DOCSLIB.ORG

Historical Process of Danza and Catholicism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Historical Process of Danza and Catholicism Diálogo Volume 16 Number 1 Article 6 2013 La Tradición Conchera: Historical Process of Danza and Catholicism Jennie Luna New Mexico State University Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/dialogo Part of the Latin American Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Luna, Jennie (2013) "La Tradición Conchera: Historical Process of Danza and Catholicism," Diálogo: Vol. 16 : No. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/dialogo/vol16/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Latino Research at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in Diálogo by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. La Tradición Conchera: Historical Process of Danza and Catholicism Jennie Luna New Mexico State University same roots, they are actually distinct schools of thought Abstract: La Tradición Conchera (Conchero tradition), and practice of Danza. The Tradición Conchera emerges often used synonymously with Danza Azteca (Aztec from the pre-Cuauhtémoc2 roots of the sacred dance Dance), has profound and complex roots connected to traditions of central México as a product of history and both an indigenous and colonial trajectory. This article the cross pollination that occurs with the Catholic belief presents a concise map of this history and the ties to system. It is both an adaption to Catholicism and resistance the Catholic Church, which has been both a process of to complete conversion, used as a strategy for survival. syncretism and synergy. The syncretism of Indigenous While both Danza Conchera and Danza Mexica share world views with the Catholic Church has had elements genealogical roots, Danza Mexica emerges out of the of preservation and decimation as demonstrated within Danza Conchera tradition in more contemporary history, the complex history of Danza. This article focuses on creating a distinct branch of Danza. This study pursues a the Post-Cuauhtémoc origins of Danza (dances) and deeper, more complete understanding of Danza in all its its relationship with the Church, State, and Indigenous forms, its complex roots and the diverging branches that communities. both cling to and disengage with competing historical, cultural and religious influences. Keywords: Danza Azteca, Conchero Dance, Syncretism, Not unlike many Native American ceremonial Mexican Cultural Traditions, Mexican Catholicism practices in the United States during the early colonial era, after the arrival of the Spaniards in México, the practice of various Indigenous Danzas (dances) and ative American scholarship examines the ceremonies was prohibited and severely punished. What Nhistorical relationships between native peoples is known and/or documented about spiritual and ritual and dominant cultures as both a process of “upstreaming” beliefs of Danza Mexica was corrupted, written under and “downstreaming” (Fixico, 1997 & 2003), influences the hand and censorship of Spanish friars and soldiers that flow in both directions. Historically, scholarship who depicted Indigenous complex knowledge systems about Indigenous peoples and cultures has only examined as savage, pagan and evil. According to Mario Aguilar, one direction: the influence of mainstream dominant the Spaniards’ interest in collecting data was to be able society on Indigenous peoples and ways of life. This to define the “heresies” (1983: 14) of the Nahua people. piece is grounded in the premise that Catholicism was Within these documents, friars such as Bernardino de just as influenced and impacted by Indigenous Mexican Sahagún, Alonso de Molina, and Bartolomé de Las Casas ceremonial/spiritual belief systems as Indigenous Mexican also showed an “awed respect” and, at times, compassion ceremonial/spiritual belief systems were influenced and for the Indigenous people. “For this reason, and for fear impacted by Catholicism. This essay pursues a complex of reawakening the spirit of the Indian nations, most of narrative, constructed by ethnographic research1, inter- these writings were hidden in the vaults and libraries of views and complete participation observation to present a Madrid and the Vatican” (Aguilar, 1983: 14). concise map of the historical trajectory of la Danza Mexica From the beginning of what is labeled La Conquista (also referred to as traditional Aztec Dance or Danza (The Conquest), or, more appropriately, “the Invasion,” Azteca) and the Tradición Conchera (Conchero tradition an incredible effort took place on the part of the Spanish or Danza Conchera), the latter being a product of Catholic clergy and soldiers to obliterate any evidence of Nahua influence. Often Danza Mexica and Danza Conchera “religion.” Through the burning of irreplaceable, precious are understood as similar and used interchangeably, but documents or codices, the knowledge base of a whole this essay will demonstrate that, while they share the civilization was deliberately destroyed by conquistadores Diálogo Articles 47 Jennie Luna Volume 16 Number 1 Spring 2013 such as Juan de Zumárraga (Vento, 1994). Arnoldo Carlos told Friar Sahagún that ‘when the dance Vento calls this an “intentional cultural and religious was loveliest, and song was linked to genocide” (1994: 60). Not only were people decimated song, the Spaniards were seized with en masse through disease and extermination, but the an urge to kill the celebrants’. (León- culture and belief systems of those that survived were Portilla, 1990: 74) also condemned. While the aim of evangelization was incorporation and conversion in order to redeem souls, The documentation continues, stating that the conquista- this came with a cost of the extermination of human life. dores quickly moved to the center of the ceremony, “forcing Mario Aguilar (1983) details the observations of Hernán their way to the place where the drums were played” (1990: Cortés in Cholula, Puebla, who witnessed 3,000 dancers 74). Once there, they cut off the drummers’ arms. The in a great circle in honor of Quetzalcoatl3: “The Spaniards Mexica, outraged by the Spaniards’ violent interruption of were awed at such tremendous show of precision, dexterity their most sacred ceremony, drove them out of the city. The and endurance. The spectacle they beheld caused great continued cultural genocide and holocaust ultimately led fear in them” (Aguilar, 1983: 12). As Aguilar continues, to the military defeat of México-Tenochtitlan in 1521. The the Spaniards massacred the unarmed danzantes using last leader, or Tlatoani, Cuauhtémoc, declared surrender, swords, cannons and guns, all weaponry powerful and offering his mandate to the people5 (Vento, 1994: 62). In unknown to the Nahua peoples of México. From the this mandate, while acknowledging a military defeat, Nahua worldview, complete and total extermination via Cuauhtémoc outlines that when the people can no longer war and massacre with unequal levels of weaponry were resist militarily, they will resist spiritually. This mandate unfamiliar and cowardly, as well as undefeatable. Vento instructs survivors to preserve their ways, to teach their (1994) argues that the Spaniards attempted to recreate children, and to go into hiding so that they, ultimately, medieval Europe in the Western hemisphere through will survive as a people. Cuauhtémoc left a prophesy for imperialism, exploitation and rule by the wealthy, the future generations that one day a new era will open up the State, and the Church. Violence and expulsion would be possibility to once again live in the ways of the ancestors.6 executed in the same way on these new “infidels,” as was After Cuauhtémoc’s pronouncement, many keepers committed on the Moors in Spain. According to Fray of the sacred dance and spiritual ways were forced into Bartolemé de las Casas in his exposé entitled Brevísima hiding to survive culturally. Mario Aguilar calls the result relación de la destrucción de las Indias, over 25 million “a network of underground worship” (1983: 18). If found Natives perished due to the Spanish invasion (Vento, practicing spiritual ways, individuals could be burned alive 1994: 63). Had Aztec human sacrifice occurred mass- at the stake. Other upper class members of Nahua society scale,4 as argued by the dominant narrative, the claimed assimilated into Spanish nobility or were brought into numbers could not equate with the brutal human sacrifice the dominant society’s hierarchy, leaving their traditions committed by the Spaniards (Forbes, 2004). behind (Aguilar, 1983). Sacred ways were therefore main- In 1520, Spanish invader Pedro de Alvarado ordered tained by the agrarian or disenfranchised classes in Nahua the slaughter of all danzantes during their ceremony of society—in home and secular units—leaving long lineages Toxcatl, honoring Huitzilopochtli, divine hummingbird, of Danza and ritual practice that some participants, even symbol of willpower, youthful energy and domination of today, can still link to a particular pre-Cuauhtémoc lineage. one’s weaknesses. As Mexican scholar Miguel León-Portilla After the Spanish invasion, many Nahua spiritual observes: ways became known as “traditions” or “traditional.” What is today called traditional dance or Danza is In fact, the Noche Triste, the “Sad Night” linked to colonial origins. It was through that moment when the Spaniards were routed out of of interaction and resistance (as resistance was/is still an Tenochtitlán, was set off by the violation interaction with the oppressor or colonial powers) that
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Stear Dissertation COGA Submission 26 May 2015
    BEYOND THE FIFTH SUN: NAHUA TELEOLOGIES IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES By ©Copyright 2015 Ezekiel G. Stear Submitted to the graduate degree program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chairperson, Santa Arias ________________________________ Verónica Garibotto ________________________________ Patricia Manning ________________________________ Rocío Cortés ________________________________ Robert C. Schwaller Date Defended: May 6, 2015! ii The Dissertation Committee for Ezekiel G. Stear certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: BEYOND THE FIFTH SUN: NAHUA TELEOLOGIES IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES ________________________________ Chairperson, Santa Arias Date approved: May 6, 2015 iii Abstract After the surrender of Mexico-Tenochtitlan to Hernán Cortés and his native allies in 1521, the lived experiences of the Mexicas and other Nahuatl-speaking peoples in the valley of Mexico shifted radically. Indigenous elites during this new colonial period faced the disappearance of their ancestral knowledge, along with the imposition of Christianity and Spanish rule. Through appropriations of linear writing and collaborative intellectual projects, the native population, in particular the noble elite sought to understand their past, interpret their present, and shape their future. Nahua traditions emphasized balanced living. Yet how one could live out that balance in unknown times ahead became a topic of ongoing discussion in Nahua intellectual communities, and a question that resounds in the texts they produced. Writing at the intersections of Nahua studies, literary and cultural history, and critical theory, in this dissertation I investigate how indigenous intellectuals in Mexico-Tenochtitlan envisioned their future as part of their re-evaluations of the past.
    [Show full text]
  • The Finding and Founding of Mexico Tenochtitlan
    THE FINDING AND FOUNDING OF MEXICO TENOCHTITLAN From the Crónica Mexicayotl, by Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc Translation and notes by Thelma D. Sullivan TRANSLATOR'S NOTE The Crónica Mexicayotl, written in 1609 by Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc, a grandson of Moctezuma on his mother's side and a great grandson of Axayacati on his father's, is one of the great documents of Nahuatl lore. His account of the emergence of the Aztecs from Aztlan-Chicomortoc, their peregrinations and the vicissitudes of their fortune while being driven on by their god, Hnizilopochtli, until they finally reached Tenochtitlan is not only a mine of mythico-historical data but also a saga of true literary merit and heroic dimensions. In the translation I am offering here, which as far as I know is the first in English, I have selected and threaded together only those texts which, in my opinion, narrate the events that directly led the Aztecs to the finding of their promised land. I have not, in any way, altered the sequence of events as they appear in the text. A Spanish translation of the Crónica Mexicayotl by Adrián León was published by the UNAM in 1949. In the opinion of A. M. Garibay, León's translation ". no da al público en general la com- prensión exigida, ya no solamente para aprovechar el dato escueto para la historia, pero ni siquiera la recta inteligencia del texto:"* Nahuatl scholars who compare the two versions will discover some differences between mine and León's, and I believe that my translation will clarify a number of texts that have long puzzled them.
    [Show full text]
  • Encounter with the Plumed Serpent
    Maarten Jansen and Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez ENCOUNTENCOUNTEERR withwith thethe Drama and Power in the Heart of Mesoamerica Preface Encounter WITH THE plumed serpent i Mesoamerican Worlds From the Olmecs to the Danzantes GENERAL EDITORS: DAVÍD CARRASCO AND EDUARDO MATOS MOCTEZUMA The Apotheosis of Janaab’ Pakal: Science, History, and Religion at Classic Maya Palenque, GERARDO ALDANA Commoner Ritual and Ideology in Ancient Mesoamerica, NANCY GONLIN AND JON C. LOHSE, EDITORS Eating Landscape: Aztec and European Occupation of Tlalocan, PHILIP P. ARNOLD Empires of Time: Calendars, Clocks, and Cultures, Revised Edition, ANTHONY AVENI Encounter with the Plumed Serpent: Drama and Power in the Heart of Mesoamerica, MAARTEN JANSEN AND GABINA AURORA PÉREZ JIMÉNEZ In the Realm of Nachan Kan: Postclassic Maya Archaeology at Laguna de On, Belize, MARILYN A. MASSON Life and Death in the Templo Mayor, EDUARDO MATOS MOCTEZUMA The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript, GABRIELLE VAIL AND ANTHONY AVENI, EDITORS Mesoamerican Ritual Economy: Archaeological and Ethnological Perspectives, E. CHRISTIAN WELLS AND KARLA L. DAVIS-SALAZAR, EDITORS Mesoamerica’s Classic Heritage: Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, DAVÍD CARRASCO, LINDSAY JONES, AND SCOTT SESSIONS Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God: Tezcatlipoca, “Lord of the Smoking Mirror,” GUILHEM OLIVIER, TRANSLATED BY MICHEL BESSON Rabinal Achi: A Fifteenth-Century Maya Dynastic Drama, ALAIN BRETON, EDITOR; TRANSLATED BY TERESA LAVENDER FAGAN AND ROBERT SCHNEIDER Representing Aztec Ritual: Performance, Text, and Image in the Work of Sahagún, ELOISE QUIÑONES KEBER, EDITOR The Social Experience of Childhood in Mesoamerica, TRACI ARDREN AND SCOTT R. HUTSON, EDITORS Stone Houses and Earth Lords: Maya Religion in the Cave Context, KEITH M.
    [Show full text]
  • Mexicanidad: the Resurgence of the Indian in Popular Mexican
    'MEXICANIDAD' THE RESURGENCE OF THE INDIAN IN POPULAR MEXICAN NATIONALISM 'Mexicanidad' is not so much a struggle for mainstream political power as a proto-nationalistic 'indianist' movement, whose supporters are predominantly socially marginalized young males of Mexico City (and elsewhere). The paper explores how the actors, by articulating meanings taken from the pre-colonial past in processes of socio-symbolic elaboration, are creating new identities for themselves with which to challenge, performatively, the priorities of the state. Susanna E. Rostas University of Cambridge (Goldsmiths College London) Dept of Social Anthropology University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RF Tel: +44-1223-324938 (answer machine) Fax: +44-1223-335397 e-mail: [email protected] Do not quote without author's permission Prepared for the 1997 meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, Continental Plaza Hotel, Guadalajara, Mexico April 17-19 1997 'MEXICANIDAD' THE RESURGENCE OF THE INDIAN IN POPULAR MEXICAN NATIONALISM First Draft The Mexica are by now well known in the Mexican national space. Photographs of them appear in daily newspapers dressed in Aztec style costumes, crowned by exuberant feather headdresses with seed rattles tied around their ankles. This is how they accoutre themselves to espouse the cause of mexicanidad, as their movement is called, by means of which they contest their present situation and are articulating a discourse about a possible future. The occasions at which such pictures are taken are indicative of what the Mexica conceive of as central to their representations of 'indianity': some are of ceremonies to glorify Aztec culture heroes, a few of events for causes related to the indigenous peoples of Mexico but more are of ritual dances performed on significant dates in the Aztec calender backed by a mythology that they are currently elaborating.
    [Show full text]
  • The Concheros Dance in Mexico City
    CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Foreword by Max Harris xi Preface and Acknowledgments xv 1. Incongruous Beginnings 1 Experience and the Embodied Self 4 The Action of the Dance 5 The Locus of Attainment 8 The Zocalo as Palimpsest 9 An Oral Tradition 10 The City as Experiential Context 13 The Chapters 14 Titles and Word Usage 16 P A R T 1 : T H E E X P E R I E N T I A L C ONTEXT 2. The Concheros 21 The Association and Its Palabras 22 The Principal Dance Events 25 The Sacred Geography of the Four Winds 26 v C ONTENTS A Mesa and Its Organization 26 The Jefe and His Oratory 26 The Sahumadora 31 The Captains: Cabeceras to Palabras 34 Other Positions: the Sergeant and Alferez 35 The Soldiers 37 3. The Obligations: Framing the Context 43 A Vigil in Puente Negro 44 The Limpia 50 The Dance 56 P A R T 2 : T H E E X P E R I E N T I A L N E X U S : F O R M IN G T H E S EL F 4. Agency and the Dance: Ritualization and the Performative 67 Analyzing Ritual and Performance 67 Toward Ritualization 69 The Performative (or Performativity) 73 From Performance to the Performative 74 Mimesis: Learning to “Carry the Word” 80 The Relationship between Ritualization and Performativity 81 5. Conchero Speak: Carrying the Word 87 The Ritual Language of the Concheros 90 The Banner 91 Union 93 Conformidad 94 Conquista 94 El es Dios 99 Carrying the Word 101 6.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Shadow of Cortés: from Veracruz to Mexico City
    In the Shadow of Cortés: From Veracruz to Mexico City Kathleen Myers and Steve Raymer The research for this exhibit is based on 61 interviews of people living along the Ruta de Cortés (May 2006 to May 2008). Selections from the interviews will be published in a forthcoming book. The photographs were taken in May 2008. Several of the original 16th century manuscripts and books about the conquest are currently on display at the Lilly Library. 1. The route that Cortés and his army took, called the Ruta de Cortés, began in the port of Veracruz and then proceeded up the coast to the capital of the Totonaco Indians, Zempoala, before heading inland through Xalapa, the confederation of Tlaxcala, the city of Cholula and on to center of the Aztec empire, Mexico-Tenochtitlan. The map shown here also includes other routes that Cortés used during the conquest. [Courtesy of Arqueología Mexicana (v. 9, n. 49, 2001) and Bernardo García Martínez (information); Monika Beckmann (illustration); Fernando Montes de Oca (digital design).] 2. A map of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, probably derived from the 1524 map by Hernán Cortés, shows evidence of having been reworked for print; it represents Tenochtitlan as an ideal medieval island-city. (Libro di Benedetto Bordone, 1534, courtesy of the Newberry Library, Chicago.) 3. A 16th century manuscript (codex) with native Mesoamerican iconography depicts the violent clash between the Mexica (Aztecs) and Spaniards. The nopal (cactus) growing on a stone is the glyph for Tenochtitlan: tetl (stone) + nochtli (prickly pear) + tlan (place of). (Diego Durán, Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e Islas de la Tierra Firme, c.
    [Show full text]
  • Danzas Concheras. Catálogo Fotográfico
    TABLA DE CONTENIDOS TLATZINTILIZTLI DANZA CONCHERA 6 SONAJAS Y AYOYOTES 48 MITOTILO CONCHERATY AYACACHTLI IBAN AYOYOTLTI 49 COPILI 55 HISTORIA 7 COPILLI 56 1NEMILIZCAYOTL 8 HUEHUETL 61 VIENTOS 10 HUEHUETL 62 TLEN EJECAME 11 EL DANZANTE 13 CARGOS 66 MITOTY TEKIME 67 2EL VESTUARIO Y SUS 14 4 VARIANTES TLEN TZOSOLTI IBAN NI 15 VARIENTEBA ARMAS 22 EL TRABAJO DEL DANZANTE 74 TEYAOCHIHUALIZTLI TLEN NI TEQUIB MITOTIANI CONCHA DE ARMADILLO 23 VELACIÓN 75 3Y MANDOLINA 5MOCOCHIZALO 76 ITECOJYO AYOTOCHI 24 ALTARES 83 IBAN MANDOLINATLI ALTARTI 84 ESTANDARTE 29 TE YECANA 30 SAHUMADOR 37 TEPOPOCHVI 38 CARACOL 44 TOCHACATI 45 Elvia Hernández Bautista Investigación y fotografía Alma Rocío Santiago Flores Textos Lauro Alva Sánchez Traducción a la lengua náhuatl de San Antonio Acatepec Zoquitlán, Puebla Carla Becerril Cruz Arte y diseño editorial Norberto Zamora Pérez Coordinación México 2019, Año Internacional de las Lenguas Indígenas DANZA CONCHERA 1MITOTILO CONCHERATY HISTORIA ¡Él es Dios! de evangelización de los frailes El resonar de aquellos pies descalzos españoles. que emanan de la tierra energía para permitirnos admirar un pasado Se cuenta que el ritual de danzar desconocido, lleno de color y de vida. con fe y devoción hacía un Dios Es lo que nos muestra la “danza cristiano comenzó en Querétaro, azteca”, “danza de la conquista”, exactamente en el cerro de San “danza chichimeca” o mejor conocida Gremal en donde hubo una batalla como la “danza de los concheros”. entre los guerreros chichimecas, los españoles y los otomíes conversos. Nombrada en la actualidad como Se dice que mientras combatían los Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial, esta guerreros chichimecas, en el cielo, danza es una expresión tanto cultural, tras un eclipse, apareció el santo artística y religiosa, para quienes la Santiago montado en su caballo con practican.
    [Show full text]
  • Universidad Autónoma Del Estado De México
    UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DEL ESTADO DE MÉXICO FACULTAD DE ANTROPOLOGÍA “LA PEREGRINACIÓN COMO COMMUNITAS: FE Y CREENCIAS EN LOS JÓVENES CHALMEROS” TESIS QUE PARA OBTENER EL TÍTULO DE LICENCIADO EN ANTROPOLOGÍA SOCIAL P R E S E N T A CRISTOPHER MARTÍN ORTIZ GUTIÉRREZ DIRECTOR DE TESIS: M.E.L. ROGRIGO MARCIAL JIMÉNEZ CO-ASESORA DE TESIS: DRA. GEORGINA MARÍA ARREDONDO AYALA TOLUCA, MÉXICO ABRIL 2018 Introducción ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 CAPÍTULO l. MARCO TEÓRICO. MODELOS ANALÍTICOS DE LA ANTROPOLOGÍA PROCESUALISTA Y SIMBÓLICA ----------------------------------- 10 1.1 La antropología simbólica y ritual en C. Geertz, una aproximación -------------- 18 1.2 Dan Sperber, un acercamiento General a la Antropología Simbólica Cognitiva. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 1.3 Miradas sobre el Drama Social, Communitas/Anti-Estructura y la Antropología de la Experiencia en Víctor Turner ------------------------------------------------------------- 25 1.3.1 Drama social ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 1.3.2 Communitas y Anti-Estructura ----------------------------------------------------------- 31 1.3.3 Antropología de la experiencia ----------------------------------------------------------- 34 1.4 Pasos, Márgenes y Pobreza: Símbolos religiosos de la Communitas ----------- 37 1.5 Peregrinaciones como Procesos Sociales y Peregrinación como Fenómeno Liminoide
    [Show full text]
  • La Danza De Concheros En Querétaro. Aproximaciones Estético Culturales
    Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Facultad de Filosofía Maestría en Filosofía LA DANZA DE CONCHEROS EN QUERÉTARO. APROXIMACIONES ESTÉTICO CULTURALES. TESIS Que como parte de los requisitos para obtener el grado de Maestra en Filosofía Presenta: Tanya González García Dirigido por: José Antonio Arvizu Valencia SINODALES Mtro. José Antonio Arvizu Valencia Presidente Firma Dr. Juan Carlos Moreno Romo Secretario Mtra. Leticia Guzmán Palacios Vocal ir ma Dra. Phyllis Ann Mcfarland Morris }L>1t~ }?;, ~Á- Suplente Firma Mtro. Juan Granados Valdéz Suplente Directora de la Facultad Director de Investigación y Posgrado Centro Universitario Querétaro, Qro. Octubre 2014 México 1 Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Facultad de Filosofía Maestría en Filosofía LA DANZA DE CONCHEROS EN QUERÉTARO. APROXIMACIONES ESTÉTICO CULTURALES. TESIS Que como parte de los requisitos para obtener el grado de Maestra en Filosofía Presenta: Tanya González García Dirigido por: José Antonio Arvizu Valencia SINODALES Mtro. José Antonio Arvizu Valencia _______________ Presidente Firma Dr. Juan Carlos Moreno Romo _________________ Secretario Firma Mtra. Leticia Guzmán Palacios ________________ Vocal Firma Dra Phyllis Ann Macfarland Morris. ________________ Suplente Firma Mtro. Juan Granados Valdéz _________________ Suplente Firma Dr.a Blanca Estela Gutiérrez Grageda Dr. Irineo Torres Pacheco Directora de la Facultad Director de Investigación Posgrado Centro Universitario Querétaro, Qro. Octubre 2014 México 1 RESUMEN La danza de concheros se constituye como un analizador de
    [Show full text]
  • PRE-HISPANIC CENTRAL MEXICAN HISTORIOGRAPHY One of Tlie
    www.senado2010.gob.mx PRE-HISPANIC CENTRAL MEXICAN HISTORIOGRAPHY H. B. NICIIOLSON Los indígenas no sólo de MCnico, sino de toda Mesoamhica, poseían una ver- dadera vocación histórica y relataban y esnibían historia . No me parece justo, después de quemarles a los indios sus historias, declarar que no las escribían. INTRODUCTION One of tlie leading diagnostics of the Mesoamerican Area Co-Tradition was the detailed recording of past events over relatively long time spans. 'í'his "cliroiiiclc conciousness", as 1 have elsewliere (Nicholson 1955b) refcrred to it, was much more fully developed here than in any other aboriginal New World region. Even many Old World cultures assigned to a substantially higlier rung on the ladder of cultural complexity cannot offer historical records nearly as rich or extending over such long periods. Students interested in the historical aspect of WIesoamerican studies Iiave always intensively utilized these native chronicles, but less attention has been directed to the native concepts of history and to transinission media and techniques. In a preliminary paper, deliver- cd orally 9 years ago an published only in brief abstract form (Ni- cholson 1963), 1 hriefly discussed the former aspect. Mesoamerican concepts of history -which would include consideration of why such a strong interest in history fluorished in this are- deserve much more analysis tlian they have yet re~eived.~However: this paper will iiot be concerned with concepts but rather will focus on the methods employed to transmit knowledge of the past aud the kinds of events recorded -its historiography, if you wili- in one Meso- amcrican subarea, Central Mexico.
    [Show full text]
  • Emily Floyd Fray Bernardino De Sahagún and the Construction Of
    Emily Floyd Fray Bernardino de Sahagún and the construction of the Aztec Pantheon Fray Bernardino de Sahagún is often hailed as the first great ethnographer. This characterization of Sahagún pays tribute to his exhaustive curiosity and deep interest in the cultures he recorded. At the same time, it obscures his motivations in compiling his vast compendium of culture, religion, and history. In overemphasizing Sahagún's supposed impartiality and objectivity, this approach discourages critical readings of his work. Sahagún's work should not be read as an unbiased source for knowledge about the Aztecs, ignoring the context in which it was compiled. In Book 1 of the Florentine Codex, The Gods, Sahagún provides a visual and written list of the Aztec deities. In this paper, I will argue that while the representation of the Aztec deities in The Gods draws upon both Aztec and Christian visual conventions, close association with either religious tradition was potentially dangerous. By giving the Aztec gods a Greco-Roman gloss, Sahagún distanced the deities from pre-Catholic religious practice and placed them into the ambiguous language of Renaissance approaches to the Greco-Roman deities. This portrayal has the effect of distancing the deities from religious practice and placing them into the equal parts glorifying and secularizing context of the Renaissance Greco-Roman pantheon. The visual language employed by Sahagún's artists in The God's list of Aztec deities owes little to Aztec visual conventions. Sahagún's artists were students of the friars at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlateloco, trained in European theories of proportion and draftsmanship.
    [Show full text]
  • UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Chicana/O Indigenous Affirmation As Transformational Consciousness
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Chicana/o Indigenous Affirmation as Transformational Consciousness: Indigeneity and Transnational Human Rights Advocacy since the Chicana/o Movement A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by José Luis Serrano Nájera 2015 © copyright by José Luis Serrano Nájera 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Chicana/o Indigenous Affirmation as Transformational Consciousness: Indigeneity and Transnational Human Rights Advocacy since the Chicana/o Movement by José Luis Serrano Nájera Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Juan Gómez-Quiñones, Chair Indigenous social movements in the Americas have multiple sources, but in regards to Mexican Americans, my focus considers Chicana/o Indigeneity of particular importance to decolonization efforts because of its density, scope, and breadth, as well as spatial location. My dissertation answers the following question: how are Chicana/o assertions of cultural Indigeneity, intrinsically parallel and related to Chicana/o participation in Indigenous transnational struggles? The underlying premises for my investigation of Chicana/o Indigeneity are the following subquestions: how do transnational these efforts enrich our understanding of the respect of human rights, and what are the bases of Chicana/o Indigeneity? I explicate how Chicana/o historic consciousness is influenced by the complex transnational activism with Indigenous Peoples to decolonize the Americas and contend that Chicana/o Indigenist activists, informed by trans-border interactions, cultural practices, and long oral traditions challenged hegemonic constraints of Indigeneity constructed by Mexican and U.S. pro-western domination premised ii assimilationist projects. These challenges have resulted in Chicana/o participation in broader challenges to the prominence of western cultural hegemony in the nation-states of the Americas.
    [Show full text]