Religious Cultural Expression of Amuzgos: Impact of Catholicism and Transformation Over Time

The Amuzgos are indigenous people of Mexico with a dominant religious expression of Catholicism. Festivals and ceremonies are held in accordance with the Catholic calendar. The religion of the Amuzgos reflects their cultural practices. Lack of education resulted in superstitions associated with their religious beliefs. The impact of Catholicism and transformation of this expression over time is analyzed.

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A Cultural Timeline
For this assignment, you will be creating a timeline. Complete the following template. Please explain
your items, be specific and provide details and examples.
1. Select a cultural expression
(Artistic, Philosophical, or
Religious/Spiritual):
The selected religious cultural expression is the religion of
Amuzgos. The Amuzgos are referred to the indigenous people of
Mexico. The primary residence of the mentioned indegious
individual was Guerrero state border. The dominant religion
expression of the Amuzgos is Catholicism. However, Protestant
followers are also there. Being in the majority, the religious
expression of the mentioned traditional people is dominated by
catholic churches. Apart from that, the catholic churches manage
the municipal seats, yearly and monthly festivals as well as
processions of the tribe. Festivals are chiefly dedicated to Holy
Week, All saint’s Day, carnival and patron saints. It has been
found that Amuzgos are very passionate when it comes to
indigenous beliefs, festivals as well as other rites. The natural
phenomenons are also considered as the part of their religious
cultural expression (Galinier & Molinié, 2013). Water is considered
to be a godly figure since it is a highly essential natural element
for sustaining residence in the mountains. For instance, the first
day of the monsoon is considered by the Amuzgos to be holy and
is marked by the ‘feast of Saint Mark’. The mentioned ceremony is
held on 25th April. Apart from believing that God is a part of the
nature, the Amuzgos has animalistic belief in the spirit of the
earth, mountains, corn, animals as well as other elements of
nature. Thus, the religion of the Amuzgos can be considered as a
cultural expression worthy to be analyzed.
2. Guiding question to focus your
query and guide your research:
What is the impact of Catholicism on the Amuzgos individuals?
3. Describe this cultural
expression and explain how it
relates to aspects of that culture:
The mentioned religious cultural expression highly relate to the
culture followed by the Amuzgos. Considering the fact that they
are indigenous residents of Mexico, the religious belief of the
group is associated with magical beliefs on super natural
elements. The religious cultural expression of the Amuzgos can
be classified into the following segments.
 Religious beliefs: According to their religion, the phases of
moon are responsible for the timing of symbolic as well as
economic activities in the daily life (Cartwright, 2017). They
believe that, there prevails a risk of death of their children
during the time of eclipse of moon. According to them,
death of adults may occur due to the eclipse of sun. Apart
from that, their religious belief carries a strong evidence of
nahualism. Nahualism can be defined as the power of an
individual to harm other individual by using his animal
spirit, also known as Nahual.
 Ceremonies: The Amuzgos celebrate Fiestas and
Carnivals with respect to their Catholic ritual calendar.
Even the ceremonies associated with their school events

as well as civic events are held in accordance with the
Catholic calendar. Except the Pueblo community, almost
all the communities have a patron saint or Mayodomia.
The festivals organized due to Mayodomias are a major
oortion of the cultural aspect of the Amuuzgos (Galinier &
Molinié, 2013). Various dance performance, namely, "Las
Mascaritas," "Chilolos," "Macho Mula," "Tortuga," "Tigre,"
"Conquista," "Los Doce Pares de Francia," "Diablos,"
"Chareo," "Las Mojigatas," "Cebolleras," "Toritos," "Pan De
Panela," "Tlaminques," "Malinches," "Moros y Cristianos,"
"Apaches y Gachupines," and "Pichiques" are performed.
Thus it can be understood that religious ceremonies highly
influences the culture of the above mentioned indigenous
tribe.
 Medicine: Due to lack of education, the Amuzgos
considers sickness as a part of their misfortune. In order to
get rid of their sickness, they depend highly on religious
activities. Several times, it is found that, nahualism is
related to the curing practices (Smith, Mayes & Smith
2012). The Amuzgos believes that supernatural forces
result in illnesses like evil eye, anger, sudden fright and
high blood sugar. In order to get rid of the diseases, they
use superstitious techniques like limpiar which means
cleansing of the patient’s evil influences, enfriar which
means cooling off and curar de espanto that means curing
fright. As a part of the above mentioned techniques
several herb extracts are used.
4. Research and present a timeline that demonstrates how the expression has been developed,
changed or reinterpreted over a specific period of time considering the following questions:
 What is the function of the
expression?
The chief function of the mentioned cultural expression is ensure
security of the lives of the follows and to promote the culture
across the world.
 Who is impacted by the
expression?
Catholicism has imposed impact on the Amuzgos. Along with
Cargo holders and catholic clergy, there are specialized religious
practitioners who participate in the rituals both at home and at
churches. While mayordomos takes the chief responsibilities of
staging a particular religious fiestas, singers and prayer makers
also participates.
 How does the expression
reflect the culture and
society of the time and
place of its origin?
The religion of the Amuzgos reflects their cultural practices. For
instance, ceremonies related with the school and civic events are
organized keeping accordance to the catholic ritual calendar.
 What events (historical,
social, and political; for
example) may have
impacted and transformed
the expression over time?
Initially the numbers of protestant followers were much lesser
compared to recent time. A significant amount of protestant
followers has been evidenced now days Smith, Mayes & Smith,
2012). However, catholic churches still dominates centres of
municipal seats.
 What factors may have
contributed to the
changes experienced by a
cultural expression?(e.g.
technological change,
Considering the fact that in the religious cultural expression of the
Amuzgos, gender roles are traditional and have not changed over
time. However, due to the emergence of modern culture, the
economic as well as social contact between the Amuzgos and
non- amuzgos have increased.

economic development,
globalization, epidemics,
migration, civil strife,
education, mass media,
and climate change)
 What historical, social and
political perspectives
affect the present day
interpretation of the
expression?
Lack of education and knowledge resulted in superstitions
associated with the religious beliefs of the Amuzgos (Cartwright,
2017). When it comes to political impact, the council of elders in
the Amuzgos community I responsible for all the rituals and
festivals that occurs in the society.
5. Analyze and interpret the
information researched to form
conclusions regarding the impact
on and/or transformation of the
expression over time:
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that, the
Amuzgo’s religious cultural expression bears several unique
features that are completely different from any other parts of the
world. However, the Amuzgo culture needs to get educated in
order to eradicate the superstations associated with their religious
cultural expression.
6. Your Link to a timeline that
demonstrates how the expression
has been developed, changed or
reinterpreted over a specific
period of time:
7. Reference list
Before 1940s, majority of the Amuzgos were catholic.
In the year 1940, the Instituto Lingüístico de Verano A.C
transformed a majority of Amuzgos into Protestants (Smith,
Mayes & Smith 2012).
However till the year 2017, the number of catholic followers still
dominates the number of Amuzgo protestants.
Cartwright, E. (2017). 11 The Currency of Stories. Narrative,
Identity, and Academic Community in Higher
Education, 28, 196.
Galinier, J., & Molinié, A. (2013). The neo-Indians: a religion for
the third millenium. University Press of Colorado.
Gutiérrez Chong, N. (2015). www. sicetno. org: A Database for
the Study of Indigenous Political Culture and Ethnic
Conflict in the Americas. Journal of Intercultural
Studies, 36(4), 487-496.
Smith, D., Mayes, T., & Smith, R. (2012). Culture-Specific
Diagnoses. In Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health (pp. 49-
64). Springer New York, 34-37