MATACHINES TARAHUMARAS. Reinventing tradition

Abstract

Introduced by the missionaries in time of conquest, the dance of matachines possesses nowadays many force inside the ethnic group Rarámuri, inhabitant of the Saw Tarahumara,
placed to the southwest of the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. Since his arrival to the region at the beginning of the XVIIth century and up to the present moment, this modality of dance has numerous changes in suffered his forms and and senses, being able to appreciate great diversity in his development inside the own rarámuri communities. In this work we will try to answer to such questions as: wherefrom the matachines come originally and who introduced them in the Tarahumara? What distinctive characteristics have the matachines rarámuri? What type of intercultural implications does it bring to dance matachín? What process of change have they had? What symbolic meanings do we extract from the dance matachín? We will centre the attention on the process of raramurizatión experienced by the matachines, which will lead us to think finally about the cultural lendings, the idea of syncretism as reintepretation, and the reinvented tradition in the search of senses.