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Seris call themselves “Konkaak,” which means “the people.” The word “seri” comes from the yaqui language and means “men from the sand.”
Currently seris live in two places of the desert coast of Sonora: Desemboque which is located in Pitiquito’s municipality and Punta Chueca located in Hermosillo, near Kino Bay. Frequently, and according to the fishing cycles, seris also live in several fishing camps distributed along their territory approximately about 100 littoral km.
The konkaak territory covers an area of about 211 000 has. at see level and it’s integrated by a continental land and by the Tiburon Island.
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Konkaak territory had as natural borders the ocean, mountains and desert. Through the desert coast, towards the south, it limited with the Yaqui river, at the north with the desert of Altar, at the east it arrived until Horcasitas and at the west, in addition to the coast, it occupied near islands like Tiburon, San Esteban, Patos and Alcatraz.
The area that crossed the group included what at the moment are fourteen municipalities of Sonora, because it was a nomadic town whose mobility turned around the water-bearing resources and to the cycles of the basic flora and fauna for its survival.
It is presumed that at the pre-hispanic time they were organized in six bands, divided as well in clans. There were no head of clan or band, and it was only appointed to carry out that duty the most qualified member in extraordinary times, as in a war, as well as in difficult times of little harvesting, hunting and fishing. Women have an economically important role, because they werre in charge of the harvesting that guaranteed the daily sustenance, thus were organized in clans of matriarchal structure.
The language of konkaak forms part of the filum or Hokano ancestry, to which also belongs coahuilteco (northeast of Mexico) and tlapaneco. At the moment most of the population is bilingual and, in some cases, even trilingual, because in addition to seri they speak Spanish and English.
The artisan work at this moment consists of iron wood carving, the weave of coritas (baskets) and the elaboration of necklaces. The necklaces, of varied and innovative designs, are made of snail shells, seeds, beads, and rattlesnake and fish vertebrae.
Seris didn’t develop a very complicated religious-governmental system. Their world interpretation, their rituals, festivities, and other cultural manifestations have a close character related to nature and other biological and social aspects of the group reproduction.
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