Cahita - Settlements



Modern Cahitan culture is that of embedded groups. Precontact Cahitans, however, lived in loose clusters of buildings (rancherías) usually housing fewer than 300 related individuals, although a few may have reached 1,000 persons. During the missionization, the Jesuits concentrated Cahitans into seven or eight Mayo and an equal number of Yaqui church towns of some 2,000 to 3,000 persons. Today many Yaquis live on the reservation, although Mayo family settlements are characterized by several patterns: several hundred scattered rancherías, more than forty small villages of one to several hundred people, urban districts in the four larger Mexican towns, and ejido communities.

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