History

Wirikuta is one of the most important natural sacred sites of the Wixárika (Huichol) indigenous people and the world. The Wixárika people live in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Durango and are recognized for having preserved their spiritual identity. They have continued to practice their cultural and religious traditions for thousands of years. Wirikuta is the birthplace of the sun and the territory where the different Wixárika communities make their pilgrimage, recreating the route taken by their spiritual ancestors to sustain the essence of life on this planet. In this desert springs the peyote or jicuri, the cactus that the Wixárika ritually ingest to receive the “gift of seeing”.

This paper reviews the various territorial configurations that the Wixarika deal with in their everyday life, the historical processes that have led them towards deterritorialization and the strategies with which they have responded by means of creating new communal territories that are articulated through ritual tradition. The cosmogonic and communal territory is at stake within these configurations, processes, and strategies. The paper dialogues with Paul Liffman’s work, the anthropologist who claims that the existence of Wixarika tributary state systems originated in the exchange of sacrificial offerings between ceremonial centers.