Cherotega people, potential Muslims of Costa Rica

Cherotega people, potential Muslims of Costa Rica

Chorotega, the most powerful American Indian tribe of northwest Costa Ricaat the time of the Spanish conquest. They spoke Mangue, a language of Oto-Manguean stock, and had probably migrated from a homeland in Chiapas many generations prior to the conquest, driving the aboriginal inhabitants out of their new territory.

The Chorotega were corn farmers, had markets and a semidemocratic social structure in which chiefs were elected, and carried on frequent warfare with neighbouring peoples. They wore padded cotton armour and fought with bow and arrow and a wooden sword set with small flint knives. Religious festivals featured the South American custom of the ritual drinking bout; however, Mexican traits such as human sacrifice and self-mutilation of the ears, tongue, and genitals were also present. A pantheon of gods was worshiped in specially constructed temples. Chorotegan culture and language disappeared during the colonial period.