Tsáchila people

Tsáchila man guiding a forest walk near Santo Domingo de Los Colorados

The Tsáchila people of Ecuador live in the county of Santo Domingo in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.

Legend of the origin of their ornamentation

Men of this ethnic group are easily distinguishable for an elaborate head decoration that they style by shaving the temporal areas of their heads and shaping the remaining hair into a helmet-like feature with a mixture of grease and [annato] sap/seeds which achiote. This tradition is believed to have been a paliative measure from a time when the tsachilas were exposed to the ravages of Smallpox. A Tsáchila Shaman asked a Spirit to guide them to a cure by ceremony and prayer. They were guided to an Achiote bush. They covered themselves completely with the red juices of the seed-pods and after a few days the mortality in the group was drastically reduced. They are forever grateful to this plant for the protection that it offered to the entire community from Smallpox. The shape of their hair style is fashioned to look like the seed pods.

Present day way of life

They speak the Tsafiki or Tsáchila language of the Barbacoan language family. Men wear horizontally striped cobalt blue/black and white skirts, and the women wear brightly colored horizontally striped skirts.

The spaniards called them "Colorado" (meaning colored red) because they used to cover their entire bodies in the red juices of the achiote seeds, for prevention against Smallpox, but the Spaniards thought that their skin was indeed their true color.

Historical notes

The largest city of the canton is Santo Domingo de los Colorados and was named after these ethnic group. Most ecuadorians consider the shamans of the Tsachilas holders of secrets of the rain forest and of healing powers that would heal whenever the western medicine had failed, for the most, this country legend was generated by the fame of Abraham Calazacom a tribal chief of the Tsachilas that lead his tribe in the fifties anf sixties. Their economic activity is limited to harvesting of native tropical products for traditiional medicine, specially the Tagua or Corozo nuts that are used to manufacture hand-crafts in many communities of Ecuador. They also cultivate tropical fruits including different vatieties of the genus Musa), Pineapples, Papayas, Oranges, etc.

External links

• Profile from CODENPE

This article related to an ethnic group is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Indigenous peoples in Ecuador Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas Province Indigenous peoples of the Andes Ecuador stubs Ethnic group stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР? List of federal lands in Colorado List of places in Colorado: A–D Look at other dictionaries: Tsáchila language — Tsafiki Colorado Spoken in Ecuador Ethnicity Tsáchila Native speakers 2,300  (2000) Language family …   Wikipedia Tsáchila — ▪ people Chibchan  Tsatchela , also called  Colorado        Indian people of the Pacific coast of Ecuador. They live in the tropical lowlands of the northwest, where, along with the neighbouring Chachi, they are the last remaining aboriginal… …   Universalium Tsáchila — The Tsáchila tribe of Ecuador live in the canton of Santo Domingo in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas. The men of the tribe are notable for shaving the sides of their heads and shaping the remaining hair into cap like form with a… …   Wikipedia Chachi — ▪ people also called  Cayapa        Indians of the coastal lowlands of western Ecuador, one of the few aboriginal groups left in the region. The Chachi speak a Chibchan language somewhat related to the language of the neighbouring Tsáchila people …   Universalium Tsafiki language — Tsafiki also known as Tsáchila or Colorado is a Barbacoan language spoken in Ecuador by ca. 2000 ethnic Tsáchila people …   Wikipedia Central American and northern Andean Indian — ▪ people Introduction  member of any of the aboriginal peoples inhabiting Central America (south from Guatemala) and the northern coast of South America, including the northern drainage of the Orinoco River; the West Indies are also customarily… …   Universalium Indigenous peoples in Ecuador — Infobox Ethnic group group =Indigenous peoples in Ecuador popplace = Ecuador;Mainly: Sierra (Andean highlands) and Oriente (Eastern) poptime=3.4 million 25% of Ecuador s population langs = Kichwa, Spanish language, Achuar Shiwiar, Cha’palaachi,… …   Wikipedia Indigenous peoples of the Americas — Red Indian redirects here. For the native inhabitants of the island of Newfoundland known for using red ochre, see Beothuk. Indigenous peoples of the Americas …   Wikipedia Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas — Cultural regions of North American people at the time of European contact …   Wikipedia Ecuador — Ecuadoran, Ecuadorean, Ecuadorian, adj., n. /ek weuh dawr /, n. a republic in NW South America. 11,690,535; 109,483 sq. mi. (283,561 sq. km). Cap.: Quito. * * * Ecuador Introduction Ecuador Background: The Republic of the Equator was one of three …   Universalium 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”