page_title: Otomi
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Otomi / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Woman selling Otomi embroidery in Tequisquiapan, Queretaro, Mexico
context_page_description: The Otomi are an indigenous people of Mexico inhabiting the central Mexican Plateau region.
context_section_description: The two most populous groups are:
  Highland (or Sierra) Otomí, living in the mountains of La Huasteca. They usually self-identify as Ñuhu or Ñuhmu, depending on the dialect they speak.
  Mezquital Otomí, living in the Mezquital Valley in the eastern part of the state of Hidalgo, and in the state of Querétaro. They self-identify as Hñähñu ([ʰɲɑ̃ʰɲũ]).
  Smaller Otomi populations exist in the states of Puebla, Mexico, Tlaxcala, Michoacán and Guanajuato. The Otomi language belonging to the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-Manguean language family is spoken in many different varieties, some of which are not mutually intelligible.
  One of the early complex cultures of Mesoamerica, the Otomi were likely the original inhabitants of the central Mexican Altiplano before the arrival of Nahuatl speakers around c. 1000 CE, who replaced and marginalized them. However, the Otomi's nomadic lifestyle allowed them to easily adapt to different environments, avoid enemies and defend traditional lands and villages. In the early colonial New Spain period, Yųhmų Otomi of Tlaxcala helped the Spanish conquistadors as mercenaries and allies, allowing them to extend into territories such as Querétaro and Guanajuato, previously inhabited by semi-nomadic Chichimecs.
  The Otomi traditionally worshipped the moon as their highest deity. Even in modern times, many Otomi populations practice shamanism and hold prehispanic beliefs such as Nagualism. Like most sedentary Mesoamerican peoples, Otomis traditionally subsisted on maize, beans and squash, but the maguey (century plant) was also an important cultigen used for production of alcohol (pulque) and fiber (henequen). Although the Otomi Indians rarely eat what Westerners would consider a balanced diet, they maintain reasonably good health by eating tortillas, drinking pulque, and eating most fruits available around them. In 1943 to 1944, a report about a nutritional study about the Otomi villages located in the Mezquital Valley of Mexico, recorded that despite the arid climate and land unfit for agriculture without irrigation, the Otomi people chiefly depended on the production of maguey. Maguey (century plant) is used to produce weaving fibers and “pulque”, a fermented unfiltered juice that played an important part in the Otomi’s economy and nutrition. However, this practice has begun to decline due to its new large-scale production. The maguey plant was so heavily depended on that huts were constructed out of the plant's leaves. During this time, most of the region was vastly underdeveloped and most agriculture was low-yielding. Often densely settled areas would be confused as locations devoid of habitation, as dispersed dwellings are built low and concealed. 
  The Otomi were blacksmiths and traded valuable metal items with other indigenous confederations, including the Aztec Triple Alliance. Their metal crafts included ornaments and weaponry, although metal weaponry was not as useful as obsidian weaponry (obsidian being sharper than a modern-day razor, abundant, and light in weight).
caption: Otomi woman selling traditional Otomi embroidered cloths in Tequisquiapan
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