The personalities of the maize in the wixarika mythology or how corncobs of ancestors were transformed in peyotes

Abstract

The article analyzes the multiple personalities with which the maize is identified in the huichol (wixarika) mythology, showing the ambiguity of the deities or ancestors of the above mentio- ned tradition. This analysis allows us to deal with some specific aspects of native mythology, like the relevance of number five as a rhetorical resource and the principle of unity that defines each element as an expression of the whole, creating vast networks of associations between elements of the environment. It also describes the link between the stories associated with the collection of peyote and others that are about the cultivation of corn and the original flood. This explains, among other things, the indigenous basis of one of the most widespread huichol beliefs: Why the peyote (psychotropic cactaceous that grows in the San Luis Potosí desert) is considered the maize of the ancestors.