Huichols: Unscathed culture throughout the years

The Western Sierra Madre Mountains, to the north of Jalisco, are inhabited by a mystic yet beautiful culture that constantly creates enigmatic worlds with recurring themes such as moons, suns, trees, labyrinths, spirals, mountains and cosmic oceans. These are expressed in the art, religion and customs of the Huichol, people who have remained unaffected by external influences over the centuries.

Even though the origins of this fascinating culture are uncertain, an undeniable fact is that survivors from many different ethnic groups fled to the Western Sierra Madre during the Spanish Conquest to escape the trail of destruction carved by the Spanish soldiers. Since the Sierra Madre was basically inaccessible, it was never conquered by the Spaniards and thus kept its new inhabitants safe.

Of course, the Huichols have a quite different version of the facts. If you ask the Huichols about their origin, they will tell you fantastic stories about ancient gods rising out of the sea and walking deep into the eastern side of the Sierra Madre. The Huichols believe history is knitted from the many threads of their countless myths and these are the roots that have determined their social and religious behavior.

The Huichols believe the world has a sacred dimension, which only the mara'akame (Shaman) can pass through to by means of dreams, thus creating a bond between the world of the gods and the earthly one.

The Huichols believe sickness is due to a lack of piety for the gods and one must give offerings, with the help of the mara'akame, to mend the mistake. Other causes of illness could be a 'curse' or 'losing the soul'. If Huichol people get sick because of an evil spell, then the mara'akame must cleanse their soul using feathers, while simultaneously spreading tobacco smoke all over their bodies. Once they have done this they will then suck up the evil spirit that is making the person sick. When the illness is a consequence of losing the kupuri (a part of the Huichol soul that is located at the top of the head) the mara'akame has to search to find it and bring it back to the place where it belongs, but if the kupuri has been stolen then the mara'akame has to fight a sorcerer to get it back.

It is due to the importance of the sacred world and its intrinsic bond to the Huichol lifestyle that one can find their cosmogony and myths expressed on every Huichol art piece. All of the handicrafts that have not been made to be sold have been created to portray the religious experiences of their creators. These fantastic pieces, made using vibrant colors and fantastical figures, can only be conceived in the mind of a Huichol artist.

The Huicholes keep struggling to remain removed from the influences of the outside world, hindering Mestizos (people of both European and indigenous decent) from settling in their communities, and encouraging marriage among the members of the group or at least with members of other indigenous groups. And even though the isolated location of their towns has led to the construction of runways in several communities, when you reach these secluded places, one collides against a world where wood is the main fuel, water is still extracted from wells and houses are constructed with adobe, stones, mud and thatched roofs. It is a world where the first three years of school are given by the same professor or provided by a Franciscan mission. A world where men still farm, fish and hunt and the soil is cultivated using an ox-driven plough.

To take a journey into the culture of the Huichol is to find yourself at the doorstep of a fantastic world of ancient customs which have remained intact for centuries. To penetrate into the Huichol world, is to travel into a dimension where the divine and the profane find perfect harmony.