There is also another more immediate space, our social and domestic space, which is the one we live without reflecting on it, but which is present at all times and around everything.
There is also another more immediate space, our social and domestic space, which is the one we live without reflecting on it, but which is present at all times and around everything.
Every day we observe from our house or from our temples these different levels of space that make up our sacred landscape. This vision starts from the fact that the universe is man and nature, one cannot exist without the other; Oani Báa (Monte Albán), for example, is a human product that in its outline followed the dictates of nature. We can observe around the Great Plaza, on the horizon, the high mountains that served as a model for the construction of each temple, whose limit was imposed only by the natural heights of their ridges. Thus, in our everyday language we have as a constant reference the image of those mountains, which are nature and which represent mother earth.
When building a temple or even our own city, we appropriate a small space of that nature and modify it, that is why we must request the permission of the gods, because each environment is protected by a god. Let us observe, for example, how in the distance, in our hills, lightning and lightning shine during storms, and it is there that the god of lightning lives, the god of water, Cocijo; he is everywhere and at all times, that is why he is the most appreciated, the most offered and the most feared. In the same way, other gods have created, or only inhabit, the various environments of our landscape, such as rivers, glens, valleys, mountain ranges, caves, ravines, the roof of stars and the underworld.
Only the priests know when and in what form the gods will appear; only they because they are wise and because they are not totally human, they also have something divine, that is why they can approach them and then we indicate the way forward. That is why the priests know which are the sacred places, in which tree, lagoon or river our people originated; only they, who have great wisdom, because they have been chosen by the gods to continue telling our stories.
Our daily life is also governed by the presence of many parts of the landscape, where humans intervene; With our work we alter the appearance of the valleys, or we transform a hill to live there, like Monte Albán, which was previously a natural hill, and later, modified by our ancestors, a place to communicate more directly with the gods. In the same way, we alter the land, our cultivated fields give another configuration to the hills, because we have to build terraces so that the soil is not washed away by the rain, but that's fine, because they are used to sow the corn seeds that let's all eat. Then there is a goddess of corn, Pitao Cozobi, who is in communion with the other gods and who gives us permission to modify the nature of the hill and the valley, as long as it is to work and produce food, produce our corn, our livelihood. .
Between the terraces and the hills, the valleys, the caves, the ravines and the rivers there are many other elements that give life to our landscape: they are the plants and animals. We know them because we use them to survive, we collect the fruits and seeds and hunt various animals, such as deer, rabbits, badgers or cacomixtles, birds and opossums, and also some viboras; only those necessary, because we must not waste what nature gives us, our gods would be very irritated if we abuse. From each game we take advantage of everything, the skins for ornaments and clothing, the bones and horns to make tools, the meat to eat, the fat to make torches, nothing is wasted.
Among the wild plants we have a great variety of fruits, seeds, leaves and stems that we eventually collect to complete our tortillas, beans, squash and chili that we grow. Other plants are very important because they allow us to regain health with the help of a healer. There are plants for fractures, swelling, fever, pain, pimples, spots, air, eye, bad luck, all those symptoms of illness that one can have as a destination, by contagion or because they were sent to us by someone who does not love us.
So we, from childhood, learn to know our landscape, which is sacred and functional at the same time; that it is good but that it can be bad if we attack it, if not how do we explain the floods, earthquakes, fires and other misfortunes that happen?
Now let's talk about our daily landscape, the domestic one, which is what we use to live every day. Here you depend on your home, your neighborhood and your city; The three levels are in themselves protected by the gods, which allow us to use and coexist in public and private spaces. To build them, man must not lose harmony with nature, colors and shapes, that is why materials are sought from the same place, and one asks permission from the hill to remove its stones, its slabs, which are part of its entrails. If you agree, that is; If we have offered enough, the hill will gladly give them to us, otherwise it can show its anger, it can kill a few ...
The level of a house is worked with simple materials; One or two huts with adobe walls and thatched roofs are built; The very poor only erect walls of bajareque, which are sticks of vine with mud plasters, to prevent the air and cold from entering, with the floors of rammed earth and sometimes covered with lime. The huts surround large patios where a lot of activity takes place, from arranging the crops, caring for the animals, preparing the tools; These patios end where the plot begins, which is used only for planting. Each of these spaces is a complementary part of the daily survival system.
The neighborhood level takes into account more people, various families sometimes related. A neighborhood is a set of houses and plots that are organized in a place, where everyone knows each other and works together; many marry and share knowledge about agricultural systems, the secrets of collecting plants, the places where water is found, and the materials that serve everyone.
At the city level, our landscape shows above all the power, the supremacy that the Zapotecs have over other peoples; That is why Monte Albán is a large, planned and monumental city, where we share with those who visit us the wide space of the squares and the heart of the city, the Great Central Plaza, surrounded by temples and palaces, within an atmosphere of religion and of history.
The scenario that we perceive from the Great Plaza is that of an invincible city, whose objective is to govern the destinies of the peoples of the Oaxacan region. We are a race of conquerors, for that reason we impose our power on the towns, the gods have chosen us to do it; if necessary we go to the battlefields or play ball and win the right of our adversaries to pay us tribute.
For this reason in the buildings different scenes of our conquests are observed, carried out from time immemorial; Zapotecs always leave our history written down, because we perceive that our future will be very long, and that it is necessary to leave images so that our descendants know the origins of their greatness, therefore it is normal to represent our captives, the peoples we have conquered, to our leaders who carried out the conquests, all of them always guarded by our gods, to whom we must offer daily to keep harmony with their images.
Thus, our everyday landscape represents the most sacred values, but it also reflects the duality of life and death, light and darkness, good and evil, the human and the divine. We recognize these values in our gods, who are the ones who give us the strength to survive darkness, storms, earthquakes, dark days, and even death.
That is why we teach all the secrets of the sacred landscape to our children; From a very young age they must know the secrets of the valley, the mountain, the rivers, the waterfalls, the roads, the city, the neighborhood and the house. They must also offer to our gods and, like everyone else, perform rituals of personal sacrifice to keep them happy, so we prick our noses and ears in certain ceremonies to let our blood feed the earth and the gods. We also prick the noble parts so that our blood fertilizes nature and assures us many children, who are necessary to preserve our race. But those who know the most about the landscape and how to keep our gods happy are undoubtedly our teachers, the priests; they dazzle us with their insight and clarity. They tell us if we have to give more to the field so that the time to harvest can come smoothly; They know the secrets of the rain, they predict earthquakes, wars and famines. They are central characters in our life, and they are the ones who help the townspeople to maintain communication with our gods, that is why we hold them in very high esteem, respect and admiration. Without them our life would be very short, because we would not know where to direct our destinies, we would not know anything about our landscape or our future.
Source:Passages of History No. 3 Monte Albán and the Zapotecs / October 2000
