Xochil and the Machetes
Object Details
- Collection Creator
- Rose, Vita
- Culture
- Wixarika (Huichol)
- See more items in
- Vita Rose photographs of Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios and family
- Extent
- 1 Photographic print
- Date
- 1996-1999
- Container
- Photo-folder 3
- Archival Repository
- National Museum of the American Indian
- Identifier
- NMAI.AC.372, Item P33772
- Type
- Archival materials
- Photographs
- Photographic prints
- Collection Citation
- Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Vita Rose photographs of Guadalupe de la Cruz Rios and family, image #, NMAI.AC.372; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
- Collection Rights
- Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to [email protected]. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
- Scope and Contents
- View of Xochil, a young Wixarika (Huichol) girl, sitting with her maternal aunt Dona Cuca during a fertility rite in Nayarit, Mexico. Xochil receives machetes that have just been used to clear out weeds from the milpa (corn field) of her grandmother Dona Manuel.
- Vita Rose Narrative
- Huichol Xochil, with the guidance of her maternal aunt Doña Cuca, receives the machetes that have just been used to clear out the weeds from the milpa (corn field) on her grandmother Doña Manuel's rancho in Nayarit, Mexico. As the men of her extended family hand her their precious tools, they are enacting an ancient fertility rite, combining the male and female elements of spring planting. Together they pray to the Goddess Tatel Urianaka, "the moist earth waiting to be plowed," for a successful harvest to provide them with corn for tortillas, and therefore life-giving sustenance, for another year. Xochil's special status is granted to her as the oldest girl not yet entered into menarche. She will lead the procession in a counterclockwise circle around Tatewari, Grandfather Fire, and from there into the tuki or temple where she will carefully lay the machetes in for of the altar to be blessed.
- Collection Restrictions
- Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: [email protected]).
- Record ID
- ebl-1706296200842-1706296201086-0
- Metadata Usage
- CC0
Related Content
View Slideshow
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.