Ruth Hellier-Tinoco
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195340365
- eISBN:
- 9780199896998
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340365.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music, Dance
This chapter introduces the central notion that Mexico and Mexicanness are constructs, shaped and performed through multiple modes for interfacing nationalist and tourist agendas. Establishing the ...
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This chapter introduces the central notion that Mexico and Mexicanness are constructs, shaped and performed through multiple modes for interfacing nationalist and tourist agendas. Establishing the focus on two specific practices, the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead, from islands on Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, discussion centers on ways in which both were appropriated for, and deployed as efficacious, iconic embodiments and referents of Mexico and Mexicanness from the postrevolutionary era of the 1920s to the present day. Issues concerning designations of indigenousness and folklorico, and the ideological movement of indigenismo are introduced, particularly relating to the P'urhépecha peoples. The term performism is coined to frame the discussion, engaging with the broadest conceptual understandings of performance, performing, and performativity, with the aim of drawing attention to the multiple cohering and cumulative political, ideological, epistemological, and aesthetic ideas, processes, actions, and strategies.Less
This chapter introduces the central notion that Mexico and Mexicanness are constructs, shaped and performed through multiple modes for interfacing nationalist and tourist agendas. Establishing the focus on two specific practices, the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead, from islands on Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, discussion centers on ways in which both were appropriated for, and deployed as efficacious, iconic embodiments and referents of Mexico and Mexicanness from the postrevolutionary era of the 1920s to the present day. Issues concerning designations of indigenousness and folklorico, and the ideological movement of indigenismo are introduced, particularly relating to the P'urhépecha peoples. The term performism is coined to frame the discussion, engaging with the broadest conceptual understandings of performance, performing, and performativity, with the aim of drawing attention to the multiple cohering and cumulative political, ideological, epistemological, and aesthetic ideas, processes, actions, and strategies.
Ruth Hellier-Tinoco
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195340365
- eISBN:
- 9780199896998
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340365.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music, Dance
The book reveals how the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead of Lake Pátzcuaro act as icons of Mexico and Mexicanness. Covering a ninety-year period from the postrevolutionary era of the 1920s ...
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The book reveals how the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead of Lake Pátzcuaro act as icons of Mexico and Mexicanness. Covering a ninety-year period from the postrevolutionary era of the 1920s to the present day, and incorporating multifarious contexts in Mexico, the USA, and Europe, this study proposes a theory of performism as a frame for interpreting the processes at play as local dance, music, ritual practices, and locations are deployed as national and global spectacles and attractions. Wholly embedded in political, ideological, economic, and aesthetic particularities, this study is concerned with analyzing official constructions of indigenous/indigenousness and folklore/folklórico, focusing on the ideology of indigenismo and the P'urhépecha peoples. Central to the analyses are notions of shaping a collective gaze, authentication, embodiment, folkloricization, ideological refunctionalization, commodification, and commoditization. Key to understanding these cultural constructions are issues of centers and peripheries as this investigation moves between local lives and international politics. Drawing on extensive ethnographic, archival, and participatory experience this interdisciplinary study expands and enriches understanding of complex processes of creating national icons, cultural artifacts, tourist attractions, and representative dance repertoires, specifically engaged with the signifying power of the human body. The book shows how constructions of Mexicanness and Mexico are manifest in multiple theatricalized, musical, filmic, literary, and visual representations as found in an eclectic range of sources.Less
The book reveals how the Dance of the Old Men and Night of the Dead of Lake Pátzcuaro act as icons of Mexico and Mexicanness. Covering a ninety-year period from the postrevolutionary era of the 1920s to the present day, and incorporating multifarious contexts in Mexico, the USA, and Europe, this study proposes a theory of performism as a frame for interpreting the processes at play as local dance, music, ritual practices, and locations are deployed as national and global spectacles and attractions. Wholly embedded in political, ideological, economic, and aesthetic particularities, this study is concerned with analyzing official constructions of indigenous/indigenousness and folklore/folklórico, focusing on the ideology of indigenismo and the P'urhépecha peoples. Central to the analyses are notions of shaping a collective gaze, authentication, embodiment, folkloricization, ideological refunctionalization, commodification, and commoditization. Key to understanding these cultural constructions are issues of centers and peripheries as this investigation moves between local lives and international politics. Drawing on extensive ethnographic, archival, and participatory experience this interdisciplinary study expands and enriches understanding of complex processes of creating national icons, cultural artifacts, tourist attractions, and representative dance repertoires, specifically engaged with the signifying power of the human body. The book shows how constructions of Mexicanness and Mexico are manifest in multiple theatricalized, musical, filmic, literary, and visual representations as found in an eclectic range of sources.
Michael J. Montoya
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267305
- eISBN:
- 9780520949003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267305.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter presents the representations of diabetes as a racialized disease with the ideologies of research participation and humanitarian service found within the sampling apparatuses along the ...
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This chapter presents the representations of diabetes as a racialized disease with the ideologies of research participation and humanitarian service found within the sampling apparatuses along the border. It is shown that a transnational protogenetic subject is crafted through the biological embodiment of Mexicana/o ethnicity as an admixed biological group. The chapter also explains the admixture–susceptibility matrix, and offers its resonance with contemporary and historical nativist impulses. The diabetes susceptibility haplotype transforms the conventional epidemiological concern for predicting which persons will become ill to predicting who is an ill person. The chapter demonstrates that while the ideology of diabetes science may interpellate Mexicanas/os into state subjects, it does so by naturalizing a particular social order. Locating diabetes within Mexicana/o ethnoracial admixture cleaves both Mexicanness and the illness called diabetes from the social histories that produced the ethnic label and the socially embodied conditions which contribute to the disease.Less
This chapter presents the representations of diabetes as a racialized disease with the ideologies of research participation and humanitarian service found within the sampling apparatuses along the border. It is shown that a transnational protogenetic subject is crafted through the biological embodiment of Mexicana/o ethnicity as an admixed biological group. The chapter also explains the admixture–susceptibility matrix, and offers its resonance with contemporary and historical nativist impulses. The diabetes susceptibility haplotype transforms the conventional epidemiological concern for predicting which persons will become ill to predicting who is an ill person. The chapter demonstrates that while the ideology of diabetes science may interpellate Mexicanas/os into state subjects, it does so by naturalizing a particular social order. Locating diabetes within Mexicana/o ethnoracial admixture cleaves both Mexicanness and the illness called diabetes from the social histories that produced the ethnic label and the socially embodied conditions which contribute to the disease.
Edward Telles and Christina A. Sue
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190221492
- eISBN:
- 9780190061401
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190221492.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter assesses whether U.S.-born Mexican Americans feel American or a part of American society, even though they have been portrayed as threats to Americanism and have had their allegiance ...
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This chapter assesses whether U.S.-born Mexican Americans feel American or a part of American society, even though they have been portrayed as threats to Americanism and have had their allegiance questioned. It also considers how their ethnic identity affects their sense of Americanness. For the respondents, they in no way perceive their ethnic and national identities as being mutually exclusive; to the contrary, they find these identities to be highly compatible and complementary. They define Americanness in terms of birthplace, political loyalty, and economic opportunities; they define Mexicanness in terms of culture, family, and ancestral background. Moreover, the vast majority of the respondents view national identity as their primary identity, something that is constant, natural, and unquestioned, whereas their ethnic identities vary in intensity, depending on the individual and the situation.Less
This chapter assesses whether U.S.-born Mexican Americans feel American or a part of American society, even though they have been portrayed as threats to Americanism and have had their allegiance questioned. It also considers how their ethnic identity affects their sense of Americanness. For the respondents, they in no way perceive their ethnic and national identities as being mutually exclusive; to the contrary, they find these identities to be highly compatible and complementary. They define Americanness in terms of birthplace, political loyalty, and economic opportunities; they define Mexicanness in terms of culture, family, and ancestral background. Moreover, the vast majority of the respondents view national identity as their primary identity, something that is constant, natural, and unquestioned, whereas their ethnic identities vary in intensity, depending on the individual and the situation.