Notes on the dances, music and songs of the ancient and modern Mexicans / by Auguste Génin.

  • Génin, Auguste, 1862-1931.
Date:
1922
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the dances, music and songs of the ancient and modern Mexicans / by Auguste Génin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    groups: the various Nahoas tribes, which occupied the central plateau of Mexico; the Otomis who lived and still live in the mountains sur¬ rounding the valley of Mexico; the Tarases of Michoacan; the Tzapo- tecs, the Mixtecs, and the Mijes, inhabiting more particularly the present States of Oaxaca and of Vera Cruz; the Lacandons, who still live in the almost impenetrable forest of Chiapas; the Mayas, whose domain is Yucatan; the Hauxtecs, dwelling on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, including a part of the States of Yera Cruz, Tamaulipas, and San Luis Potosi; the Redskins of Chihuahua and of Sonora, probably descendants of the ancient CKTchimecs: and finally Hui- choles and the Tapahumares, who inhabit the Sierras parallel to the Pacific Ocean, in the former Territory of Tepic, to-day the State of Nayarit. The purpose of that which precedes is to show that it is not neces¬ sary to believe that the usages and customs of one or another of these ethnic clans or tribes had a general character. For example, the Mayas, eminently civilized, devoted themselves to religious practices, full of ritual and reverential fear, which were unknown to the Redskins and the Indians of the Pacific Sierras, who were developing from the pre-Cortezian civilization, for they shut themselves off almost entirely from modern influence. The Aztecs who dominated over the Anahuac—that is, the valley of Mexico, and who fought their way to the borders of the present Mexico—had different customs from the people whom they overcame, and these they imposed upon them, with their gods and their re¬ ligious practices, respecting, nevertheless, the local gods, in such a manner that while increasing the range of their own myths they augmented the number of them by adopting the gods of the con¬ quered countries as a whole or in part, perhaps through fear of these gods or, more probably, for political reasons, in order to draw the sympathy of the conquered. In view of what precedes, we wfill describe in the course of these notes certain special dances in certain regions of Mexico, without in any way implying that they were in use anywhere else, although in the course of events they often passed from one tribe into another for various reasons. ANCIENT MUSIC AND DANCES. Torquemada, who gives special attention to the Aztecs, tells us that the Mexicans were not musicians, that their songs were very monotonous, although they varied the tone of them without abandon¬ ing certain very marked rhythms. The musical instruments which they used were rudimentary. I will give a description of them later on. As for the dances, or balls, they varied greatly. Orozco y Berra, in commenting on Torquemada, describes them thus: