Otomi

Otomi

Mesoamerican Indian population living in the central plateau region of Mexico. Traditionally, they practice shifting cultivation and raise livestock. Their crafts include spinning, weaving, pottery, and basketry, and their dress varies from traditional to modern. Compadrazgo, fictive kinship based on the relationship of godparent to godchild, is central to their society. Ritual obligations also bind a child's parents and godparents in a close relationship. They profess Roman Catholicism but identify the major saints with pre-Christian deities.

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Otomi 

a major contemporary Indian people of Mexico. The Otomi live in the states of Guanajuato, Querétaro, and Hidalgo, with isolated groups in San Luis Potosí, Puebla, and Michoacán. Population, approximately 300,000 (1961, estimate). The Otomi language belongs to the Otomian-Mixtecan-Zapotecan language family.

The Otomi are apparently the descendants of the most ancient inhabitants of Mexico. Catholicism is their official religion, although traditional beliefs, cast in Christian form, have been preserved. Farming is the people’s chief occupation. The Otomi have retained their traditional culture with considerable pre-Hispanic elements.

REFERENCE

Narody Ameriki, vol. 2. Moscow, 1959.