The Huichol Web of Life: Creation and Prayer

Expected Outcomes for youth or adults who view the Huichol exhibition and complete one of the lessons in this unit.

• A unique, visually stimulating and informative beaded and textile art exhibition that reflects a way of life. "The Huichol Way", a way of thinking and a way of a centuries old culture surviving in the modern world.
• Issues presented in this exhibition assist with public awareness of the politically threatened Huichol people and their struggle for preservation of their cultural heritage though the commercial sale of bead and textile artifacts.
• Community children and adults will experience their own creativity by working with beads to make objects based on Huichol art making techniques.
• The viewer will learn the value of symbols in beadwork and yarn paintings that communicate shared human concerns not only within the Huichol culture, but also in the world around them. (The Huichol until recently had no written language. These symbols are a means to communicate their history and myths.)
• Children and adults viewing this exhibition, will learn about the integration of art and social studies as a means of awareness that is relevant and significant to their own lives.

Introduction to the Unit

The Huichol people live along the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in the Mexican states of Jalisco and Nayarit. Traditionally, Huichols live in communities called ranchos, where everyone shares life's responsibilities. These ranchos are structured around ceremonial centers and the growing cycles of crops. Huichol villages appear poor when compared to "outside" communities, not because of them. These ranchos have probably always appeared this way from an outsider's perspective. Due to modernization, national political corruption, illiteracy and disease, many Huichols have moved to the cities in search of education, economic support and medical care for their families. These cities include the capitols of Tepic, Guadalajara, and Mexico City.

Of all the tribal communities found in Mexico, the Huichol culture is one of the closest to Pre-Columbian tribal structures, religion, and arts. Huichol are considered to be one of the three most indigenously pure tribes (with the Tarahumara and Lacondones). Archaeological discoveries can place these people in their current environment for the past 1,600 years. This ancient culture is founded on a strict oral tradition and records its history through storytelling and symbols in their art works. (Although in the past decade textbooks have been written in Huichol to be used by the Huichol children in their school systems.) All their societal knowledge has been passed down from one generation to the other through their stories, rituals, ceremonies and arts learned from the elders of the community. For the Huichols, art is life and their religion. "Through their artwork, the Huichol Indians encode and document their spiritual knowledge", writes Susana Eger Valadez. Their arts include music, dance, ceremonies, beaded objects including beaded gourds/prayer bowls (jicara), embroideries, weavings and yarn paintings called nierikas.

A vast number of Huichols are artists/shamans. Shamans are special leaders and healers in the ranchos. They help to restore balance within the communities. They begin with healing themselves (this healing is of the complete being: physical, emotional and intellectual), next their immediate circle of family, friends, and neighbors, and ultimately in "healing" the earth by restoring balance. Huichol ceremonies revolve around the planting of maize (corn), harvesting, and special annual pilgrimages to their sacred land of Wirikuta. Only the shaman translate the insights of a hallucinogenic visions experienced on a sacred pilgrimage. These visions are meant to communicate messages directly from the super natural realm. With the encroachment of "modern" society, the Huichols use their art as both a commodity, while art also helps in the preservation of their cultural heritage by utilizing their history (cosmogony) as inspiration.

Huichols see themselves as caretakers of the earth and all its living beings. By viewing their art we discover symbols of a multi faceted society that deals with answering questions to universal, shared human concerns: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where will I go when I die? What is my purpose for being on this earth?

The Huichol have a cosmology much like other agrarian cultures that predated the Spanish conquests and exit in other parts of the world today. Their rituals include remembrance and honoring of their ancestors; commitment and love to their family, friends and neighbors; respect for the land and the incorporation of the life cycle into their daily practices and understandings; and the importance of the arts to convey moral lessons that benefit self and the community. By bringing to light such rich cultural traditions, we may learn and compare them to our own culture and traditions. If necessary we might adjust practices that may be out of balance in our own lives and place those negative behaviors into harmony within oneself and our communities.

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This Huichol curriculum was conceptualized and researched by Judy Butzine, Volunteer Outreach Coordinator at The Bead Museum in Glendale, AZ. To state that this bead, textile, and related art exhibition will present a single or absolute view of the "Huichol Way of Life" is incorrect. Their culture is a very complex and elaborate society. Judy can be reached by e-mail at jhb6@mindspring.com.  The Bead Museum Educator can be reached at karth@beadmuseumaz.org.
The lesson plans were written by Lisza Jaurigue; artist, philosopher and art educator.
The completed unit was reviewed and edited by Dr. Mary Stokrocki, Arizona State University Art Education and Research professor.
Funds for this project were provided from a grant at the Arizona Commission on the Arts.
Formatted for the Internet by Paul Hillman.
Images of Huichol art to support this curriculum have been made possible through photographing the collections of Kia Chapman and The Bead Museum, Glendale, Arizona, and can only be used for educational purposes.

Images of the Huichol people in their homeland have been made available through the photography of Jesse Hendry, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. These images are copyrighted and can be downloaded for only educational purposes.
Supplemental information on the Huichol, not secured in reference literature, was provided through interviews with Judith Anderson, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Bilingual translation of the statements that accompany the Huichol exhibition are written by Rev. Jorge Rodriguez Eagar, Ph.D.

This project has become an international community endeavor, to present concepts of tolerance and appreciation for a culture of people who may live their lives in a different manner than our own. It is also hoped that through the art making activities in this unit, participants continue to develop their artistic skills and techniques.