Cuando muere Cristo, Desorden Cósmico y ruptura social durante la Semana Santa entre Los Huaves de San Mateo del Mar, Oaxaca

Abstract

This work describes some of the ritual activities of the Huaves in San Mateo del Mar –southern part of Oaxaca State– on Easter (including Shrovetide, Lent and Holy Week ). The aim is to emphasize how they have changed the ritual elements inherited from Spanish catolicism (both official and popular) into a syncretic religious system in symphony with their specific conceptual universe, culture and environment and, as such what is the significance of the Easter celebration integrated into the “fascinating tout se tient” of the annual festival calendar. For the population of San Mateo, Holy Week is the last moment of choral and communal action for moral purification and redemption in order to await the rainy season, the regeneration of life. In this cosmologic and ecologic context, the myth related to Christ’s death supports new paradigms: the huaves’ ceremonial and religious cycle, Holy Week and the entire Easter period prepares them ritually for the arrival of the Corpus Christi celebration, considered the height of the huaves’ festival cycle, in which all the actions and the ritual language are impregnated with references to water.