Beginning her text with the description of a murder and its impact in the Sierra Mazateca, Paja Faudree’s book looks at the complex relationship between life, death, language, song, and belief. In the analysis of different linguistic and cultural revitalization projects in the Sierra Mazateca in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, Faudree aims to “examine how assertions of ethnic difference and the [respective] challenges to national belongings are worked out in practice” (9). This work, according to Faudree, tells the story of a successful case of cultural revival, specifically how through different cultural expressions (such as song competitions and religious practices) a Mazatec community has “reversed decades of cultural and linguistic erosion to revive and reinvent lost customs” (9). In addition, the cases she presents offer “an alternative model of national plurality and ethnic politics in which revival practices presented and perceived as apolitical can produce powerful political results” (10).
Faudree opens her work with an assessment of the historical and contextual setting (chapters 1 and 2) in order to introduce the in-depth analysis of her particular case studies in chapters 3 to 5, and concludes with an analysis of the broader (national) implications of language revitalization projects (chapter 6). The two major case studies in Faudree’s analysis are the Day of the Dead Song Competition and the creation of the Mazatec Indigenous Church in the municipality of Nda Xo in the Sierra Mazateca.
In the first chapter of the book, the author provides a detailed history of Mexico’s cultural and ethnic politics “viewed through the prism of language and literacy policies as they have shaped relations between indigenous groups and the state” (33). This chapter functions to locate the Sierra Mazateca, and specifically the community of Nda Xo, her main fieldsite, within the national discourse surrounding language and cultural revitalization projects. According to Faudree, research on Mazatec culture is scarce, and what little there is mainly focuses on hallucinogenic mushroom use and “traditional Mazatec culture” (71). Those works, furthermore, focus on cultural change and modernization, and most scholars “present modernization as inherently divisive” (72-3). Faudree argues instead that revitalization projects, as a form of modernization, can successfully balance “adaptation and allegiance to the past…and provide myriad ways to synthesize the traditional and the modern that allow for harmony rather than rupture” (73-4).
Faudree continues to address the impact of mycotourism in the Sierra Mazateca in the next chapter, “Revival in the ‘Land of the Magic Mushroom.’” She focuses on the construction of roads and the subsequent arrival of hippies looking for hallucinogenic mushrooms in the 1960s and well into the 1970s, as well as the arrival of the Catholic Church and the founding of the Prelature of Huautla, the seat of the region’s first resident bishop, in the early 1970s. According to Faudree, these events set the stage for the revitalization movements by “establishing new traditions of Mazatec literacy and performance while providing institutional support for both” (76). One of the first indigenous priests in the Sierra Mazateca, Heriberto Prado Pereda, Faudree identifies as the “most important figure in the Sierra’s revival movements” (92). Prado Pereda officiated mass in Mazateco and wrote songs for the masses, the song writing in particular becoming a major influence on regional language revitalization movements. Faudree also recognizes Heriberto’s half-brother, Alberto Prado Pineda, a composer also influential in the revitalization movement and responsible for the creation of the Day of the Dead Song Competition.
“Singing for the Spirits: The Annual Day of the Dead Song Contest” links the information provided in the first two chapters to the development of revitalization movements in the area. For Faudree, the contest is a direct descendant from Heriberto Prado Pereda’s song project. As a result of national educational policies, most young Mazatecos are passive Mazateco speakers, as Spanish is their first language. The Song Contest is directly responsible for the growing participation of younger Mazatecos in the revitalization of the language, with many now learning to speak Mazateco. In addition, this “many-sided revival project has in turn brought with it new ideas about Mazatec tradition and ethnic belonging, notions that have political and material impact in people’s daily lives” (106). According to Faudree, the key to the Song Contest’s success and regional appeal is “its flexibility in dealing with the assorted boundaries in play during the Day of the Dead fiesta, including those between national and ethnic belonging, tradition and innovation, history and modernity” (106-107).
Faudree’s second case study is the Mazatec Indigenous Church (chapter 4). Unlike the Song Contest, the Mazatec Indigenous Church has a limited appeal in the area and is considered to be a source of controversy and division. Faudree understands the principal aim of the organization to be the “cleans[ing] of the Catholic faith of its ostensibly non-native—thus contaminating—influences” (142). The Mazatec Indigenous Church, founded by Heriberto Prado Pereda, began as a response to the discriminatory attitudes and policies of the Catholic Church toward the indigenous population. People turned to Heriberto Prado Pereda, no longer a priest of the Catholic Church, for spiritual guidance and support. Under the leadership of Heriberto, the Mazatec Indigenous Church transformed the Catholic mass into a ritual composed of traditional Mazatec elements. A major modification, and also one of the most contentious, is the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in substitution of the Eucharist. In this chapter, Faudree argues that “the way the Mazatec church represents itself regarding internal divisions and ideas about indigenous belonging have been closely tied to its difficulties in appealing to would-be converts” (142).
In chapter 5, “Meeting at the Family Crypt: Social Fault Lines and the Fragility of Community,” Faudree compares and contrasts the Annual Day of the Dead Song Contest and the Mazatec Indigenous Church as revealing “the constraints under which revival movements labor in balancing local expectations against engagement with national institutions and discourses” (175). For Faudree, the Song Contest is an example of a revival project accepted as a “safe” expression of indigenous identity at local and national levels (140). On the other hand, the Mazatec Indigenous Church, seen as “closely linked to ‘authentic’ Mazatec identity—mushroom use above all—opens its members to critique and, ultimately, the widespread rejection of their revival project” (173). By carefully analyzing both cases side-by-side, Faudree presents them as not opposed to one another but as symbiotic, each providing “insight into the potential [that] revival projects have to create social change while illuminating the substantial limitations revival projects face in realizing social transformations” (174).
In the last chapter, “Seeing Double: Indigenous Authors, Readers, and the Paradox of Revival,” Faudree contextualizes the revitalization movements in the Sierra Mazateca with other revitalization movements. In this chapter her main focus is on the written text, specifically on bilingual publications in Spanish and native languages. In most cases indigenous writers publish their words in Spanish and in their native language. This chapter sets up the conclusion, in which Faudree considers “how indigenous authors’ competing audiences produce different kinds of indigenous authors who are collectively transforming Mexico’s cultural politics” (199).
Faudree ultimately argues that revival movements need to be seen in broad context in order to understand all the elements that come into play. In addition, revival projects, such as the Song Contest and the Mazatec Indigenous Church, must be analyzed not as oppositional, but in terms of “the symbiotic relations among them and the collaborative work they perform in aggregate” (245). Faudree concludes with a description of the end of the celebration of Day of the Dead in the cemetery in Nda Xo. One of the last songs performed in the cemetery was composed by Alberto Prado Pineda. At that precise time, she is sitting beside Alberto, who comments that when he dies that song will be played in his honor; one day he will be gone, but his song will live on. This final reflection highlights the connection between language, belief, death, and life.
Faudree’s text is a rich and detailed meditation on the revival movements in Sierra Mazateca in Oaxaca, Mexico. While Faudree’s theoretical model (revival movements as symbiotic phenomena) may not necessarily work in other cases, she makes a compelling argument for the Sierra Mazateca. However, both cases presented were greatly influenced by the same person, Heriberto Prado Pereda. Are there other revitalization movements in the Sierra Mazateca that are separate or at least not directly influenced by Prado Pereda? If that is the case, what do these movements look like? Or, if there are no other revitalization projects, why not? The argument Faudree presents would have been far more compelling were she to have documented the increase (if any) of Mazatec speakers. How can you measure the success of a revitalization project, or the revitalization of a language? Though at times the argument may not be as compelling as Faudree imagines, this does not diminish her excellent work. Those who study revitalization movements, Mazateco culture and history, or Oaxaca will find much food for thought in Singing for the Dead: The Politics of Indigenous Revival in Mexico.
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[Review length: 1500 words • Review posted on September 10, 2014]