Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T00:40:36.884Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“All the dances have a meaning to that apparition”: Felt knowledge and the Danzantes of Tortugas, New Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Deidre Sklar
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One at a time, the dancers entered the small chapel and crossed the green shag carpet to kneel before the virgin's portrait. For the three days of religious fiesta, her image would be the focus of the dancers' offerings. A faded color reproduction, the portrait was not honored for its aesthetic virtues. Rather, its significance was invocative and evocative: through it, the virgin's presence was invoked and her story evoked.

About four feet high, the virgin's portrait rested on a papier maché mountain half its size. On a lower ridge of the mountain was a statue of a kneeling man, cast in plaster. The man's size was equal to the mountain's so that his head reached the level of the virgin's knees. The overall effect was that the virgin on high looked down with compassion on a tiny mountain and a larger-than-life man. It was the opposite of traditional images of Mary looking up at Christ on the cross. Here, the man looked up from below at Mary (figure 1).

Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , Fall 1999 , pp. 14 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Albuquerque Journal 1979 December 23.Google Scholar
Bennett, Wendell C. and Zingg, Robert M. 1976 The Tarahumara. An Indian Tribe of Northern Mexico. Glorieta, New Mexico: Rio Grande Press.Google Scholar
Bemal, Rico (pseudonym) 1986 Taped interview, Las Cruces, NM, October 21.Google Scholar
Bemal, Rico (pseudonym) 1987 Taped interview, Las Cruces, NM, March 12.Google Scholar
Bruner, Edward M. 1986 “Experience and its Expressions,” The Anthropology of Experience. Turner, Victor W. and Bruner, Edward M., eds. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Castillo, Bernal Diaz de 1800 The True History of the Conquest of Mexico by Captain Bernal Diaz de Castillo Written in the Year 1568. Keating, Maurice, trans. London: J Wright Piccadilly.Google Scholar
Champe, Flavia 1980 “Origins of the Magical Matachines Dance,” El Palacio 86/4 (winter 1980–1981): 35–39.Google Scholar
Champe, Flavia 1983 The Matachines Dance of the Upper Rio Grande. History, Music, and Choreography. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press Google Scholar
Chávez, Denise 1987 Manuscript of a play for voices, presented at “Guadalupe 87,” Las Cruces, New Mexico, October 31, 1987.Google Scholar
Clifford, James 1988 “On Ethnographic Authority,” The Predicament of Culture. Twentieth Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Csordas, Thomas J. 1990 “Embodiment as a Paradigm for Anthropology,” Ethos 18/1, March: 5–47.Google Scholar
Csordas, Thomas J. 1993 “Somatic Modes of Attention,” Cultural Anthropology 8/2 (May 1993): 135–156.Google Scholar
Csordas, Thomas J. 1996 “Embodied Imagery: Revelatory Experience in Navajo Healing,” paper abstract, American Anthropological Association 95th Annual Meeting, November 20–24, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Dancing 1993 Produced by Thirteen/WNET in association with RM Arts and BBC-TV. Rhoda Grauer, executive producer. VHS format.Google Scholar
Demarest, Donald and Taylor, Coley, eds. and trans. 1956 “History of the Miraculous Apparition” by de la Vega, Luis Lazo, The Dark Virgin. A Documentary Anthology. Porter's Landing, Freeport, Maine, and New York: Coley Taylor, Inc. Google Scholar
Elizondo, Father Virgil 1976 “La Morenita Evangelizer of the Americas. A Study in Evangelization and the Dialectic of Violence.” Unpublished ms. San Antonio, Texas: Mexican American Cultural Center.Google Scholar
Feld, Steven 1982 Sound and Sentiment. Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Forest, John 1984 Morris and Matachin. A Study in Comparative Choreology. London: English Folk Dance and Song Society.Google Scholar
Foster, Susan Leigh 1995 “Choreographing History,” Choreographing History. Foster, Susan Leigh, ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press: 3–24.Google Scholar
Foster, Thora Alice Lute 1904 “The Folklore of the Mesilla Valley. A Contribution to the Folklore of New Mexico.” Thesis submitted to the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts. (Courtesy of Rio Grande Special Collections, New Mexico State University Library.)Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford 1973 The Interpretation of Cultures. Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Hawley, Florence 1948 “Dance of the Devil Chasers,” New Mexico (September): 16–39.Google Scholar
Howes, David, ed. 1991 The Varieties of Sensory Experience. A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the Senses. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, Michael 1989 Paths Toward a Clearing. Radical Empiricism and Ethnographic Enquiry. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Kapferer, Bruce 1979 “Entertaining Demons: Comedy, Interaction, and Meaning in a Sinhalese Healing Ritual,” Social Analysis 1: 108–152.Google Scholar
Kealiinohomoku, Joann 1974 “Field Guides.” CORD Research Annual VI. New Dimensions in Dance Research: Anthropology and Dance—The American Indian. Comstock, Tamara, ed. New York: CORD.Google Scholar
Kurath, Gertrude Prokosch 1949 “Mexican Moriscas: A Problem in Dance Acculturation,” Journal of American Folklore 62: 87–103.Google Scholar
Kurath, Gertrude Prokosch 1956 “Dance Relatives of Mid-Europe and Middle America: A Venture in Comparative Choreology,” Journal of American Folklore 69/273: 286–298.Google Scholar
Kurath, Gertrude Prokosch 1957 “The Origin of the Pueblo Indian Matachines,” El Palacio 64/9–10:259–264.Google Scholar
Kurath, Gertrude Prokosch with Garcia, Antonio 1970 Music and Dance of the Tewa Pueblos. Number 8: Museum of New Mexico Research Records. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Lannoy, Richard 1971 The Speaking Tree. A Study of Culture in Indian Society. London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Las Cruces Citizen 1926 December 11.Google Scholar
Lea, Aurora White 1963 “More About the Matachines,” New Mexico Folklore 11:7–10.Google Scholar
Los Matachines 1988 Produced by KGGM-TV, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Video program, January 23, 1988.Google Scholar
Marie, Sister Joseph 1948 “The Role of the Church and the Folk in the Development of the Early Drama in New Mexico.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Matachines 1980 Bernalillo, New Mexico. Produced by Ken Marthey. Funded by New Mexico Arts Commission. 16 mm, 28 minutes.Google Scholar
Matasina 1980 San Juan Pueblo. Funded by New Mexico Arts Commission. Commentary by Herman Agoya. 16 mm, 16 minutes.Google Scholar
McCollum, Pansy P. 1922 “The Fiesta Guadalupe.” Thesis submitted to the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts. (Courtesy of Rio Grande Special Collections, New Mexico State University Library.)Google Scholar
Miranda, Isidro (pseudonym) 1988 Taped interview, Las Cruces, New Mexico, March 10.Google Scholar
Myerhoff, Barbara 1974 Peyote Hunt. The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Myerhoff, Barbara 1980 Number Our Days. NY: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Ness, Sally Ann 1992 Body, Movement, and Culture. Kinesthetic and Visual Symbolism in a Philippine Community. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Novack, Cynthia J. 1990 Sharing the Dance. Contact Improvisation and American Culture. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Painter, Muriel Thayer 1950 A Yaqui Easter. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Paola, Tomie de 1980 The Lady of Guadalupe. New York: Holiday House.Google Scholar
Parmentier, Richard J. 1979 “The Pueblo Mythological Triangle: Poseyemu, Montezuma, and Jesus in the Pueblos,” Handbook of North American lndians, 9, Southwest. Sturtevant, William, gen. ed. Ortiz, Alfonso, vol. ed. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian: 609–622.Google Scholar
Parsons, Elsie Clews 1939 Pueblo Indian Religion. 2 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Paz, Octavio. 1961 Labyrinth of Solitude. Life and Thought in Mexico. Kemp, Lysander, trans. New York: Grove press.Google Scholar
Robb, John Donald 1954 Hispanic Folk Music of New Mexico and the Southwest. A Self-Portrait of a People. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Robb, John Donald 1961 “The Matachines Dance—A Ritual Folk Dance,” Western Folklore 20/2, April: 87–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodriguez, Sylvia 1996 The Matachines Dance. Ritual Symbolism and lnterethnic Relations in the Upper Rio Grande Valley. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Santa Fe New Mexican 1918 August 19.Google Scholar
Schechner, Richard 1977 Essays on Performance Theory 1970–1976. New York: Drama Book Specialists.Google Scholar
Schieffelin, Edward L. 1976 The Sorrow of the Lonely and the Burning of the Dancers. NY: St. Martins.Google Scholar
Schieffelin, Edward L. Shadow Catcher. Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian.Google Scholar
Schieffelin, Edward L. 1993 Video of the film produced, directed, and written by T.C. McLuhan. NY: Mystic Fire Video. 89 minutes. VHS format.Google Scholar
Singer, Milton 1972 When A Great Tradition Modernizes. An Anthropological Approach to Indian Civilization. London: Pall Mall Press.Google Scholar
Sklar, Deidre 1991 “On Dance Ethnography,” Dance Research Journal 23/1 (Spring 1991): 6–10.Google Scholar
Sklar, Deidre 1994 “Can Bodylore be Brought to its Senses?” Journal of American Folklore 107/423: 9–22. Bodylore Issue, Barbara Babcock and Katherine Young, eds.Google Scholar
Sklar, Deidre 1996 “Sensual Infiltrations into Writing,” paper abstract, American Anthropological Association 95th Annual Meeting, November 20–24, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Forthcoming “Performance Observation Guidelines,” (tentative title) Embodied Pedagogy. Dolan, Jill and Harrison-Pepper, Sally, eds. London and NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Spicer, Edward H. 1962 Cycles of Conquest: The Impact of Spain, Mexico, and the United States on the Indians of the Southwest, 1533–1960. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Spicer, Edward H. 1980 The Yaquis: A Cultural History. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Stern, Daniel N. 1985 The Interpersonal World of the Infant. A View from Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Stoller, Paul 1986 The Taste of Ethnographic Things. The Senses in Anthropology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Turner, Victor W. 1969 The Ritual Process. Structure and Anti-Structure. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Young, Katherine 1996 “Alternate Sensibilities,” session abstract, American Anthropological Association 95th Annual Meeting, November 20–24, San Francisco.Google Scholar