The Mixe of Oaxaca
Religion, Ritual, and Healing
By Frank J. Lipp; Introduction by Munro S. Edmonson
University of Texas Press
The Mixe of Oaxaca was the first extensive ethnography of the Mixe, with a special focus on Mixe religious beliefs and rituals and the curing practices associated with them. It records the procedures, design-plan, corresponding prayers, and symbolic context of well over one hundred rituals. Frank Lipp has written a new preface for this edition, in which he comments on the relationship of Mixe religion to current theoretical understandings of present-day Middle American folk religions.
This elegantly written and thoroughly researched ethnography substantially enhances our understanding of this ancient Mesoamerican culture and its present-day expression.... It is already rightly considered a classic and fills an immense void in the ethnographic literature for southern Mesoamerica. It is destined to be read and consulted continually and, as a definitive study, should serve as a model for future ethnographies.
A solid ethnography of Mixe ritual life. . . . Taken as a whole, the book represents a major contribution to an understanding of the Mixes and provides much of the data required to situate their religious beliefs and practices within the framework of Mesoamerican religion in general.
Frank J. Lipp is Research Director of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. He has taught at Pace University and the Universidad de las Américas in Puebla, Mexico.
- Foreword by Munro S. Edmonson
- Preface to the Paperback Edition
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Social Organization and Kinship
- 2. Subsistence Agriculture
- 3. Religious Belief System
- 4. Calendrical System
- 5. Ritual Behavior
- 6. Rites of Passage
- 7. Village Festivals
- 8. Medical Concepts and Behavior
- 9. Postscript
- Appendixes
- A. Mixe Region
- B. Mixe Phonemes
- C. Mixe Texts
- Notes
- Glossary
- Mixe
- Spanish and Nahuatl
- Literature Cited
- Index
