Pipil Tribe Research Paper

History
First and foremost, the historical accuracy of the Pipil Tribe continues to be placed under scrutiny and has been only partially documented because of the fear of government persecution. The Pipil Tribe has a unique origin descending from the Aztecs and Toltecs; diverging from a proto-Nahua culture that entered Mesoamerica around A.D. 500 (Teresa Avila and Emily Mallow). Historians support the possibility of social, political, and economic concepts of the Pipil Tribe being similar to those of the Aztecs.
From the origin of the Pipil Tribe until the Spanish invasion of the 1524, the Pipil Tribe occupied about two-thirds of the modern day Republic; the two sovereignties that dominated the Pipil Tribe were the Izalcos and the Cuscatlan

kingdom’s respectively. The astonishing size of the Pipil population was annotated through the writings of Pedro de Alvarado in which he used no exact size of the population but he repeatedly used superlatives in describing the magnitude of their numbers. Cook and Simpson estimate that 90% of the male population between 15-50 fought against the Spaniards in the battles of conquest in central Mexico; approximately 113,600 men in total. Historians estimate the population ranged between 150,000 and 300,000 (Fowler pp. 124); this number is primarily devised from the approximation of the number of males who defended off the Spaniards in comparison to the whole population.
Despite the relatively large Pipil army, Lieutenant Pedro de Alvarado stated, “I turned on them with all my people and broke through their ranks, and the destruction that we made among them was so great that in a short time no one was left alive…” The Pipil Tribe was essentially conquered around 1528 and the Spanish conquistadors instantaneously established a new systems of economy, faith and culture, forcing many of the Pipil to suppress their original culture.

By the nineteenth century, political and economic efforts in the name of “progress” focused on creating a rationalized social order, with autonomous individuals as self-regulating members of the newly independent nation. In support, a ban was placed on the Pipil language in the 1930s followed by the massacre of 30,000 people which was supported by General Maximilio Hernandez. Despite the endeavors to alter the historical relevance of El Salvadorians, there was a resurgence of Pipil Tribe supporters by the natives, and aided by the Catholic Church, in the 1960s and

1970s.
Religion
The Pipil commonly believed in a cosmic balance of male and female forces. Male forces provided energy while female forces offered nourishment. Cosmic power was ascribed to multiple gods and spirits, namely Teotl - “god,” Quetzalcoatl - the “feathered serpent,” and the spirit goddess Itzqueye. Teotl was seen as the creator and father of life. Quetzalcoatl, the wind god, was also a creator deity — contributing essentially to the creation of Mankind; he ruled over the planet Venus, the dawn, merchants, arts, crafts and knowledge and was the patron god of the priesthood.
Pipiles worshipped corn and rain, sun and fire. Pipil tribesmen conducted ceremonies and rituals, including human and animal sacrifices, in honor of the gods, sometimes even journeying to different places to worship certain gods. Sacrificial victims typically included prisoners of war, auto-sacrificing and sacrificial ball games. Quetzalcoatl and Itzqueye were sometimes worshipped together with the sacrifice of a deer; however, the ceremony in honor of Quetzalcoatl would last 15 days to Itzqueye’s five-day ceremony.
Gold and silver were used as offerings to the gods; only priests and the ruling family wore gold and silver. Upon death, those who lived a righteous life went to live with the gods and those who lived corrupt lives went to the underworld.
Marriage and Family
In an effort to strengthen bloodlines, endogamous marriage between cousins was encouraged among the wealthy and men distinguished in war.

Exogamy was accepted for everyone else. Pipil law decreed incest punishable by death.
Marriage among the Pipil was monogamous. Women were married soon after menarche. After reaching puberty, men worked 5-7 years in preparation for marriage; therefore, most husbands were at least 3-5 years older than their wives. Families tended to organize marriages while accounting for the bride’s and groom’s wishes. The groom’s family presented a dowry of fruit trees, cotton, hens and other goods to supplement the man’s contribution to the bride price. The bride’s family would reciprocate with their own contribution.
Children were typically produced 1-2 years after marriage. A six-month period of abstinence followed each birth, after which most women conceived their next child. Pipiles believed that a woman’s sexual secretions mixed with those of the man’s and that the balance between them would determine the gender of the child. Girls were kept closer to home while boys were granted more freedom. This would remain true even after marriage, when new families were established closer to the groom’s

home.

Women were considered the center of the family and the heads of domestic affairs such as cooking and child-rearing, weaving and pottery. Men represented the family to the outside world and focused on the fields and crops, hunting and trade. Families often shared goods between each other and paid tribute for their land to more powerful families. Inheritances were usually passed from father to a favorite son, not necessarily the oldest. Daughters more rarely inherited their family’s home and land.