TOTONAC
794
TOTONAC
amy was due originally to scarcity of women, which
obliged men to seek wives from other groups, i. e.
marriage by capture, and this in time grew into a
custom. Durkheim derives exogamy from Totem-
ism, and says it arose from a religious respect for the
blood of a totemic clan, for the clan totem is a god and
is especially in the blood. Morgan and Howitt main-
tain that exogamy was introduced to prevent marriage
between blood relations: especially between brother
and sister, which had been common in a previous
state of promiscuity. Frazer says this is the true
solution, that it really introduced group marriage,
which is an advance to monogamy, and that the most
complete record of this is the classificatory system of
relationship. Lang, however, denies there is any
group marriage, and says the so-called group marriage
is only tribe-regulated licence. Hill-Tout writes that
exogamous rules arose for political reasons by mar-
riage treaties between the groups. Darwin denies
primitive promiscuous intercourse, and says exogamy
arose from the strongest male driving the other males
out of the group. This is also the opinion of Lang,
Atkinson, and Letourneau.
Jesuit Relations, ed. Thw.utes (73 vols., Cleveland, 1896- 1901); Spencer .\nd Gillen, Native Tribes of Cent. Australia (London, 1S99) ; Idem, Northern Tribes of Cent, Australia (Lon- don, 1904) ; Boas, Social Organization and Secret Societies of the Kwatiutl Indians in Rept. of the U, S. National Museum for 1895 (Washington, 1897); Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy (London, 1910) ; Land. Secret of the Totem (London, 1905) ; Idem, Totem- ism in Encycl, Britannica (11th edition): Idem in Folk Lore, XIII (1902) ; McGee, Sioux Indians in 15th Ann. Report of the Bur. of Ethnology (Washington. 1897); Matthews in American Antiquarian, XXVIII, 81, 140; Fbiend-Pereira in Jour, of Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, LXXIII, p. 3, n. 3, p. 39; Cook in Jewish Quart. Rev. (April, 1902); HiLl^Totrr in Royal Soc. of Canada, 1901, vol, VII; Merriam in Amer. Anthropologist, new ser.,
X (1908); DE M.ARZAN in Aiil'iroiuis, II (1907); Brun, ibid., V (1910); Levy in Rct. ./. •- -•<. XLV (1902); Tontain in Rev. de I'hist. des relhr I'. i mx) ; Hartund in Fo/A Lore,
XI (1900): Jevons, !- t- CtTOQ, Lex. de la langue algonquine (Montreal, 1 ■ -. . , il ..mtt. Native Tribes of South- East Australia (London, KtOI): Fletcher and La Flesche in snh Ann. Report of the Bur. of Ethnology (Washington, 1911); DoRSAT in toth Ann. Report of Bur. nf Eth. (Washington, 1897); Idem in Srd Ann. Report of Bur. of Eth. (Washington, 1884) ; Idem in lllh Ann. Report of Bur. of Eth. (Washington, 1894); SwANTON in Seth Ann. Report of the Bur. of Eth. (Washington, 1908): MoRicE in Trans, of the Canadian Inst., IV (1892-93); Idem in .Ann. Archeol. Report 1905 (Toronto): Riggs, Dakota- English Dictionary (Washington, 1900) ; Catlin, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs and Condition of the N. Amer. Indians (London, 1844); Hoffman in 14th .inn. Report of the Bur. of Eth. (Washington, 1896) ; Morice, Hist, of the Northern Interior of Brit. Columbia (London, 1907); HlLl/-TotjT, Brit. North America (London, 1907),
John T. Driscoll.
Totonac Indians, one of the smaller cultured nations of ancient Mexico, occupying at the time of the Spanish conquest the coast province of Totoni- capan, comprehending all except the northern border of the present State of Vera Cruz, together with the Zacatlan district in Puebla, Within this territory they had some fifty towns, with a total population of perhaps a qu,arter of a million. Their capital, Cem- poala, about five miles inland from the present city of Vera Cruz, had a population of about 25,000. In spite of wars, epidemics, and oppressions they still number .about 100,000.
The Totonac were the first natives whom Cort6s met on Landing in Mexico in 1519. According to their own traditions, they had come from the north- west nearly eight centiu'ies earlier, and had main- tained an independent kingdom — of which the names of the successive kings are on record — until sub- jugated by the Aztec only about twenty-five years before the arrival of the Spaniards. Being compelled by their conquerors to the payment of a heavy tribute and to other exactions, including the frequent seizure of their people for slaves or for sacrifice in the bloody Aztec rites, they were ripe for revolt, and their king, Chicomacatt, eagerly welcomed Cortes .and promised the support of his fifty thousand warriors against Montezuma.
Encouraged by Cortes, King Chicomacatt as-
serted his independence by seizing the Mexican tax-
gatherers then in his country, but was restrained
by the Spanish commander from sacrificing them to
the idols. They gave wilhng help in laying the
foundations of the city of (Villa Rica de la) Vera
Cruz, which Cortes made his starting point for the
advance upon the Mexican capital. As a final test
of their friendship and obedience, Cortes commanded
the destruction of the wooden images of the gods in
the great pyramid temple of Cempoala, where every
day human victims were sacrificed, their hearts being
torn out and placed upon the altars of the gods, the
blood sprinkled upon the idols and the walls of the
temple, and the dismembered hmbs borne away to be
served up in a cannibal feast. Notwithstanding the
protest of the king and the fierce opposition of the
priests and their retainers, the order was carried out
by a detachment of Spanish soldiers. The idols were
thrown down to the foot of the temple and burned.
According to Bancroft (see bibl.), when their pagan
temple was cleansed Olmedo preached the Christian
Faith and celebrated Mass before the assembled
natives. The contrast between the simple beauty
of this impressive ceremony and their own bloody
worship made a deep impression on the minds of the
natives, and at the conclusion those who desired were
baptized. So Christianity achieved its first victory
in Mexico.
In the subsequent events, culminating in the taking of the city of Mexico and the downfall of the Aztec empire, the Totonac took active part with the Tlas- calans as aUies of the Spaniards, giving ready alle- giance alike to the new rulers and the new religion. In 1526 their territory of Vera Cruz was combined with Tlascala, Tabasco, and Yucatan into a bishopric with seat at Tlascala under Bishop Juliano Garces, Dominican (d. 1542). The work of Christianizing was given over chiefly to the Dominicans, who had convents at Vera Cruz, Puebla, and Goazacoalco, and who led the fight against Indian slavery (see C-4.SAS, Bartolome de las). Franciscans, Augus- tinians, and other orders were also represented in the Indi.an work. The Jesuits in the diocese confined their attention to whites and negroes. In 1575-77 the Totonac, in common with all the other tribes of Southern Mexico, were ravaged by the mysterious mallalzahuatl epidemic, estimated to have destroyed two millions of the native race. About the j'eai 1600, in accordance with a viceregal scheme of con- centration, the entire population of Cempoala was removed to a new site, and the ancient capital thence- forth sank to the level of a vill.age.
The modern Totonac of Puebla and Vera Cruz are industrious farmers, their chief crop being sugar cane, from which they manufacture sugar in their own mills. They are also expert fishermen. Their houses are of i)ole framework plastered with clay on the outside and thatched with grass. They wear cotton garments of native pattern .and weaving. They are much given to dances and festivals, both church festivals and their own, particularly the Cos- tiimbre, an interesting survival of an old sacrifical rite in which seeds and portions of e.arth sprinkled with the blood of fowls killed for the occasion are distributed to the various fields. Aside from this and some other folklore customs, they are all Catholics, and strongly attached to their religious teachers.
The Totonac language, although considered by Saha- gun and Orozco y Berra to be connected with that of their next neighbours, the Iluastec, of Mayan stock, is held by Brinton to be of independent stock, but with considerable borrowings from Iluastec and .\ztec. It is spoken in four principal dialects and lacks the sound of r. Of the published works in the I;ingu.ago the most important are the "Arte y Vocabulario de
