Hello all. I found this subreddit randomly researching Mixtec culture that I thought would be interesting to ask around.

In short, I have been estranged from my culture my whole life as I grew up adopted and unknowingly mixed. I recently did a 23andMe, found out I'm very closely related to the Mixteco people (of Southwest Puebla specifically), which makes sense looking back at where I came from, the San Joaquin Valley which has a heavy Mixtec presence, and now I'm dedicated to reconnecting. I no longer live in the West and am quite disconnected with my community in-person.

TL;DR: Adopted, lol

I was hoping there were some Ñuu Savi people here or anyone who has further resources for me to use to research my culture further so I can build upon the foundation I've already built. What I am very interested in are the deities, basic beliefs about the world, what different colors may represent, spiritual beliefs, and folktales/myths. Thank you for reading.

I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask because it might not even be mesoamerican but I saw an Indigenous American looking guy in the park playing a flute that had a small drum hanging from the end, he was holding the flute with one hand and hitting the drum with a stick with the other. Is this a common instrument? If so is there a name for it?

The looting of archaeological artifacts in Mexico predates the arrival of Europeans. “Long before the coming of European colonizers, precious objects were highly sought after,” Jacome Hernandez explained. “The Aztecs, for example, explored ancient sites such as Teotihuacán not for scientific purposes but to take their treasures and legitimize certain myths.” This quest for valuable artifacts intensified with European colonization, particularly with the discovery of gold-bearing objects.

One emblematic example is Moctezuma’s headdress, a unique piece made of quetzal feathers, now housed in the Weltmuseum in Vienna. “Some say it was a gift from Moctezuma to Cortes,” said Jacome Hernandez. “The headdress is still in Austria. It is one of many pieces that left Mexico soon after first contact with Europeans and never returned.”

The extent of the looting of Mexico’s cultural treasures is difficult to determine. “Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia officially registers 49,347 archaeological sites. If you plant a tree or move some earth for an archaeological dig, you’re likely to find something!” Jacome Hernandez said.

It is not unusual for impoverished farmers to sell what they find to interested buyers. Such looting can reach massive proportions. Jacome Hernandez recalls a case from the 1980s in which looters hired locals to carry out more than 70 raids over a period of more than six months, bringing out an immense quantity of archaeological finds.

The main problem with looting, Jacome Hernandez pointed out, is that the looters are focused on an object’s aesthetic value and destroy the archaeological context, erasing centuries of cultural history. “All the archaeological value that we treasure as heritage is lost,” he lamented.

The winding road to protecting Mexico’s archaeological heritage

Recognition of the need to protect Mexico’s heritage is relatively recent. It was not until Mexico became a nation and a sense of nationhood emerged that the first laws were passed in 1868. Their purpose was to ban private ownership of archaeological objects but their impact was limited.

At the time, it was common for foreign archaeologists, supported by institutions such as the Carnegie Institute and the University of California, to send artifacts abroad for study and never return them to their place of origin. Within Mexico, artists and intellectuals such as Rufino Tamayo and Diego Rivera also amassed collections of artifacts, which had often been looted and obtained “by chance” from local farmers.

It was not until 1972 that stricter legislation was introduced to protect archaeological monuments and objects. However, complete control has proved elusive. “Today, museums and academic institutions around the world argue that the pieces in their possession left Mexico before 1972, since the laws aren’t retroactive,” Jacome Hernandez said. “So some museums have hundreds of items and we can’t demand their return.”

Recently, under the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, there have been calls for stronger heritage protection measures. Thanks to UNESCO conventions that recognize the heritage of nations as part of the common heritage of humanity, over 10,000 archaeological pieces have been returned to Mexico in recent years.

The regulations have also changed. Researchers must now register the pieces they want to study, specify what will be exported, and undertake to return them within one year after the analysis. For more advanced scientific studies involving invasive testing, such as isotopic analysis or radiocarbon dating, researchers may take a sample but are still required to submit a final report and return the artifacts they borrowed for their studies.

The long process of repatriation

The process of returning artifacts is a lengthy one. “When the university wanted to return a single box containing the remains of the child last year, the procedures took over two years,” recalls Jacome Hernandez. Considerable paperwork was involved. Among other things, they had to obtain a feasibility study from a Mexican expert to assess the authenticity and value of the objects, and coordinate with Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), the government and foreign affairs authorities.

A repatriation request can be made by an institution or a private individual. In the case of the 84 Mesoamerican axes, an individual wanted to return them after loaning them to Princeton University. He contacted the Mexican consulate, which handled the administrative procedures with INAH.

“At that point the legal director sets all the legal procedures in motion,” Jacome Hernandez explained. “It’s a rigorous process based on Mexican laws on archaeological heritage and cultural property, as well as various international treaties.” A Mexican archaeologist then validates the archaeological pieces and recommends whether or not they should be returned, based on photographs.

The pieces of pottery and other household items that were turned in are estimated to be 2,000 years old.

From Seattle to Mexico, soon, pieces of pottery and other household items that are thousands of years old will be headed home. 

On Tuesday, at the Mexican consulate in Seattle, Homeland Security Investigations special agents started unwrapping an unsuspecting box. 

Inside, wrapped in tissue paper sat artifacts estimated to be thousands of years old. 

"These things-- they were Mexican before Mexico was Mexico," Mexico's head consul, Hector Godoy, said. 

The different pieces of pottery and figurines caught the eyes of Homeland Security Investigations when the most recent owner turned them in. 

"These things have been passed along from family to family; these things have obviously been on the earth for almost 2,000 years. They've changed hands several times," HSI Special Agent Robert Hammer said. "Sometimes good citizens come forward and say we've come into these things, and we're not supposed to have these things and we'd like to make it right."

Godoy said he can probably guess how ancient items from Mesoamerica ended up in Seattle.

"I think there was more of a laissez-faire attitude towards archeological pieces in the early 1900s, which meant that many of these very valuable pieces were actually-- left Mexico and come into the hands of private individuals," Godoy said. 

In fact, an article from the Sunday News Tribune in 1960 showcases these artifacts under the sub-headline "2 Lakewood Explorers Find Artifacts On Mexican Trip."

The picture accompanying the article bears the caption that says a Tacoma explorer named Arnold Snell "brought back" the items from "remote Chiapas province in Mexico."

Could anyone help me figure out the relation of colours in cardinal directions for the Maya?

Most of the source I've came across (Post-classic as most Maya related soruces) seem to agree on White-North, Red-East, Yellow-South, Black-West.

I've alsot found a pdf by Erik Boot studying a Late Classic bowl suggesting the same relation. So I suppose the above is the correct relation?

On the same note, why is it that various (modern) depictions put Red/East on top of a " map compass"? In other words they seem to rotate the cardinals 90 degrees anti-clockwise.

https://preview.redd.it/3s7iw9azkx3e1.png?width=347&format=png&auto=webp&s=be1805a6f4ffc8deeea1e10a25fb77c0d28a6cf7

(**EDIT TO ADD: Photo is NOT my own. It is of a Tandoor Oven most likely from India)

Many years ago, I was in southern Mexico in the state of Oaxaca. I was able to visit some interesting places where pottery was being made and fired. We are talking cottage industry and they were making ceramic pottery chimeneas of all sizes up to 5-6 feet tall.

At one point I got to see locals cooking for their families. A group of families had several clay ovens that were basically large clay pots built into a masonry structure like a large table with the fire and food accessed through the top of the pot. They were cooking tortillas by sticking them to the side and then pulling them off the walls with long sticks/rods.

Years later I saw videos and pictures of Tandoor ovens from India and other nearby cultures, and it looked exactly as I remembered seeing in Oaxaca.

Is there a name for this kind of oven/cooking in southern Mexico or Mesoamerica? Did they have their own version of the Tandoor ovens or was there some kind of cultural interchange that brought this to Mesoamerica?

I am looking into booking a tour of Chichen Itza, Tulum, Tikal, and Palenque for my husbands birthday/Christmas present. He is really into Mayan ruins and has been wanting to go on a trip like this for a long time. Is it possible to do these sites in 7 days or less (we have 2 little ones that I don't want to leave for longer)? Is travel to these areas safe? Are there any tour companies to avoid?

https://www.livescience.com/lidar-maya-civilization-guatemala