Chinantecos

Mexico´s Ethnic groups
“Chinantecos “
The chinantecos call themselves tsa ju jmí', that means "people of ancient words” . They are known for being the habitants of Chinanta.
The chinantecaregion is located 100 km away from Oaxaca City . It has 17 villages in the north of the state. The chinantecos are distributed in Cuicatlán and Tuxtepec.

The región is divided in the high andmid-low section, the first is located “la sierra de Juárez” and the other in Tuxtepec, Choapan and Cuicatlán. 
The climate is humid with rain all year round.
They exist around 224, 000 people in thatethnic group.
They speak chinanteco, that language is part of the otomangue language group.
There houses in the high places are made with adobe and roof tiles, in the mid section with wood andpalm roofs. All the family builds the houses together , they spend around 4 days doing so and when they’re done they have a big party.
The main celebrations occur during “holly week” and the smallcelebrations to the saints all over the year. The biggest party is the day of the death.
They believe in the power of the opposites. Like the sun and the moon, the day and night, evil and good, etc.They think a black dog or spider leads the way when they die. They have lots of mystical characters, some of them are good and offer protection and others are evil, in order to recognize them they havewitches and healers.
They classify the sicknesses in two types, some of them are positive , that means they acquired them in a natural way and they are normal, and the negatives are gotten by anunnatural cause and need to be treated by a traditional doctor.

Their economical activities are fishing, hunting. They cultivate corn, beans, pumpkins, and chayote.
They have problems because of thedestruction of the environment made by the factories in Tuxtepec.
When a couple wants to get married, they have to live in the parents’ house to learn some things, meanwhile they build the house ....