Beyond the Peyote Dance: The Raramuri Tribe and ‘Mexico’ Representations in Antonin Artaud’s Work

Abstract

This chapter examines the impact that Mexico—the conception and misconceptions of its native culture—had on Antonin Artaud’s work. Artaud’s interest in Mexico precedes his visit to the country in 1936 and informs parts of The Theatre and Its Double (1938), which were even partially conceived in Mexico, when he had contact with the Mexican avantgarde artists as well as with the Rarumari, a native tribe from Sierra Tarahumara, later pictured in his book The Peyote Dance (1937) and other writings. The chosen line of investigation is to discuss how racial issues emerge and are (or not) problematized in Artaud’s work, in which Mexico becomes an ‘idyllic place’ and the Rarumari its ‘lost civilization’. The discussion is conducted through bibliographic review and a critical approach is necessary since related notions like primitivism in modern art need to be reviewed and discussed within a decolonial perspective.