The Yoreme Creation of Itom Ania in Northwestern Mexico: Histories of Cultural Landscapes

Abstract

Language, traditional ecological knowledge, and the defense of territory come together in this chapter focused on the Yoreme communities of the Mayo river basin of northwestern Mexico. Language plays a fundamental role in our interpretation of the rich archival sources that allow us to comprehend the deeply rooted knowledge base that Indigenous peoples developed from their material and spiritual worlds. It is also an essential part of the living histories we construct in collaboration with the Indigenous peoples that maintain their traditions in a radically transformed ecological region through their ritual cycles and collective memories. The analysis of changes in land tenure and use presented here privileges Indigenous knowledge of landforms, biological species, and the cultural values that the communities of this region ascribed to the physical features and the territorial extension of the spaces they inhabited and defended. Its objectives seek to highlight the parallel production of oral and written sources and to contribute an historical analysis that is useful for the Yoreme communities in their present-day defense of their territory and its resources.