dei-
fied ancestors. These reciprocal processes take up a large part of the
Huichols' ritual activities, and they are the main reason that festivals
and pilgrimages always go hand-in-hand. They are a way to invite the
gods to come from the sacred sites where they live in order to help with
16. Mesa del Nayar, where the caves of Tsakaimutaand Tatei Kewimukaare located,
was for many years the political and religious center of the Gran Nayar, an area that in-
cluded the territories of both the Coras and the Huichols. The ritual importance that
Mesa del Nayar continues to have in the present day for the Huichols is a holdover from
the days when an overarching Cora leadership existed in these mountains (cf. Weigand
1992: 190).

the festivals celebrated in the ceremonial centers. Once brought into

the ceremonial center, a mara'akamefalls into a trance and communi-
cates directly with the gods Tamaatsi, Tatewari, Tayau, and Tatei
Werika(and through them to the rest of the deities). It is said that the
blood of the sacrificedanimals "makes the offerings speak" when they
are carriedin pilgrimages after the festivalsto the sacred sites where the
gods live (see Gutierrez, this volume).17These pilgrims then bring "sa-
cred water" back from these sites, and these liquids are then used in
subsequent ceremonies.18The alternating cycle of festival and pilgrim-
age should never be interrupted, and failure to complete these ritual
obligations is a grave shortcoming that disturbs the gods and thus
causes illness and death.
For lack of space I can provide only a brief overview of the specific
ritualsthat are carriedout in the tukipa. The most important point is to
recognize that these rituals have special relevance at two particularly
critical times of year: when the rainy season begins and ends. In May
and June, just before the beginning of the rainy season, the Hikuri
Neixa (Peyote Dance) and the Namawita Neixa (a planting festival) are
celebrated. The ritual actions represent the arrivalof the first rains (in
the Hikuri Neixa) and the triumph of the feminine gods - Takutsi
Nakawe and the five Nâriwamete- over fire (in the Namawita Neixa).
In late October, at the end of the rainy season, the Tatei Neixa (Dance
of Our Mother) is celebrated. In this ceremony, the people send off the
rain goddesses and so begin the cycle of pilgrimages to the five cardinal
points, a principal activity of the hikuritamete during the dry season.
These two moments- the opening and closing of the rainyseason-
require the celebration of rites of passage in the tukipa, as they also cor-
respond to key moments in Huichol mythology. That is, the "dark"
times of the rains (tikaripa) correspond to the original mythical world
and to the flood, while the end of the rainy season- when "the sun
17. The most common offerings are prayer arrows {Hrite),gourd bowls (xukurite),
candles (katirate), and nierikate (designs or small yarn paintings).
18. Coyle (this volume) describes a similar system among the Coras of Santa Teresa.
Relationships like those between contemporary Huichol sacred sites and the tukipa tem-
ples or xirikishrines that represent them may be reconstructed for many ceremonial cen-
ters in Mesoamerican archaeology. In the Valley of Mexico, for example, archaeo-astro-
nomical studies have detected temples in populated ceremonial centers which are aligned
with sacred sites on mountain peaks and other landscape features (Broda 1982, 1991b,
1993, 1994). Moreover, among the prehispaniccultures of central Mexico, there existed
other ritual systems in which festivals and rituals celebrated in ceremonial centers al-
ternated with pilgrimages to different sacred sites (for more details, see Broda 1971,
1991a, b)

104 4- Journal of the Southwest
rises"- corresponds to the end of the mythical epoch, when peyote was
made and the sun came out for the first time. But at the same time, one
of the most interesting aspects of Huichol ritual is that it combines
agriculturalrites with rites of passage and initiation that occur in peo-
ple's individual life cycles. The rainy season is associated with infancy,
and at the end of the rainyseason in the Tatei Neixa ceremony, children
(along with the first fruits) are presented to the gods, this being their
first rite of passage. Subsequently, the pilgrimages of adult hikuritamete
are rites of initiation to reach the status of mara'akame.At the same
time, the search for visions and the sacrificesthat these pilgrim-initiates
carry out during the dry season also have great importance to agricul-
ture because they are necessary to obtain sufficient rains in the follow-
ing rainy season.
Obviously much more work is needed here, but these brief com-
ments concerning the rituals performed in tukipa ceremonial centers
illustrate that the system of classification and symbolic relations mani-
fested in Huichol cosmovision, ritual hierarchy,and tukipa architecture
also include ritual cycles closely linked to local agricultural practices.
Moreover, it demonstrates the importance of ritual and religion in the
study of Mesoamerican cargo systems, a field of researchwhich has too
often taken a functionalist approach that separates cargo offices from
their ritual contexts. Instead, the Huichol tukipa demonstrates the hol-
ism of Mesoamericancultures- their tendency to synthesize society, re-
ligion, and the naturalworld through cosmovision and ritual. -fr
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
An early version of this paper was presented at the XXIII Mesa Re-
donda of the Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologia in honor of Pedro
Carrasco (Neurath 1993). I appreciate the valuable comments of Paul
Liffman, who reviewed my orthography of Huichol terms, and of all
my colleagues in the seminar Antropologia e Historia del Gran Nayar,
where this paper was discussed.

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Journal of the Southwest

Tukipa Ceremonial Centers in the Community of Tuapurie (Santa Catarina Cuexcomatitlán):

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Two types of civil-religious hierarchies(also known as cargosystems)

1. A hierarchyof agrarianauthorities (comisariado de bienescomunales,etc.) also ex-

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Before beginning to analyze the tukipa as a model of the Huichol

In the extensive ethnographic literature on the Huichols, informa-

3. Published in different versions by Santoscoy 1899; McCarty and Matson 1975;

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5. According to Rosendo Corona, "The caligiiey (tuki) is a circular edifice made of

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the interrelationships among sacred sites, ritual, social organization,

7. Certainly, circumstances do not make it easy for anthropologists interested in the

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rina Cuexcomatitlan: Tuapurie itself, Xawiepa (Pochotita), and Keu-

THE TUKIPA HIERARCHY

There are various ceremonial offices in the tukite (temples) of

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low these routes, they in turn "read"them. According to the Huichols,

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dedicated to religious matters because members of the public con-

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To understand the role of the hikuritamete, it is necessary to be-

The tuki (or, in Nahuatl, kalliwei, "great house"), the principaltem-

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Figure 3. TempleSanta Catarina. Photocourtesyof the American Museum of

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SOME ASPECTS OF TUKIPA RITUAL

The relationships between the temples of the ceremonial center and

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the festivals celebrated in the ceremonial centers. Once brought into

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Aguirre Beltran, Gonzalo

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1994 Tamoanchany Tlalocan. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura

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1998 Las fiestas de la Casa Grande: ritual agricola, iniciacion y

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1912 Die Nayarit-Expedition. Textaufnahmen und Beobachtun-

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