The House Cross Op the Mayo Indians of Sonora, Mexico A
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The house cross of the Mayo Indians of Sonora, Mexico; a symbol in ethnic identity Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Crumrine, N. Ross Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 06/10/2021 15:57:23 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/566733 THE HOUSE CROSS OP THE MAYO INDIANS OF SONORA, MEXICO A SYMBOL IN ETHNIC IDENTITY by N. Rose Crumrine A Thesis Subaicted to the Fsculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY In Pert lei Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Greduete College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted In partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in The University Library to be made available to borrowers under the rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in their judgement the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. s i g n e d r ^)i. APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: EDWARD BfSPTCER / " " V Professor of Anthropology PREFACE This study developed free field rssearch dene by eyself and my wife In Seoera, Mexico, among the Mayo Indians of the lower Mayo River Valley. We worked as a team, which was especially helpful because such of Mayo ceremonial participation is sex based. Often she would associate with the women's group while I associated with the men's group. In this way we saw many ceremonies from two points of view. Without her constant encouragement and intellectual companionship this study might never have been completed. Full time concentration on our respective problems was made possible through fellowship grants to my wife from the Public Health Service Institutes of Mental Health and the Social Science Research Council. I wish to express my appreciation and gratitude to these two institutions for making this study possible. For him advice and aid I am especially grateful to the chairman of my thesis committee, Edward H. Spicer. And for their careful reading of the manuscript and helpful suggestions I am also grateful to the ether members of the committee, Edward P. Dorter and Clara Lee Tanner. I am indebted te Charles J. Erasmus for his hospitality, his extremely helpful suggestions concerning the launching of our field project, and an introduction to several of hie friends in Nevejoe. I wish te express thanks to Muriel T. Painter for the availability of her unpublished materials en Arizona Yakuts and for the stimulating effects •f chats with her. Meet of all I wish to express our thanks to the people of the May# River who spent many hours teaching us May# and exchanging visits with us. This study by its very nature could not hope to consider all of Kayo life. If the reader desires a more complete study of other aspects of the culture, Ralph L. Reals' pioneering ethnography, The Contemporary Culture of the cihlta Indians (1945), describes much of Mayo life in detail. The works of Edward H. Spicer, especially Potaa, A Yaqul Village in Sonora (1954) and Pascua. A Yaqul Village In Arizona (1940), analyse the major Yaqul cultural forms and meanings end their Integrations, in the context of the political, economic, and religious organizations. Inasmuch as the bulk of Beals' material cams from the Navojoa area, and Spicer’s material Is Yaqul rather than Mayo, some differences will be apparent between my account of the Huatabampo area Mayos and the Mayo and Yaqul materials of Beals and Spicer. However, in speaking of the overall pattern of life Mayo and Yaqul cultures and societies have an enormous resemblance te one another from the anthropologist's point of view. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Pat* PREFACE............................................................ Ill LIST OF TABLES.................................................... vll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS............................................ vlll I. INTRODUCTION................................................... 1 Field Procedure............................................2 Maye Horde.................................................3 II. THE SEARCH FOR CRITERIA OF ETHNIC IDENTIFICATION.............. 6 The Problem................................................6 Two Other Papers Concerned with Ethnic Identity........... 7 The Specific Problem of Mayo Ethnic Identification....... 11 Physical Type........................................12 Some Specific Items of Material Culture: House Type and Drese...............................13 Language.............................................17 The Cross as a Symbol of Mays Ethnic Identity....... 20 III. KURUSDt AND TEBATPO KURUSDt.................................. 22 Types of Kurus in..........................................22 The Small Palm Cross................................ 22 The Roadside Cress to Mark Place of Sudden Death.....22 The Church Cross........... 24 The Paeketa Remade Cross.............................25 Pueblo Cross and Division Line Cross................ 21 Cemetery Cress.......................................26 Tebatpe Kurus........................................26 Hypothesis................................................31 Areas of Concentration of Tebatpe Kurus in.................32 Alamos and Upriver Areas............................ 36 Navojea Area.........................................38 Cohulrimpe, San Pedro, Etchejea Areas............... 40 Huatabampo Area..................................... 42 IV. SOCIETAL AND WEALTH CORRELATES OF THE TBBATPO KURUS 46 MaterUl Wealth and Instances of Tebatpe Kurus Ue......... 46 Significance of Location of Houses....................... 50 Societal Correlates of the Tebatpo Kurus................. 53 Social Participation................................ 57 Mayo Behavioral Patterns............................ 60 Mayes' Identification of Others..................... 62 V. THE CULTURAL CORRELATES OF THE TEBATPO KURUS................. 64 The Tebatpo Kurus Linked to Ceremonial Realities......... 67 Wareema............................................. 67 Santa Kurus Ceremony at Neveweata................... 75 Kaptrite Santa and Santisima Tlnlrau Ceremonies..... 77 San Juan Ceremonies................................. 78 San Ignacio Ceremonies.............................. 60 Todos Santee Ceremonies............................. SO the Cress as 'Item 'Ada!............................ 81 The Tebatpo Kurus as an Important Aspect in Several Mayo Orientations........................... 63 The Old People...................................... 83 Ceremonial Leber.................................... 84 The Pnekole Arts and Pasko-Glving................... 84 Supernatural Fewer.................................. 85 The Land and the Cult of the Dead................... 85 VI. CONCLUSION................................................... 88 NOTES............................................................. 100 REFERENCES CITED 106 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. A Ceegarisen af Phonemic Difference* Between Seme Meyo end Yaqul Word*............................................. 4 vll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Ftgere 1. Ceeetmetlen Details of Two Types of Mayo House Cross........ 28 2. Typical Layouts of Church Cross (a), Paskela Panode Cross (b), and House Crosses (c and d)..................... 30 3. Mayo River Valley Pueblos Mentioned In Text.................. 33 4. The Sacred Hays of Heresoai Jupart Pueblo, 1961.............. 70 rill ABSTRACT How con a Mayo be recognized? What does being May# mean to a May#? In seeking answers to these questions, a brief consideration of single Mayo ehareetarlatlce or Items of culture reveals that meet of those factors , used as unqualified criteria, do net set Mayes apart from Mexicans. In examining the question of what being a Mayo means te a Mayo, it becomes obvious that even though the Mayes share a characteristic, or the use of an item, with Mexicans, the meaning of the item or characteristic and its integration as e symbol in the Mayo symbol system of ethnic identity is seldom shared in the Mexican meaning and integration. This realisation still does not provide any simple method for the outsider to identify Mayes, but it does shew that any single item or group of items, in order to bo useful in a study of ethnic identification, must be meaningful in terms of the May# system of ethnie identity. Since meny forms of the cross seemed fraught with meaning for Mayes, instances of it in the lives of the people of the Meye River Valley were carefully observed and catalogued into classes. Through this examination it warn indicated that the house cnees wee e unique Mayo manifestation when accompanied by a system of belief and social participation. The iota from a general survey of the river volley ore analysed to show that danse areas ef hones crosses do in fact correlate with the lx presence ef Mayo ceraonial centers. Then