Theatres of combat: humiliation, vindication and the expression of difference in Mexican dance dramas

Abstract

This paper compares pre-Hispanic and post-Hispanic dance dramas to emphasise their epistemological, ontological and semantic differences. It then critically discusses bi-cultural approaches to dance dramas which essentialise and distinguish between pre-Columbian and Hispanic expressions, as well as the approach which sees dance dramas as reproducing the defeat and humiliation of Amerindian cultures in the wake of Spanish colonisation. Instead, it is argued, combat plays, and dance dramas generally, should be seen as unique and innovative hybrid responses to conquest situations. The paper concludes by examining indigenous strategies to reassert moral and ethical superiority and vindicate the struggle against oppression and colonisation.