The Ancient Americas

Featured Cultures

Zapotec Religion
In Zapotec religion, ancestors served as bridges between the living and supernatural worlds. Ceramic urns often placed in Zapotec tombs show one of many ways in which these people honored their ancestors.

Figures on the urns portray individuals posing in the regalia of supernatural beings. By doing so, they created a connection between the living and supernatural worlds. Although people at different levels of society honored their ancestors with urns, those belonging to high-status people often were more elaborate.

The God Cocijo
In much of the Oaxaca valley, a good harvest—and life itself—depended on the timing and quantity of rain. The god Cocijo (ko-SEE-ho) is the Zapotec supernatural being associated with lightning and rain. Early Spanish colonists describe Cocijo as a vital force that distinguished living from non-living matter.

The Zapotec honored Cocijo both in public rituals and in the domestic rituals of common people. Cocijo himself is often represented wearing a feathered headdress like those worn by high-status people of Zapotec society.

In addition to supporting their position through religion, Zapotec rulers probably derived resources from the economy to strengthen their control over the people.

Continue to Zapotec Economy. >>