Religion and Ritual among the Tarahumara Indians of Northern Mexico: Maintenance of Cultural Autonomy Through Resistance and Transformation of Colonizing Symbols

Abstract

Introduction , number of differing reactions of Native A merican societies to religious contacts with dominant groups have been characterized by Dozier (1960) including: 1) rejection; 2) assimilation; 3) fusion; 4) compartmentalization; and 5) reactive adaptation. In his analysis contrast between the types of adjustment of Indian societies colonized by North Europeans and those by Spain, were attributed to basic differences in the evangelistic activities of Protestant and Catholic missionaries (Dozier:169). The characteristic responses to North European colonization tended to be of reactive nature including nativism, and revivalistic and messianic movements. Fusion and were more characteristic in areas of Spanish colonization. Assimilation, or the replacement of traditional systems with those of another culture, occurs particularly when joined with racial or biological assimilation or when it is an individual response of members of the group. Dozier recognizes as collective response as long as the group remains recognizable as native entity and cites the Menominee Elite of Wisconsin as an example (p. 163). Complete rejection of all aspects of an alien contact culture is said to be rare. However, the Hopi of northern Arizona and the Seri of Baja California exemplify total rejection of the religious aspect of contact with Christian missionization. A less common response is reactive adaptation, conscious, collective effort by the natives to reaffirm or preserve their culture. The Ghost Dance movement of the late 1800s among California and Plains groups has been cited as the classic example of reactive adaptation. This type of response has been correlated with widespread deprivation or deterioration of society under the domination of another. Compartmentalization, according to Dozier, was unique reaction characteristic of the Rio Grande Pueblos of New Mexico where one system is of Spanish-Catholic derivation and the is an system. Compartmentalization refers to the existence of two distinct and separate socioceremonial systems, each of which contains patterns not found in the other (Dozier:164). Fusion also known as syncretism, is defined by Dozier (p. 164) as a kind of mosaic of indigenous and introduced elements in various and complex combinations. Mexico and the Caribbean are given as areas where this type of response is common. To date conceptualizations introduced by Dozier have been very useful in explaining cross-cultural religious contacts among North American Indians. However, explanations are limited to characterization of the response of an entire Indian group to outside contact. The present discussion also considers the variability of responses within single group, specifically within the Tarahumara Indian population. With the exception of reactive adaptation, all responses defined by Dozier are exemplified in this group. The concept of syncretism as discussed by Dozier best characterizes the general Tarahumara