Zoque Indians, a Mexican tribe of low culture dwelling in the western part of Chipas, north of the Sierra Madre, and part of Tabasco and Oaxaca. Their capital was called Ohcahnay, in Mexican Tecpantlan or the “place of the palaces”. In general they are coarse featured and of low intelligence; they are, however, brave, and those living at Tuxtla, Guttiérez, and Tapinpilapa in Chiapas are athletic. They indulge heavily in intoxicants, and were addicted to cannibalism when the Spaniards first met them. Most of the Zoque are now Christianized, but they retain not a few of their traditional beliefs and customs. Their language is akin to that of the Mixe (q. v.), with whom they form the Zoquean linguistic stock. The Zoque-Mixe family numbers about 50,000, of whom about half are Zoque, engaged chiefly in cultivating maize and tobacco and in growing oranges (see Mix
GrassERIn, Langue zoque (Paris, 1898); Sanchez, Grammdtica de la lengua Zoque (Mexico, 1877).
A. A. Macerlean.