Chikón Tokoxo

Chikón Tokoxo (also Chikón Nindo Tokoxo) is the foremost of the chikon, the fair-skinned earth-lords of the Sierra Mazateca in northern Oaxaca. He owns Nindo Tokoxo, the limestone Cerro de la Adoración that rises above Huautla de Jiménez, and is reckoned the master and lord of all the other earth-owners and of the dwarfish La'a. Ethnographers describe him as a wealthy güero, fair of skin and hair, dressed in fine clothes and mounted on a white horse, who lives inside the mountain amid fields of maize and coffee, pastures and cattle, in the image of an idealised Mazatec farmer. Thunder at the opening of the rains is his axe striking the sky. Mazatecs climb the hill to petition him for rain, harvest and wealth and to avoid rousing his anger, which is said to bring disaster and death; offerings secure his favour but, in cave-lore recorded by Feinberg, bind the favoured to labour in his underworld after death. He is paired in the water cycle with the female water-owner Chon'ndá vee, who in the most widespread Huautla narrative marries into his household and names the region's springs.

Domains

• sacred mountains
• thunder and lightning
• earthly wealth
• agriculture and rain

Powers

• to make thunder by striking lightning with his axe
• to grant riches to those who bring him offerings
• to send good harvests or to loose disaster upon those who anger him

Epithets

• Chikón Nindo TokoxoEckart Boege, Los mazatecos ante la nación (Siglo XXI, 1988): 'the fair owner of the hill of adoration' (secondary)

Relations

• consort of: Chon'ndá veeChikón Tokoxo and Chon'ndá vee are the paired owners of the water in the Huautla cycle. Attested versions differ: in 'Chikón Tokoxo se casa' the water-maiden Isabel (Na Lisa / Chon'ndá vee) is his own bride, driven out by a jealous mother-in-law; in the variant gathered around the agricultural calendar she is his daughter-in-law. In both she is an affine of his household who names the springs as she flees.Mitos y Leyendas Mexicanas, 'Chikón Tokoxo se casa' (mito mazateco), recording the marriage of Chikón Tokoxo to the water-maiden Isabel (secondary); Celeste Kristal Flores Cuevas & Cleotilde Hernández Suárez, 'El calendario agrícola mazateco y los dueños del agua: Chikón Tokoxo y Chon'ndá vee', Agua y Territorio 27 (2025): 83-96 (secondary)
• subordinate to: Chikón NanguiAlthough Chikón Nangui is himself styled 'owner of the earth' and leader of the lesser chikones, the Cañada Mazatec tradition places the whole company of earth-owners under the paramount lord of Nindo Tokoxo.Diccionario Enciclopédico de la Medicina Tradicional Mexicana (UNAM), s.v. 'Chikón Nangui': the chikones, among them Chikón Nangui, are under the authority of Chikón Tokoxo (secondary)

Sources

• Chikón Tokoxo is the paramount Mazatec earth-lord and thunder-being who owns the sacred hill Nindo Tokoxo above Huautla, appearing as a light-skinned wealthy lord on a white horse and ruling the other chikon.: Benjamin Feinberg, The Devil's Book of Culture: History, Mushrooms, and Caves in Southern Mexico (University of Texas Press, 2003) (secondary); Carlos Incháustegui, 'Entorno enemigo: los mazatecos y sus sobrenaturales', Desacatos 5 (2000): 131-146 (secondary); Eckart Boege, Los mazatecos ante la nación: contradicciones de la identidad étnica en el México actual (Siglo XXI, 1988) (secondary)