Editing Totonac (section)

==Geography and traditional lifestyle==
[[File:Zempoala-06.jpg|thumb|300px|View of the main square of the ruins of the city of [[Cempoala]], capital Totonac Nation, the first to establish a military alliance with the Castilian armies to attack the dominions of [[Aztec Triple Alliance]] or Ēxcān Tlahtolōyān.]]
[[File:Totonaque Auch 4.jpg|thumb|250px|right|A ceramic Totonac statuette]]
In the 15th century, the Aztecs labeled the region of the Totonac "[[Totonacapan]]"; which then extended roughly from [[Papantla]] in the north to Cempoala in the south.  Totonacapan was largely hot and humid.  Along with the normal agricultural crops of maize, manioc, squash, beans, pumpkin and chili peppers, the region was noted for its production of [[cotton]].  Even during the disastrous central Mexican famine of 1450-1454, the region remained a reliable agricultural center.  At that time, many [[Aztecs]] were forced to sell themselves or their family members as [[slave]]s to the Totonac in exchange for subsistence maize.

Although there exist some exceptions, such as El Tajín and Cempoala, the Totonacs of the lowlands did not live in urban spaces or villages. Rather, Totonac society was mostly based on semi-isolated familial units that subsisted off ''roza'' horticulture, which involved the burning of forest to grow crops like beans, squash, and corn. Besides horticulture, lowland Totonacs also relied on gathering, fishing, and hunting to live. At the time of Independence, only 11 Totonac villages existed, which primarily served as the "important locuses of communal culture."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kourí |first=Emilio |title=A Pueblo Divided: Business, Property, and Community in Papantla, Mexico. |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=9781503618817 |location=Redwood City |pages=47 |language=English}}</ref> This dispersion and autarkic lifestyle allowed a remarking amount of Totonac autonomy in the Papantla basin until the beginning of the 20th century. 

===Food culture===
Totonacs in the twentieth century led the peoples growing the highest quality [[vanilla]], and most Mexican vanilla was produced by Totonacs. This widespread vanilla growth vastly shaped their society at the time. Seeking to profit from this vanilla boom, Totonac entrepreneurs pushed for privatization of formally communal lands due to the lands becoming more valuable. This resulted in massive social upheaval due to the longstanding traditions being threatened, and by the start of the 20th century, the old communal lands of the Totonacs had been mostly broken up and privatized.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kourí |first1=Emilio |title=A Pueblo Divided: Business, Property, and Community in Papantla Mexico |date=2004 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804758482 |pages=1-3}}</ref>

Their association with agriculture of vanilla pre-dates the arrival of Columbus in the New World. While vanilla was long significant to Totonac culture, its importance as an export good did not emerge until the early-eighteenth century, when they traded with other Totonacs and with people in northern [[Oaxaca]]. The first regulation of the harvesting of Mexican vanilla appears in 1743, when the mayor of Papantla attempted to use a law for personal profit on the vanilla harvest. A second law regulating was promulgated in 1767, after Totonac vanilla growers in Colipa complained about thieves stealing immature vanilla pods. During Humboldt's travels in Mexico, most European imports of vanilla conveyed through the port of [[Veracruz]], and Totonacs in the Misantla region harvested about 700,000 vanilla beans per year.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2507753 | access-date=February 19, 2024 | first=Henry | last=Bruman | title=The Culture History of Mexican Vanilla | journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review | volume=28 | issue=3 | year=1948 | pages=360{{endash}}376}}</ref>  

There is a total absence of [[Comal (cookware)|comals]], [[metate]]s and [[mano (stone)|manos]] meaning the Totonacs did not eat [[tortilla]]s; however, even though corn was grown it did not form a large part of their diet. The Totonacs ate fruit, most notably [[Sapote|zapotes]], guavas, papayas, [[Plantain (cooking)|plantain]]s and avocados. Men hunted and fished shark, turtle, deer, armadillo, opossums, and frogs. Women raised turkeys and dogs. Peasants as well as nobles ate corn porridge in the morning. Lunch was the main meal of the day and consisted of manioc, bean stew or even a rich meat sauce for the nobles. Fish and seafood as well as game was eaten by both nobles and farmers. The agave provided liquor.

===Clothing===
Totonac women were expert weavers and embroiderers; they dressed grandly and braided their hair with [[feather]]s. The [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] friar [[Bernardino de Sahagún]] stated that, in all aspects of their appearance, the women were "quite elegant", women wore skirts (embroidered for the nobles) and a small triangular poncho covering the breasts. Noble women wore shell and jade necklaces and earrings and often tattooed their faces with red ink. Married women wore their hair in the [[Aztec clothing#Hairstyles|Nahuatl fashion]] while peasant women wore their hair long. Likewise, the noble men dressed well, adorning themselves with multicolored cloaks, loin cloths, necklaces, arm bands, lip plugs and devices made of the prized [[Resplendent Quetzal|quetzal]] feathers. Hair was kept long with a thick tuft of hair on the top tied up with a ribbon.

===Housing===
Houses were generally thatched and had an overhang. They were rectangular in shape.