Zapotec Culture: Contributions To Modern Day Hispanic Culture

Contributions to Modern Day Hispanic Culture Food

Food was one of the very important things on Zapotec culture. Food had an agricultural base, meaning that it came from farming. The Zapotec also participated in fishing and hunting. The Zapotec had many traditional dishes, staple crops, market crops, and cash crops. When farming, all crops would be irrigated. Also, animals such as oxen were used to plow fields rather than tools.

Staple crops are plants grown and used for a traditional diet. They were the crops that the Zapotec ate on a regular basis. Staple crops included, corn beans and squash. Market crops are crops sold for money. This included, coffee, wheat, and sugarcane. Finally, the Zapotec had Cash crops which were used in trade.

This is shown by the Pitao Cozobi (the Corn God). Showing so much care for corn, the Zapotec believed that there was a god that granted them with this sacred crop. The Zapotec made structures of this god out of clay and corn husks. The structures were given a great amount of detail into the final piece. This shows how much they cared for corn, and believed that there was a corn god.

Religion

The Zapotec religion was polytheistic. The 2 prominent gods were Cocijo, the god of lightning and rain, and Pitao Cozobi, the god of maize. The Zapotec legends state that the Zapotecs believed that they were the original people of the valley of Oaxaca and that they were born from rocks or descended from pumas and ocelots. They also believed their ancestors came from the clouds, which is were their name comes from.

Museum Findings

The statute Cocijo, the god of rain and lighting. The artifact looked like there was lots of effort put into it, which symbolizes its importance. He was the most important god to the Zapotecs due to his association with rainfall. He was thought to be the creator of the

However, the Zapotec buildings featured intricate geometric designs. Their most significant achievement in architecture were their elaborately decorated underground tombs. They were usually underneath houses and were for individuals of high status. Those individuals were surrounded by items they used during their lifetime, like in the tomb 104 recreation at the Museum of Natural History, where the individual is surrounded by pottery and figurines. A few underground tombs, including tomb 104, had painted walls. Zapotec art is present in murals, stelae ,urns, and zmonuments dedicated to the gods they worshipped. They also produced pottery. The pottery was dominantly gray due to the fine, gray clay the Zapotec used. There were also figurines which were often of gods. They were originally made by hand but as time went on, the Zapotec learned to mass produce them with molds.