The contemporary heiresses of Mother Earth. Be an indigenous teenek woman, dilemmas and challenges of women's traditions in the Huasteca Potosina

Abstract

In this work we explain some of the important changes regarding two pre-Columbian traditions of the Teenek Indians of the Huasteca Potosina region located in the eastern part of the State of San Luis. The first one is the textile craftsmanship, an activity performed mostly by women. On the other hand, we explain briefly the ritual of the flyers of Tamaletom in the municipality of Tancanhuitz, an ancestral tradition in which traditionally only males have participated but in present days women within the community are becoming involved. The objective of this comparative study between the ritual of the flyers mentioned above and the textile tradition, is to find some features of change and adaptation processes in such traditions, for which the mobility and migrations that involve the new generations of young indigenous people facing “modernity” play a vital role.