Quiz 4 Flashcards (Day of the Dead Required Reading)

What is Mexico’s Day of the Dead a version of?

It is a version of the widespread Roman Catholic feasts of:

• All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days.

What does this article analyze?

It analyzes how the holiday has come to be perceived, both within and outside of Mexico, as a unique Mesoamerican legacy, hence a symbol of the nation itself.

What has the recent spread of Halloween within Mexico given rise to?

To a symbolic competition in which Halloween is associated with the United States and the Day of the Dead with Mexico.

What is the presence of Halloween symbols within Mexico interpreted throughout Mexico as?

As symptomatic of U.S. imperialist aggression.

What has David Kertzer demonstrated? Explain.

• That ritual,

• religious,

• or otherwise:

  • “is an important means for structuring our political perceptions and leading us to interpret our experiences in certain ways”.

• That the symbols employed in ritual suggest:

  • a particular interpretation of what is being viewed.

In the recent years, what has Day of the Dead assumed and linked?

It has assumed an increasingly political cast, linking the celebration specifically to Mexico and Mexican national identity.

Why has Day of the Dead helped create an interpretation of the world in which Mexico is unique, culturally discrete, and above all different from Spain and the U.S., regarding the Mexican reaction to Halloween?

Because the rapid penetration of Halloween symbols into Mexico increasingly evokes Mexican nationalistic sentiments, embodied in a campaign to reserve the country from U.S. cultural imperialism.

What does the rapid penetration of Halloween symbols into Mexico increasingly evoke?

Mexican nationalistic sentiments, embodied in a campaign to reserve the country from U.S. cultural imperialism.

What does this article explore?

It explores the Day of the Dead as a political event, which expresses, among other things, the complexities of Mexican-U.S. relations.

What does this article reaffirm?

• The phenomenological view of tradition.

• In the words of Handler and Linnekin, “a model of the past… inseparable from:

  • the interpretation of tradition in the present”.

According to Linnekin, what is tradition?

A conscious model of past lifeways that people use in:

• the construction of their identity.

The Day of the Dead is a specifically _________ term referring to the Mexican version of ______________________: _________ and ____________ Days, observed on November 1 and November 2, respectively.

Mexican, pan-Roman Catholic holy days, All Saints’, All Souls’.

Only when November 2 happens to coincide with Sunday is what celebrated on which day?

Is All Souls’ Day celebrated on November 3.

What is the Day of the Dead in actuality?

A sequence of Days of the Dead.

Despite the elaborate manner in which the Day of the Dead is celebrated, what does the Roman Catholic Church require?

Only the observance of:

• special masses on November 1 in honor of all the saints and on November 2 in honor of the souls in purgatory.

Today, what does the Church require?

It requires parish priests to recite one special mass on November 1 and another on November 2, although three masses on November 2 are more common.

What do the special masses in the Roman Catholic Church constitute?

It constitutes the only official part of All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days celebrations throughout the Roman Catholic world, including Mexico.

What do most observers agree, ironically?

Ironically, they agree that Mass in Mexico is the least-salient part of the holiday.

Even though the origin of the Day of the Dead folk practice is a source of scholarly and popular debate, what is clear?

What is clear is that, for Mexicans, foreigners, and peoples of Mexican descent, the holiday has come to symbolize Mexico and Mexicanness. It is a key symbol of national identity.

Why is Mexican national identity not an easy subject for discussion?

Because it has long been the object of lengthy deliberation and passionate debate, philosophical, historical, and otherwise.

The whole topic of Mexican national identity has recently received sensitive treatment in the writings of who?

Matthew Gutmann

The Mexican state has been confronted by what, and also what? List and explain.

It has not only been confronted by a need faced by many other states:

• (the need to forge a national consciousness and unity among a multitude of diverse regions and peoples)

But, it has also had to- or at least seen fit to-:

• create a sense of national distinctiveness by:

  • contrasting itself to the two great powers to which it has been subject over the course of centuries (Spain & the United States).

From one vantage point,…

…Mexican dependency upon and domination by:

• Spain

• the United States

Have:

• Impeded the emergence of a fully autonomous nation.

From another vantage point, however,…

…Mexicans have been able to use these countries as ideological foils against which to emphasize their own undeniable uniqueness.

In its quest for a unique identity, Mexico has enjoyed one major resource. What is it, and when have they enjoyed the resource?

The Indian, past and present.

What is one effective way to further a sense of discrete national identity? Also, state an example of a place that does this.

Through art and museum displays. An example is the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.

What is also important in the quest for national identity? Also, why?

Folklore, as it:

• often reflects popular ideas about the origins of a people.

• is believed to penetrate beneath the superficial and culturally confounding layers of modern life to some authentic core, thereby:

  • representing the essence of a people, its principal style and values.

How can a people, be they national minority or state-defined nation, reinforce their seperate identity?

through reference to presumably unique ceremonials.

Where does the Day of the Dead date from?

From relatively recent times, probably no further back than the present century.

With regard to All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days in New Spain, is it possible to determine the precise ways in which Mexicans celebrated this holiday, or impossible?

Impossible.

What do we know, in regards to All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days?

That in the 1740s, in the Valley of Mexico, All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days began to assume the flavor of the contemporary event.

Is the degree to which the overall celebration of the Day of the Dead is in reality unique to Mexico a source of ongoing debate (a debate that cannot be resolved here), or no?

Yes, it is a source of ongoing debate.

However, what is necessary to repeat?

That key elements of the contemporary popular celebration of All Saints’ and Souls’ Days in Mexico can be found throughout much of the Roman Catholic world, including Latin America and southern Europe.

What is much of the reason for uncertainty about the origins of the Day of the Dead?

An absence of adequate source material.

According to Viquiera, what is not surprising?

That in October 1766 the Royal Criminal Chamber (Real Sala del Crimen):

• prohibited attendance at cemeteries, and also,

• imposed a prohibition on the sale of alcoholic beverages after nine in the evening.

Nearly one hundred years later, following Mexico’s independence from Spain, did the Day of the Dead still seem to pose a threat to public order and stability, or no?

Yes.

What was the result of the anticipation of social unrest apparently caused by Day of the Dead? Provide examples.

Some degree of press censorship.

Example: Throughout the colonial era and the 19th century:

• Mexican newspapers and other popular sources provide only:

  • The most limited, sanitized coverage of Day of the Dead activities.

What is an example of the Day of the Dead’s attributed derivation and connection to Mexico?

That the Mexican “is:

• familiar with death,

• jokes about it,

• caresses it,

• sleeps with it,

• celebrates it.

It is one of his favorite toys and his most steadfast love”.

What perspective is identified and shared by foreigners? According to which filmmaker is it better displayed than during which Day?

A specifically Mexican attitude toward death, which is nowhere better displayed than during the Day of the Dead (according to Soviet filmmaker Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein).

For Mexicans and the world at large, what does the Day of the Dead represent?

The day of the Dead represents Mexico and things Mexican.

Like most, what do these authors do?

They promote Mexico’s Day of the Dead as a unique phenomenon.

What has come to symbolize Mexico itself?

The Day of the Dead and the attitude toward death that it represents have come to symbolize Mexico itself.

Mexico’s indigenous past and present, as what the author has stated, are what distinguish this country undeniably from both Europe and the United States. What is not surprising, then?

That in the quest for national identity, the Indian should be closely associated with the Day of the Dead.

The alleged pre-Hispanic base of All Souls’ Day is indeed “clear” in the minds of many scholars. Does this relationship receive systematic demonstration, or not?

Unfortunately, never.

The chapter of The Skeleton at the Feast: The Day of the Dead in Mexico (1991) entitled “The Pre-Hispanic Background” remains what?

Remains an implicit endorsement of the idea that the Day of the Dead can in fact be traced to pre-Hispanic ritual.

It is true that what? Also, what have Mexican Indians always celebrated?

• Mexican Indians have demonstrated, through both archaeological and ethnographic evidence, that:

  • they possess complex and subtle ideas about death and the dead.

• They also have always:

  • celebrated the dead through:

    • the performance of specific rituals.

The alleged indigenous character of the fiesta of Day of the Dead ceremonies presented through Mexico means that….

• …it is automatically associated with Mexico, and,

• correspondingly dissociated from:

  • Europe, and,

  • North America.

True or False: There are various mechanisms through which the Day of the Dead as an Indian holiday is not publicly acknowledged and asserted. If False, explain.

False.

There are various mechanisms through which the Day of the Dead as an Indian holiday is publicly acknowledged and asserted.

Before the tour that Mexican scholar Juanita Garciagodoy joined that visited Day of the Dead ceremonies in Xoxocotlán in the state of Oaxaca departed from the meeting point, what happened?

The group was given a short lecture (once in Spanish, once in English, the latter much more brief and simple) about the importance of Días de muertos.

The group was reminded that….

• they would be guests at a spiritually important event and

• counseled to behave appropriately.

Even without making a firm head count, to the group that Stanley Brandes was in, it was clear to all of them that what?

That there were many times more foreigners wandering around the cemetery of Xococotlán on the night of November 1-2 than there were inhabitants of the town itself.

As a result, Xococotlán had what?

Had taken on a carnival atmosphere.

Where does the same as Xococotlán occur during Day of the Dead? And what is the difference between both traditions?

• In Tzintzuntzan.

• The difference is that most outside visitors are Mexicans rather than foreigners.

Yet the community of Tzintzuntzan’s fame as a center of Pureecha culture has been abated ever since that time (1960). True or False?

False. Yet the community of Tzintzuntzan’s fame as a center of Pureecha culture has increased since that time (1960), rather than abated.

What is one reason that the Indigenous community’s fame for the persistent misidentification (being the epitome of enduring Purépecha culture)?

The one reason is the governmental promotion of Tzintzuntzan’s Day of the Dead ceremonies as an authentic indigenous religious ritual.

In 1971, what happened, in regards to how Tzintzuntzan’s Day of the Dead ceremonies celebrated in a relatively muted fashion?

Governmental agencies intervened in such a way as to transform the event entirely.

In the period since the intervention of state agencies, what happened?

Day of the Dead, as a denomination for this holiday, became known as Night of the Dead.

Gradually, over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, what happened?

Massive tourism increasingly defined the contour of Tzintzuntzan’s Night of the Dead.

By the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, what changed about Night of the Dead?

It was now referred to commonly as “La Feria," the Fair. (The Fair of the Deceased).

Why has the Fair of the Deceased (La Feria de los Muertos) become famous nationally as a survival of ancient practice and hence a cultural treasure for the Mexican people as a whole?

Because despite radical transformation, since 1971, the Fair of the Deceased has been billed by the government of the state of Michoacán as both traditional and indigenous.

Would any observer of Day of the Dead ceremonies in the 1990s be impressed by the presence of Halloween symbolism, or no?

Yes.

On the face of it, should the presence of Halloween symbolism cause surprise?

It should cause no surprise.

What does Santino call the Day of the Dead? And why?

A “cognate” or, one might say, a functional equivalent of Halloween, as the historical origins of the two holidays, if not identical, are nonetheless closely intermeshed.

These common origins and shared symbols by no means…

…erase major differences between Halloween, on the one hand, and All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days, on the other.

However, the actual origins and meaning of ritual beliefs and practices during Halloween and the Day of the Dead are what?

Are more or less irrelevant to the growing significance of these holidays for national identity.

As an international scholar, what does Garciagodoy well understand?

She well understands how the Day of the Dead contributes to Mexican national identity.

As a Mexican, what does Garciagodoy not help but experience?

But as a Mexican, she cannot help but experience the nationalistic sentiments increasingly associated with Day of the Dead.

Why is Garciagodoy hardly alone in her assessment?

As according to Mexican physician and author Frank Gonzalez-Crussi, there are disquieting signs of Halloween’s ascent.

Exactly how has Halloween entered into the celebration of the Day of the Dead?

Garciagodoy correctly identifies two main classes of Mexicans (Urban middle-class Mexicans and the working class) who now celebrate the Day of the Dead by drawing on symbols and customs more usually associated with Halloween.

What did the two teenaged boys simply do?

They simply confounded Halloween with the Day of the Dead.

There are parts of Mexico where celebration of the tradition Day of the Dead is what?

Relatively recent.

What are examples of northern states that were places in which Halloween has long enjoyed a visible presence?

Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Sonora.

Why is ironically, the skeleton costume not foreign to Mexico?

Death figures don very similar garb in village dances, where they play the role of clown figures.

What did El Imparcial, a Oaxaca city newspaper, publish on October 31, 1996?

It published a feature article on 31 October 1996 entitled “Halloween or No Halloween? A Fearful Dilemma.”

What does “Halloween or No Halloween? A Fearful Dilemma.” reaffirm?

It reaffirms the influence of this holiday.

What does “Halloween or No Halloween? A Fearful Dilemma.” describe?

It describes a unified campaign by both Catholic and Protestant churches in Oaxaca to stamp out Halloween.

For many Mexican intellectuals, what does Halloween represent?

It represents the worst of the United States.

For Garciagodoy, as for other Mexican intellectuals, what does Halloween serve?

It serves political interests as well.

Still, to Garciagodoy, what does it seem more likely that the cultural impact of Halloween is?

Still, to Garciagodoy, it seems more likely that the cultural impact of Halloween is a side-effect of the principal objective of economic gain.

Clearly, even in colonial times, the Day of the Dead had a _____________ cast.

commercial.

Yet the aspect of the Day of the Dead festivities (giving part of the food offering to the priest in return for the recital of the practice/tradition’s special masses), _______________________, remains ______________________.

which has grown through time and persists in a major way to the present day, relatively unacknowledged in the collective mind of Mexican cultural nationalists.

It is only recently, however that what have become what?

It is only recently, however, that the markers of Halloween- particularly costumes and jack-o’-lanterns-have become an obvious part of the end-of-October celebrations throughout central and southern Mexico.

It is of course now, too, that what?

That the destinies of Mexico and the United States are closer than ever.

As a result of all these developments, that made the destinies of Mexico and the US closer than ever, what has happened?

Halloween has indeed become a palpable part of Day of the Dead proceedings.

The increasing presence of the Day of the Dead within the United States causes what, however? And why?

Causes little competitive concern within our borders, however, because the power relations between the two countries clearly are in the favor of Anglo Halloween customs.

The Day of the Dead on this side of the border is certainly _________________, whether perceptually or actually.

not an imposed tradition