Abstract

RIEGER, Ivy Alana. Chameleonic Traditions in the Festive Practices of a Mixtec Transnational Community. Reflexiones [online]. 2019, vol.98, n.1, pp.111-129. ISSN 1659-2859.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/rr.v98i1.33121.

What does it mean to practice “tradition” in indigenous communities? This article focuses on an ethnographic analysis of celebrations in the Mixtec transnational community of San Juan Mixtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico in the light of the anthropological concept of “tradition”. This article investigates the relationship between the creation, maintenance, and transformation of the practice of tradition by the analysis of some of the celebrations of this Mixtec community. Specifically, the article presents tradition as a “chameleonic” concept which resides in the space between permanence and transformation, providing an historic or commemorative foundation for the practices and memories of its participants and working as a dynamic context for the exploration of new identity constructions. In this way, this article proposes a new analytic model for the investigation of indigenous transnational communities, where traditions are portrayed as a catalyst for senses of belonging in an ethnographic context where daily experiences are marked, in many ways, by movement.

Keywords : Transnational communities; Tradition and performativity; Cultural change; Community belonging; Mixtec culture.

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