Mock Battles Between Moors and Christians Playing the Confrontation of Crescent with Cross in Spain's South
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Mock Battles between Moors and Christians Playing the Confrontation of Crescent with Cross in Spain's South Henk Driessen Driessen, Henk 1985: Mock Battles between Moors and Christians. Playing the Confrontation of Crescent with Cross in Spain's South. - Ethnologia Europaea XV: 105-115. Expressive culture constitutes a field of study par excellence for the combined ef forts of anthropology, history and folklore. This contribution deals with a public drama in which mock fights are enacted in the streets and squares of Andalusian towns and villages. The analysis takes into account both the history of Muslim Christian relationships and the vicissitudes of this particular festival. Links are suggested between religious folklore and economic and political trends. Students have taken it for granted that this festival is "popular". Historical evidence points in the direction of elite and urban origins. Attention is paid to the cultural agents of diffusion . Finally, suggestions are offered for further inquiry into celebratory events in Andalusia and elsewh ere in Europe. Dr . Henk Driessen, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Catholic University of Nijmegen, Thomas van Aquino Straat 1, NL-6500 HK Nijmegen. work have long historical records. They redis Introduction cover the past and realize that history can do The last two decades we have witnessed a rap more than just figure as background in studies prochement of anthropology, history and folk focusing on the ethnographic present . A num lore . Several students of these disciplines are ber of them have concluded that historical evi going through a process of reorientation that dence should play an integral part in anthrop leads them to convergent ideas, approaches ological analysis. At the same time, their nine and aims. In history, a strong current moves teenth-century twins, the folklorists, progres common and marginal people into the focus of sively abandon the descriptive approach in research. The regard ethnologique invites his favor of a more problem-oriented and analyti torians to study everyday life in the past. His cal stance . torians discover that the people they study had Until recently, anthropologists and histor minds and manners, thoughts and sentiments, ians working in Europe were hardly interested that they bestowed meaning upon the realities in ritual , drama and symbolism. These phe in which they lived. "Mentality" and "popular nomena were left to the folklorists, who, how culture" are the new catchwords. In order to ever, rarely went beyond descriptive accounts. deal with new questions historians try out an Today, this field of research is rapidly gaining thropological methods and perspectives such momentum. Careful study of expressive cul as the case-method, thick description and ho ture promises to yield insight into the chang lism. New kinds ofrecords such as folklore and ing nature of human interdependencies. It is iconography are explored. In the same period this field where anthropologists, historians and anthropological research in Europe prolifer folklorists can draw most inspiration from one ated. Anthropologists are increasingly becom another .2 This article hopes to illustrate this ing aware that the communities in which they point by analyzing a specific cultural repre- 105 sentation and celebratory event in contempor ing in the Spanish protectorate over northern ary Andalusia, Spain. Morocco from 1912 till 1956. Hostility has been In Spain's south there is a vivid awareness of the dominant mode of communication but that the conflict-ridden history of Christian-Muslim does not alter the fact that Arabs, Berbers and contacts. Oral, dramatic and written traditions Christians have influenced one another consid transmit the hostility of the past to present erably. generations. In dozens of Andalusian towns "To have Moors and Christians" (haber mo and villages festivals are celebrated in which rosy cristianos) runs a Spanish saying, which this past is acted out in mock battles between refers to serious discord and strife. This lin Moors and Christians. In their present form guistic expression is based on historical experi these representations are secular pantomimes ence, i.e. the Spanish state was born out of an and recitations held at patron saint festivals in age-long struggle between the two peoples and streets and squares. In broad outline the fies their religions. 3 The Muslim conquest of the tas de Moros and Cristianos are a series of ver Iberian peninsula was part of an expansion of bal and physical confrontations between actors the Islamic proto-states in the east that started who take the part of Christians and Moors. in the seventh century A. D. The political unity The latter challenge an improvised stronghold of these states could only be achieved by a in the main square or attack to carry off the transformation of the razzias between the Bed image of the patron saint during a procession . ouin tribes into conquest of new territories and They succeed in taking the Christian castle or resources (Watt & Cachia 1965: 6-7). The alle abducting the saintly image by force, but have giance to the young Islamic state was phrased it wrested away from them by the Christians in religious terms. The Muslim army that during a fierce battle. In the final scene the crossed over to Spain in the early eighth cen Moors are usually converted to Christianity. tury and rapidly defeated the Christian hosts, One may well wonder why this drama is per was largely made up of converted Berbers. The formed three-and-a-half centuries after the Muslim conquerors are commonly known as Moors were driven out of Spain. We might as moors after Maurus, inhabitants of the ancient sume that for drama to make sense, it must Roman colony of Mauritania in the western communicate meanings important to the par part of North Africa. Approximately a decade ticipants and the audience. I will address the after the fall of the Visigothic monarchy, a part following questions. What relationship does of the Muslim army was routed in the Asturian this festival bear to what actually happened in mountains of northern Spain by a small Chris the past? And what precisely is celebrated in tian host, whose leader, Pelayo, founded the in this drama? Before going into details, let me dependent Christian kingdom of Asturias. This first sketch in broad outline the history of event is consid~red to have been the beginning Christian-Muslim relations in Spain. of the slow recovery of the territory lost by the Visigoths to the Muslim invaders. This gradual recovery that spans almost eight centuries is Muslims in Spain known as the Reconquista. The historical links between the peoples on Although the majority of the population either side of the western Mediterranean have changed its religion from Christianity to Islam, been intimate. The histories of southern Iberia both the Christians under Muslim rule, known and northern Morocco are interwoven by cen as Mozarabs, and the Jews, constituted size turies of trading, marauding, conquering, colo able minorities in Al-Andalus . The popular nizing and converting. The history of Spain in view that the beginnings of Islamic expansion cludes nearly 800 years of Muslim civilization were marked by forced conversions on a mas and Christian Reconquest. Since the end of the sive scale , is completely unwarranted (cf. Wolf fifteenth century Spain has been present on 1951: 350). Since the Koran prohibits forced the Moroccan shore in a number of strongholds conversion, Christians and Jews were more or from where it extended its influence culminat- less tolerated, albeit discriminated. Mozarabs 106 ern were allowed to practice their religion within bastion in Spain. It comprised the present pro een rigorous limits which defined them as socially, vinces of Granada, Almeria and Malaga. In hat culturally and politically inferior. They had to this Islamic state there was no place for a rnd pay extra taxes, were less protected by law, Christian minority. ,id- had to wear special dress and could not carry The second half of the fifteenth century saw arms nor ride horses (Lomax 1978: 19). After the union of the Castilian and Aragonese no the collapse of the Cordovan Omayyad empire crowns by the marriage of Isabel and Fer tich in the eleventh century their situation dinand. They were granted the title of "Catho lin changed radically. They became a persecuted lic Kings" which symbolized and reinforced the eri- minority under the reign of the Almoravids unity of Crown and Church. The conquest of an and Almohads. 4 Granada was the quintessence of their policy md On the other side of the military frontier re to achieve national unity. After ten years of the ligion also defined a person, differentiating war the last Muslim monarch in Spain had to 1 of friend from foe. In the Christian territories the surrender his kingdom by a pact that guaren -ted Reconquest had at first been considered a just teed life and property of his subjects and the lity war based on claims oflegitimate succession to right to keep their religion and customs. Many y a the Visigothic kings. About the time when Muslim ruling-class families, however, left :ed Omayyad Al-Andalus disintegrated, there Spain or converted to Christianity. The mass of md came about a transformation in the spirit of the working population stayed and dinged to 1lle Reconquest. The concept of Holy War became their religion and way of life. sed an explicit doctrine in the second half of the At the close of the fifteenth century intol hat eleventh century. The new theology of war erance towards the Muslim population in :en stressed God's intervention through his saints creased. The powerful Fray Francisco Jimenez sts, who participated actively in the battles against de Cisneros, cardinal and future regent of Cas rhe the "infidels".