Rituals of Domination and Resistance: Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico, edited by William Beazley, Cheryl English Martin, and William French, translated by Li Yin and Zhou Yan, Shanghai People's Publishing House, July 2023, 512 pages, 14900 yuan.
Rituals are a classic topic in anthropological research. Functionalist theory emphasizes the function of ritual social integration, and advocates that rituals of collective participation can provide individuals with a sense of belonging and identity, and enhance social cohesion. However, without a common worldview and shared symbolism, the integrative function of ritual is clearly not possible. From the symbolic level, Turner proposes the concept of dominant symbolism and instrumental symbolism, situates ritual in the power network of social, political and religious, and realizes the connection between the static function of ritual and the analysis of dynamic operation. Although Turner noted the influence of socio-historical changes on the symbolic meaning of rituals, it must be admitted that classical anthropological research on rituals mostly focuses on indigenous societies without writing and history in Africa, Australia, etc., showing a strong synchronic orientation, which makes the operation of rituals present a homogeneous and collectivist orientation.
In a complex society with a long history and profound civilization accumulation, rituals often present multiple and complex appearances. The multiplicity of ritual symbolism has intensified as these societies have become embroiled in the process of globalization and modernization. The infiltration of colonialism into Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the violent expansion of Western civilization and modernity with Western society as the main body began to expand around the world. In the resistance to Western civilization, non-Western societies have gradually grown into independent, full-fledged political subjects. The domination of colonialism and racism over local societies has exacerbated the differentiation of regional societies at the horizontal level and promoted the formation of multiple political subjects in regional societies. Within regional societies, technological progress and the emergence of the division of labor have promoted the transformation of society from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity, resulting in the differentiation of social structures. In order to maintain their own rule, the rulers of different eras expressed and promoted their own values through the participation and construction of ritual traditions, borrowed the authoritative attributes of ritual traditions, and confirmed the legitimacy of the new order at the symbolic level through the appropriation and implantation of new elements. While continuing the historical tradition, the rituals of the local society present a dynamic and diachronic evolutionary process. This is what Hobsbawm called "the invention of tradition". However, for local societies in the process of modernization, the differentiation of social structures and the emergence of multiple power subjects make the appropriation of rituals by the ruling elite not have a holistic effect. The multiple power subjects other than the elite will also express their own demands through ritual exercises, and even fight against the elite, giving the ritual the attribute of "the weak", thus constituting the dual orientation of ritual change and resistance to change. This is the rationale behind Rituals of Domination and Resistance: Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico.
Rituals of Domination and Resistance: Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico focuses on the changes that Mexican society experienced during the 16th and 20th centuries, from colonialism to the War of Independence, to modernization and nationalism. During the colonial period, the Habsburg Dynasty and the Bourbon Dynasty preached the domination of colonial power over Mexican society in the form of popular religion and public celebrations, forming a state power structure based on colonialism. After freeing themselves from the colonial rule of the Spaniards and achieving independence, the ruling elite transcended the shackles of colonialism, religious traditions, and regionalism, and reconstructed national identity through a variety of symbolic reconstructions such as buildings, songs, and landscapes. This reinvention of public rituals was further strengthened in the nineteenth century during the reign of Porfirio Díaz. The establishment of the modern factory, the establishment of the Avenue of Reform as a symbol of modernization, determined in many ways the reshaping of Mexican society by modernization, and the flourishing of the myth of liberalism in this land of ancient civilization. After the Mexican Revolution in the twentieth century, under the domination of revolutionary nationalism, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) tried to establish the continuity and unity of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) with the colonial era and the period of independence through festivals, the establishment of public schools and museums, and revolutionary religious movements, so as to promote the establishment of a unified national order and realize the formation of a nation-state order. In the context of the drastic changes in social history since the colonial era, ethnic minorities, workers, intellectuals, religious figures, women and peasants also expressed their political attitudes and participation in rituals through their participation in rituals. In this regard, "The Ritual of Domination and Resistance" systematically presents the dual aspects of ritual domination and resistance from a microscopic and low-level perspective, outlining the picture of the historical changes in Mexican society since the colonial system.
Since the sixteenth century, the development, change and enrichment of Mexican social rituals have certainly shown the fact that Mexican society has been divided in the process of modernization and globalization, but the borrowing of ritual traditions by people from different classes and regions has realized the reproduction of ritual flexibility and practicality to a considerable extent, enriched the symbolic meaning of rituals, and endowed rituals with vitality and vitality in a new historical context. More importantly, the participation and borrowing of rituals by multiple subjects also outlines the reproduction process of intertextual meanings completed by distinct and differentiated subjects through rituals in the overall context of local society in Mexico, in multiple dimensions of time, space, culture and epistemology. Colonialism, racism and modernization have divided the otherwise unified Mexican society into a modern Mexico represented by elites, elites and capital, and a traditional Mexico represented by peasants, indigenous peoples and women, resulting in a permanent division of Mexican society. Through the borrowing and sharing of ritual traditions, rituals transform Mexico from a traditional agrarian society to a modern political life in the dimensions of space, time, and perception. Through the sharing of rituals of shared traditions, the narrow demands of different subjects are transcended, and the connection between culture and identity is reconstructed among the diverse subjects of Mexican society. While enriching the connotation of ritual and realizing the dynamic evolution of ritual symbolism, the traditional historical memory and ritual transcend the boundaries of local society and grow into a connection mechanism of regional society. This is also the basis for the formation of the modern nation-state in Mexico, and it has also shaped the open and inclusive characteristics of ritual in Mexican society, giving ritual lasting vitality in Mexican society.
On top of the microcosm, "The Rite of Domination and Resistance" presents the path of the emergence of modernity in Mexico, which is different from that of Western societies. Whether it is the colonial period or the modern nation-state period, religious ceremonies are an important part of the book. The importance of religious rituals in political domination and social development in different periods shows the generative logic of modernity in Mexico, which is different from that of Western societies. Modernity is generally regarded as a process of rationalization of political, economic, and cultural life. The growth of economic liberalism, and the conflict between the search for reason and freedom on this basis and the spiritual conservatism represented by Catholicism, constitute the basic driving force for the generation of modernity in European society, which makes the formation of modernity in European society manifest itself in the continuous retreat of religion in the field of secular life, and gradually internalize it into the secularization process of personal affairs. However, in Latin America, the structural contradictions of society are manifested in the mixture and juxtaposition between indigenous cultural traditions in the vertical dimension and European civilization since the colonial era, and between pluralistic ethnic groups and civilizations in the horizontal dimension. Thus, the emergence of modernity in Latin America is not a replacement or revolution of historical traditions, but a process of establishing connections and establishing relations and order between the past and the present, pluralism and difference. As an important part of social life, religious rituals are an important way to transcend the barriers between classes and races and achieve social bonds. Therefore, in Mexico, the development of modernity is not manifested in the negation and rejection of religion, but in the process of incorporating religious rituals into the process of social development through the borrowing and appropriation of religious rituals by state power and order, promoting the generation of religious locality, and realizing the overall development and progress of society. The appropriation of ritual by multiple subjects has given religious rituals the ability to respond to social changes in a timely manner, making them an important subject of modernity production in Mexico and even Latin America.
On a macro level, The Rites of Domination and Resistance presents a concept that is different from the nation-state construction in Western societies. Under the influence of colonialism and racism, the colonizers and the political elite of the liberal period were hostile to the indigenous traditions of Mexican society, and tried to reconstruct the civilizational traditions of Mexican society with European civilization through the introduction of cultural traditions, science and technology, values and labor control. However, the Catholic attitude towards mixed race and the fact that the early colonists were mostly male led to the widespread occurrence of mixed race in Latin America, which promoted the formation of Latin American mixed cultures. This hybrid culture, which embraces the aspirations of diverse ethnic groups, played a fundamental role in the political mobilization of the Mexican independence movement. After the twentieth century, under the domination of nationalism and based on the characteristics of Mexican society's mixed culture, the ruling elite recognized the contribution of Spanish civilization to Mexican society on the one hand, and regarded Mexico's native Aztec civilization as the cornerstone of the nation-state, so as to complete the reconstruction of the nation-state and realize a way of constructing a nation-state different from that of Anglo-Saxon America. Quetzalcoatl coexists with God on an equal footing in this land of the sons of the sun, and Our Lady of Guadalupe became a symbol of the nascent nation-state as a fusion of national cultures. The long-standing Aztec and Mayan civilizations have also been continued under the care of nationalism.
To a considerable extent, the book demonstrates an acknowledgement of the subjectivity and independence of Mexican civilization, but this recognition is not complete. The Rites of Domination and Resistance focuses on the development and change of social rituals in Mexico from the 16th century to the 20th century, and presents a postmodern view of ritual and cognition similar to the purpose of "traditional invention" in the choice of time and analytical attitude. This concept holds that ritual is not a continuation and legacy of past traditions, but a response to the current social reality, a mobilization and construction of historical traditions in order to create a political identity. Behind this argument is the popularity of secularization arguments. Secularization is the belief that there is no such thing as a real nation, and that the historical narrative of the nation is the result of the reinterpretation of historical texts, myths, and specific symbols. As a result, the book focuses on the "rituals of domination" and "rituals of resistance", without focusing too much on the rituals of the Aztec and Mayan civilizations, and does not discuss the authenticity of ritual traditions and the original meaning of rituals. In fact, the ritual traditions of these ancient civilizations have survived in local societies. As a specific type of political economy and a specific type of epistemology, these rituals, customs and norms are precisely the key to defining "who we are" and "who we are". Eric van Young, one of the book's authors, offers a euphemistic critique of the book's epilogue, "The Vampire State: Mexico's Hegemonic Plans, Public Rituals, and Popular Culture (1600-1990)" for lacking an ethnic, territorial perspective. In my opinion, the root of the problem lies in the fact that this book is a Western-centric, top-down perspective that examines the process of Mexico's involvement in the world system and the completion of the nation-state reconstruction of the Third World countries, and lacks a thorough nativist stance on the holistic understanding of Mexican society and civilization, as well as a systematic presentation of the language, life and customs of Mexican society. In fact, this is precisely the subject of classical anthropological research in Mexico.
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