Dead people who create themselves: ritual and performance in a Mazatec community in the Sierra Negra de Puebla, Mexico

Abstract

This visual essay presents an approach to the artistic manifestations of the ritual dedicated to the deceased ancestors in a Mazatec community in the Sierra Negra of Puebla, Mexico. In an effort to vindicate the artistic expressions of indigenous festivities, the photographic record allows us to approach them and share their splendor. In this particular case, individual and collective creativity is condensed in the figure of the chonijmó, the dancing dead. Through music, dance and costume, the Mazatecs honor their memory and put into action their ritual and performative ingenuity.