"The Huichols"
by Ronald Barnett
July 1997

    The name Huichol is a Spanish corruption of Vishalika or Virarika (“doctors” or “healers”). The Huichols, or Huicholes, are located in the Sierra Madre mountains in the northern part of the state of Jalisco, and the surrounding state boundaries of Zacatecas, Durango, and Nayarit.

    Many live in or near main community and religious centers, such as San Andres, Santa Catarina, San Sebastian; others in ranchos scattered throughout the sierras. They first came into contact with Europeans around l530 A.D. but after several uprisings and clashes with the Spaniards withdrew farther into the mountains.

    Beginning in 1890, the Norwegian explorer and ethnographer Carl Lurnholtz spent a total of five years (between 1893- 1898) in northwestern Mexico. Some of his conclusions about Huichol society and religion were rather sketchy and somewhat premature; but his observations about their material culture, including art forms, were accurate. From his careful descriptions of symbolic and decorative art we can now compare the forms and the symbolism of Huichol religious art with those in use over 100 years ago. Today, thanks to new materials and techniques Huichol art is even more prolific than it was in Lumholtz’s day.

    The Huichols have preserved more of their prehispanic religion and world outlook than perhaps any other indigenous group in Mexico. But they are also flexible in their approach to the outside world. For example, they have incorporated certain elements of Christianity into their lives while at the same time preserving more or less intact their own native religious beliefs and practices. One of the ways they express this is through their art forms. Originally, most, if not all Huichol art had a religious meaning. Even today their designs contain a certain symbol- ism. Plant and animal motifs are common. For example, the toto, a small five-petalled white flower that grows in the rainy season, may be worked into ernbroidered patterns with different numbers of petals according to the artistic taste of the particular artist.

    The snake is a common animal motif. Designs on woven belts were imitations of the varied markings on the backs of real snakes. The many different designs, often highly conventionalized, were known sometimes only to the designer.

    Originally, snakes represented prayers for good crops, health, and long life. But even if the original meaning is sometimes forgotten, they are still believed to possess magical power. For example, they may be used as a charm against the poisonous bite of the scorpion.

    Yarn paintings are made by pressing colored woollen threads into beeswax spread on flat boards. Originally, these were rounded designs (Nierika) scratched on disks or made of bamboo splints representing the face or aspect of the deifed sun. Later they developed into a new folk art while still retaining many elements of tradicional religious belief and practice. Sometimes the conventionalized face of the sun can be clearly seen in the center of a yarn painting.

    The deer, maize, and peyote are common motifs. Together they form a unity in Huichol religious thought and practice. Because this is still a vibrant living tradition, different interpretations may be possible. However, the deer-maize- peyote complex represents graphically the entire life cycle of these people.

    One possible interpretation is that the deer represents an earlier hunting stage of the Huichol, the maize the present means of sustenance, and the peyote, or magical mushroom, the elixir or force that binds all together and ensures the continuity and unity of life on all levels -religious, historical, and social. While these three symbols form a unity, each is an aspect of the other.

    In general the Huichol people are managing to survive against increasing outside pressure from a rapidly changing world. Their annual religious calendar is still full and each essential ceremony depends upon each symbol in turn. They have discovered that human beings need a sense of the past, meaningful work in the present, and an occasional escape into a private fantasy world. Huichol art is the most visible expression of this integrated mode of life.