The above map demonstrates a case of how religious syncretism is predominate throughout Mexico. Defined as a mixture of different spiritual ideas and symbols, religious syncretism can most easily be seen in the combination of indigenous and religious words in the toponyms of inhabited spaces. San Simon Tlatlahuquitepec and San Andres Ahuashuatepec are two examples that combine indigenous and Catholic terms. Taking a wider view, we see that settlements with either Spanish, Catholic names or indigenous Tlaxcaltec terms covering the landscape, showing a combination of religious and secular toponyms across the state of Tlaxcala.
This combination of the religious and indigenous is an example of the impact of folk/nominal Christianity. When Spain arrived to colonize Mexico, the church allowed certain indigenous rites and symbols to be intergrated into religious practice, in order to encourage more indigenous communities to convert to Catholicism. The impact on the landscape can be seen in churches being built on top of indigenous infrastructure, and in the use of precolonial building methods employed in the construction of churches. However, as the above map demonstrates, the wider impact can be seen in the everyday place recognition of settlements in Tlaxcala, whose defining characteristic on the map goes back to the early colonial period.
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