Description
The Seri or Comcaac people are an indigenous group of the Mexican state of Sonora. They maintain an intimate relationship with both the sea and the land. They are one of the ethnic groups of Mexico that has most strongly maintained their language and culture throughout the years after contact with Spanish and Mexican cultures. Beside the Apache and Yaqui, the Seri are best known as fierce warriors for their resistance against subjugation by the Spanish and later Mexicans. In the pre-Hispanic period, the territory of the Seri was located between the mountains, the Encinas desert, and the Gulf of California. The territory extended from the Altar desert in the north to the Yaqui river in the South and from Horcasitas in the east to the nearby islands of Tiburon, San Esteban, Patos, and Alcatraz in the west.
Language
Yuman
Culture
Although the Seri now engage in commercial fishing and farm labour, traditionally they lived by gathering, hunting, and fishing for such edibles as shellfish, turtles, pelicans, and cactus fruit. Their simple cane spears, hunting bows, pebble tools, and dwellings of poles and cacti earned them a reputation as being among the most primitive aboriginal groups of North America. They did, however, produce pottery, basketry, and boat-shaped rush rafts. The Seri lived in mobile bands of not more than 50 individuals. There were no formal band leaders and no social units larger than the band. Shamans, or medicine men, whose powers derived from dreams and visions, were important.