Seri people
The Seri or Comcaac people are an Indigenous group of the Mexican state of Sonora. The majority reside on the Seri communal property, in the towns of Punta Chueca and El Desemboque on the mainland coast of the Gulf of California. Tiburón Island and San Esteban Island were also part of their traditional territory. They maintain an intimate relationship with both the sea and the land. They are one of the ethnic groups of Mexico that has most strongly maintained their language and culture throughout the years after contact with Spanish and Mexican cultures.
The Seri people are not related culturally or linguistically to other groups that have lived in the area, such as the Opata, Yaqui, O'odham, or Cochimí. The Seri language is distinct from all others in the region and is considered a language isolate.
Beside the Apache and Yaqui, the Seri are best known as fierce warriors for their resistance against subjugation by the Spanish and later Mexicans. The Seri had been living on the coast of Sonora with little outside interference for centuries, if not millennia. But with colonization, they were displaced from their land and forced to work for others and adopt Christianity. Reséndez writes about a slaving raid in 1660s: "A posse of Spaniards had cut a swath through the Seri lands, killing most of the adults of one band and distributing the children in the Spanish towns of Sonora."
The name Seri is an exonym of uncertain origin. Their name for themselves is Comcaac ; singular: Cmiique.
Seri territory
The Seri territory in the state of Sonora spans an area of approximately of land and is located on both continental land as well as land from Tiburon island, which is located in the Gulf of California off the central coast of the state.The Seri primarily inhabit the towns of El Desemboque, the municipality of Pitiquito, Punta Chueca, and the municipality of Hermosillo located on the coast of Sonora. Following the fishing cycles, the location of some individuals and their relatives can vary between all fishing territories which are located along of coastline.
Infrastructure
Through a road to the south, the residents of Punta Chueca communicate with the village of Bahía de Kino. Towards the north, a road connects Desemboque with the city of Puerto Libertad. Each village has schools for students at preschool, secondary, and primary levels.History
In the pre-Hispanic period, the territory of the Seri was located between the mountains, the Encinas desert, and the Gulf of California. The territory extended from the Altar desert in the north to the Yaqui river in the South and from Horcasitas in the east to the nearby islands of Tiburón, San Esteban, Patos, and Alcatraz in the west. As a nomadic people, the Seri travelled across an area that corresponds to fourteen current municipalities of Sonora. It was believed in this period that the Seri people were organized into six bands, divided into their own clans based on their paternal lineage. On a daily basis, there was no leader figure within the clan. Leaders were named only under extraordinary circumstances, such as during war or difficult hunting, and fishing seasons. Only the most capable person was appointed to fulfil this position as leader.The persecution of the Seri people by the Spanish and Mexican military began in the mid-18th century. Expeditions by the Mexican military were led against the Seri and continued to decimate their population and territory until the early 1900s. The Seri people were the antithesis of what the Spanish conquistadors sought. Their territory was not very useful, they did not have accumulated wealth, they did not produce enough to make the conquest profitable, and they were not suited as laborers to cultivate and serve as they were not familiar with that lifestyle. Because of this, the Seri people preserved their autonomy and culture for much longer than other Indigenous peoples. During the colonial period, the Jesuits, who tried to evangelize them and teach them agricultural practices, were the most sustained contact the Seri had with outsiders. Their letters provide the earliest and most comprehensive descriptions of the people. None of their efforts, however, were successful, and the Seri always returned to their desert lifestyles which is why they were always considered an unlawful group. The Spanish, then later the Mexicans, tried to effectively kill off all of the Seri which led to the nearly total annihilation of the group. However, the Seri people were never formally conquered or evangelized during that time. Little by little they were confined to a part of their territory and decimated in number.
By the time of Mexican independence, the previous organization system had been dismantled, and the Seri were almost entirely settled on the mainland. However, throughout the first two-thirds of the 19th century, they were persecuted and nearly annihilated by both Mexican soldiers and ranchers. Some of the Seri people managed to seek refuge on Tiburón Island.
The scarcity of water and of animals for hunting, along with various diseases, were the predominant factors as to why the Seri people abandoned their refuge on Tiburón Island and returned to the mainland. They were first temporarily hired as fish merchants and ranchers and later settled down. Among the external causes that allowed their successful return to the mainland was the crisis of 1929, which caused a large migration of poor people to cities and agricultural centers in northern and northeastern Mexico. This increased the consumption of fish and other marine products, which were cheaper than beef. From that moment, the Seri people began to occupy an essential role in the economy of commercial exchange and to use money in their market operations. This began a period in which rapid structural, organizational, and cultural changes occurred.
Bands
The Seri were formerly divided into six bands. They were:- Xiica hai iicp coii or Xica hai iic coii, also known as Tepocas or Saliñeros, who inhabited a large area to the north of the other bands, along the coast between Puerto Lobos and Punta Tepopa and somewhat inland, constituting six subgroups with following camps: Zaah Hacáila, Pailc Haacöt, Xpano Hax, Haasíxp, Haxöl Ihom, Xapoyáh.
- Xiica xnaai iicp coii or Xica xnai iic coii, also known as Tastioteños who inhabited the coast from Bahía Kino to Guaymas.
- Tahejöc comcaac or Tahéjöc comcáac. The Spanish named the island Tiburón, in Seri it is called Tahejöc. They are also known as the Seris or Tiburones who inhabited the coasts of Tiburón Island, and the coast of Mexico opposite it, north of the Xiica xnaai iicp coii., constituting five subgroups with following camps: Hajháx, Cyazim, Sacpátix, Haanc, Hatquísa, Taij It, Inóohcö Quixaz, Xniizc, Tacáta, Heeme, Hast Hax, Soosni Itáaai, Xoxáacöl, Caail iti ctamcö, Hax Ipac.
- * Xoxáacöl
- Heeno comcaac or Heno comcáac, who inhabited the central valley of Tiburón Island.
- Xnaamotat or Xnaa motat, also known as Upanguaymas or Guaymas, who inhabited a small strip south of Guaymas between the Xiica hai iic coii and the Tahejöc comcaac.
- Xiica hast ano coii or Xica hast ano coii, hast ano ctam, hast ano cmaam ), who inhabited San Esteban Island and the southern coast of Tiburón Island.
Some bands were also living on the Baja California Peninsula, they were called Hant Ihiini comcaac.
It has been said that these groups spoke three distinct but mutually intelligible dialects. It is thought that the first dialect was spoken by the Xiica hai iic coii, Xiica xnaai iic coii, Tahejöc comcaac and Heeno comcaac Bands and presently this variant is the only dialect spoken and is the ancestor of modern-day Seri. The second dialect was spoken by the Xnaamotat Band, but it is currently extinct and there was very little data collected regarding this dialect. The third dialect is also extinct and was spoken by the Xiica hast ano coii Band; it was described as sounding musical, as if speakers were singing instead of speaking. Speakers sometimes make remarks regarding certain expressions being characteristic of particular Bands, especially of the Xiica hast ano coii Band. These communication differences were thought to have kept the groups from having much social interaction with each other.
After the Seri population was greatly reduced by conflicts with the Mexican government and the O'odham, and epidemics of smallpox and measles, the remaining Seris grouped together and the band divisions were lost.
Language
The Seri language, cmiique iitom, is a language isolate because there is not sufficient evidence of a relationship between it and any other language. Currently the majority of the population is bilingual to a certain degree, although they prefer to speak their own language in their local activities. Speakers maintain an enormously rich oral tradition that preserves their history and culture. In the last few decades, a very small part of this tradition has presented itself in a written form.The Seri language has a plethora of terms in order to describe kinship relationships many of which describe both the sex of the subject and the sex of the speaker. For example, there are four terms to describe grandparents, each term specifies to which parent the grandmother or grandfather belongs to. Additionally there are many terms to describe siblings which account for the age and sex of the referent and speaker.
The Seri maintain their language with great vitality. In place of adopting Spanish terms to designate new cultural elements that have been added to their lives, they continue creating new terms in Seri.