Fiesta system in Yucatan : popular religion, identity and socioeconomic organization

239 Pages·1994·8.1 MB·English

by  Fernandez, Francisco J., 1960-

FIESTA SYSTEM IN YUCATAN:
POPULAR RELIGION, IDENTITY AND SOCIOECONOMIC ORGANIZATION
By
FRANCISCO J. FERNANDEZ
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
1994
UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDALIBRARIES
. "
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all I wish to express my gratitude to the
qremieros.1 the cargadores2 and all the people who make
possible the patronal fiestas in the State of Yucatan.
Yucatecans have a debt with them in the maintenance of some
important cultural characteristics that make us be
"Yucatecos.
I would like to thank Dr. Allan F. Burns for his
critical support, but above all for his friendship that is
one of the conditions for any study in anthropology. I also
wish to express my intellectual debt to him even thouhg I
find it difficult to do so in English, a language which I
have not completely mastered to express my self adequately.
I also want to thank Dr. Paul L. Doughty, Dr. Gerald F.
Murray, Dr. Murdo MacLeod and Dr. Hernan Vera for serving on
my graduate committee.
I am very grateful to the Facultad de Ciencias
Antropologicas of the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, to
Gremiero is the name given to the members of a ctremio
(craft-guild) an organization of men and/or women who help
tp sponsor the, patronal fiestas in the State of Yucatan. The
main characteristics of the gremio will be explained in
chapters 4 and 5.
Cargadores is an organization of men who are in
charge of the custody of the images during the time of
fiesta
ii
the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia and to the
Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes for giving me
the opportunity to develop this dissertation as part of my
labor within the institution and for their financial
support.
I also take this opportunity to thank E. Montanez, W.
Concha and G. Negroe not only for their part in the
production and editing of the video but also for the
observations and comments that they made during the
fieldwork, all of which helped to focus my attention on some
aspects of my work that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
LIST OF FIGURES vi
ABSTRACT vii
CHAPTERS
1 INTRODUCTION 1
Popular Religion in Yucatan: Concepts and
Preliminary Ideas 1
The Resarch Topic 4
Method and Fieldwork 6
Research Objectives 19
The Contents of the Dissertation 20
2 A SOCIOECONOMICAL PERSPECTIVE 22
AMHenurniuOdcvame,arvitaehnedw PToefetniiYznu:scualttaha'ensRuCreanltraZlonePsoint....... 223276
The Regional Context 36
Sisal: a Fishing Port 52
3 PATRONAL FIESTAS AS POPULAR RELIGION 63
Popular Culture 63
Popular Religion 72
FSioecsitaal.ITdheentiCtoinesstruction of the Concept . . 7749
Patronal Fiestas, Popular Religion and
Identity 87
4 A HISTORICAL APPROACH TO PATRONAL FIESTAS
OF YUCATAN 96
Historical Outline of Yucatecan Patronal
Fiestas 96
The History of the Images of the Fiestas
Studied Ill
The Santisimo Cristo
de las Ampollas Ill
The Virgen de la Asuncion de Tetiz,
the Poor of God 116
The Senor de Sisal 118
Patronal Fiestas of Merida, Hunucma,
Tetiz and Sisal. A Historical Outline . . 119
IV
Merida 119
Hunucma 134
Tetiz 141
Sisal 143
5 CONTEMPORARY PATRONAL FIESTAS 145
The Church 146
The Carqadores 154
The Gremios 160
TRheematCeir,cuVlaaqtuieorniao.fDatnheceImanadgesBulanldfights . . 182
Other Celebrations 187
6 CLOSIONfGf:iciFaIlNALReAlNiAgLioYnT-IPCoApLulCaOrMMERNeTlSigion .... 119977
Gremios and Cargadores 201
Occupational Structure and Consumption
of the Fiesta 202
Fiestas and Identity 205
APPENDIX 209
ARCHIVAL REFERENCES 217
REFERENCES 218
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 229
v
LIST OF FIGURES
—
Figure 1 Socioeconomic Regions of
the State of Yucatan 25
—
Figure 2 Location of the Communities
and their Hinterland 41
vi
Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School
of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
FIESTA SYSTEM IN YUCATAN:
POPULAR RELIGION, IDENTITY AND SOCIOECONOMIC ORGANIZATION
By
Francisco J. Fernandez
APRIL 1994
Chairperson: Dr. Allan F. Burns
Major Department: Anthropology
The primary purpose of this investigation is to analyze
the fiesta system in the northwest of the state of Yucatan
in the process of construction of a model of fiesta in the
state.
I show that the fiesta expresses different aspects of
the social organization and world view of the communities in
which it is present as one of the main elements that
conforms the popular religiosity. Among these aspects the
dissertation deals with the question of the opposition
between official and popular religion from Gramsci's
perspective and within the fiesta time and context.
The fiesta also expresses different levels of identity
according to the context in which it is performed. Special
attention is given to the fact that as a collective
phenomenon, specific identities are constituted in a process
vii
of social contrast. The analysis also establishes the
relations between the socioeconomic conditions of the places
studied here with the population's interest in the fiesta as
a social event and as an economic enterprise.
Methodologically the dissertation employs a comparative
approach that includes four "communities" of different size
and social conditions. Visual anthropology was also used in
the fieldwork to gather information and to establish a
interactive dialogue with informants.
Vlll
.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Popular Religion in Yucatan: Concepts and Preliminary Ideas
In order to avoid confusion in the future presentation
of different and more subtle arguments concerning "popular
religion," it is necessary to present a working definition
of the concept of popular religion. Popular religion refers
to the group of practices and beliefs found in a
relationship of opposition, subordination or indifference
with regard to the official view of the orthodox beliefs of
a church. In the case of Yucatan, the Catholic Church is the
primary religious institution. Popular religion is an
all-embracing concept which gathers together many different
religious phenomena that primarily occur outside of the
Church. It is always important to specify the modes and
contexts relevant to any research project concerning this
theme
The many different forms of expression used in popular
religion in Yucatan spread across different areas and their
roots are to be found in different kinds of religious
belief. Woodrick (1989) presents religion in Yucatan in
terms of Catholic and Mayan elements. According to Woodrick,
"Ethnographic discussions of folk Catholicism as it has been
1
2
and continues to be practiced in Yucatan, usually include
separate discussion of the pagan 'religion' and the orthodox
Catholic 'religion'" (1989:4). However, within these two
broad categories there are still a great variety of themes
to be discussed and perspectives to be offered.
With regard to the pre-hispanic religious forms,
identified by Woodrick as "pagan," one can observe that the
dominant idea present is that of continuity between the Maya
society of the past and that of present day Yucatan. In
spite of the processes of conquest and colonialization
experienced by the New World and by Yucatan in particular,
the Maya world view was not destroyed; rather the Maya
adopted social and cultural survival strategies that enabled
them to exist as a group through the colonial period and up
to the present. The studies of the forms and persistence of
Maya ceremonies like the Uahi col and the Chaa chac are
examples of this type of research (Hanks 1990).
Woodrick's discussion of the work done on religion in
Yucatan is less convincing when compared to the studies
carried out by Farriss (1984) and Bartolome (1988). These
authors look into the organizational forms of Catholic
orthodoxy in Yucatan from the point of view of the
indigenous world view.
Thus, their work is concerned not only with the
survival of pre-hispanic forms but also with the mechanisms
used by the Maya to conserve their culture within