The Mixe of Oaxaca: Religion, Ritual, and Healing

by Frank J. Lipp, Munro S. Edmonson (Introduction)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292747050
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	09/01/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	275
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

• 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

Editorial Reviews

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.

Ethnohistory

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.

Journal of Ritual Studies