Every act of deer singing, ever since the first one was sung, describes the world of flowers and through the labour of singing and dancing the whole night, this world is temporarily re-created, contributing to the communities’ shared inheritance of these aboriginal states of being.įive Enchanted Worlds of the Yaqui People In all the deer songs and performances, the dancers establish a connection with what they call the sea ania, the flower world, and seyewailo is the convergence of time, place, direction and quality of being that is for the Yaquis the essence of sea ania.The sea ania is the embodiment of sacrifice. For the Yaqui of Mexico and Arizona, however, these images represent a history of cultural continuity, tribal sovereignty and ritual sacrifice. For many Mexicans however, these images don’t do much more than remind them of their Aztec heritage and the indigenous people that once lived there. You can not go far into the Northern state of Mexico without encountering depictions of the deer dancer, it can be found on governmental buildings, as sculptures along the highway and even on prepackaged grocery items. It is believed that during a fiesta, the deer comes to the Yaqui people and they sacrifice him to the Gods, in return they perform a dance and a ritual in his honor and thank him for giving himself to their well being. In the flower world, all animals are our friends. In Yaqui mythology, the deer represents good and the dancers tell the story of the deer, their little brother, and the flower world. The deer dance of the Yaqui and Mayo people of Sonora, Mexico, is said to be sacred and therefor rarely photographed. This dance is a great representation of syncretism the merging of the Catholic faith and the figure of Jesus with older views regarding ritual sacrifice and hunting. The Pascola dancer usually wears a mask, often representing a goat.įor the Yoeme (Yaqui) people another animal, the deer, takes front and center at their Easter ceremonies. He is the host of the ceremony and entertains the people with his jokes and antics. First, he is the historian of the Hiaki people who keeps the history alive through legends, myths, sermons and jokes. The Pahko’ola, or Pascola, dancer is the “Old Man of the Ceremony.” The term comes from the words pahko, which means ceremony or fiesta, and o’ola, which is an affectionate term for an old man. Both in the ceremonies and the daily lives of the Hiaki people, flowers are used as powerful weapons against evil and are an important symbol, found in the elaborate floral designs on traditional Hiaki clothing. They represent beauty, but even more, in the desert, an abundance of flowers means that the right rains have come the desert and the harvest will be fruitful and the people will prosper. Flowers are very important in Hiaki culture. When the early Jesuit priests came into what is now Sonora, Mexico, they introduced Catholic ceremonies, which blended with Hiaki tradition. The Easter ceremonies of the Hiaki people of Arizona and northern Mexico represent a tradition that dates to the early 17th century. Hiaki (in Spanish, Yaqui) Easter celebration, which concludes on Easter morning with more dances, followed by a final procession. They were similarly never conquered by the Spanish, defeating successive expeditions of conquistadores in battle. Throughout their history, the Yaqui remained separate from the Aztec and Toltec empires. The Yaqui call their homeland “Hiakim,” from which some say the name “Yaqui” is derived. The Yaqui call themselves “Yoeme,” the Yaqui word for person (“yoemem” or “yo’emem” meaning “people”). The Yoeme or Yaqui are a border Native American people who originally lived in the valley of the Río Yaqui in the northern Mexican state of Sonora and throughout the Sonoran Desert region into the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |