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the Taos Pueblo Matachines: ritual symbolism and interethnic relations
Author(s) -
RODRÍGUEZ SYLVIA
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1991.18.2.02a00030
Subject(s) - dance , character (mathematics) , expression (computer science) , conquest , anthropology , history , archaeology , art , sociology , visual arts , ancient history , geometry , mathematics , computer science , programming language
This article analyzes the Matachines dance at Taos Pueblo as a ritual‐symbolic expression of the history and character of Indian‐Mexicano relations in the Taos Valley. Details of the dance are examined with reference to the history and ecology of Taos, including the overall pattern of interethnic village relations established around the Pueblo. The analysis focuses on the Abuelos, or clowns, and the burlesques they perform during the three‐day Christmas performance. These burlesques appear to refer metaphorically and ironically to a shared Indo‐Hispano heritage of conquest, competition, and miscegenation.