The Culture of Marginality Among the Teeneks of Tantoyuca Thunder Doesn’t Live Here AnyMore A n a t h A r i e l d e V i d a s Translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan Thunder Doesn’t Live Here Anymore MESOAMERICAN WORLDS From the Olmecs to the Danzantes Ancient Tollan: Tula and the Toltec Heartland, Alba Guadalupe Mastache, Robert H. Cobean, and Dan M. Healan Eating Landscape: Aztec and European Occupation of Tlalocan, Philip P. Arnold Empires of Time: Calendars, Clocks, and Cultures, Revised Edition, Anthony Aveni In the Realm of Nachan Kan: Postclassic Maya Archaeology at Laguna de On, Belize, Marilyn A. Masson Life and Death in the Templo Mayor, Eduardo Matos Moctezuma The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript, Gabrielle Vail and Anthony Aveni, editors Mesoamerica’s Classic Heritage: Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, Davíd Carrasco, Lindsay Jones, and Scott Sessions Mockeries and Metamorphoses of an Aztec God: Tezcatlipoca, “Lord of the Smoking Mirror,” Guilhem Olivier Representing Aztec Ritual: Performance, Text, and Image in the Work of Sahagún, Eloise Quiñones Keber, Editor Tamoanchan, Tlalocan: Places of Mist, Alfredo López Austin Thunder Doesn’t Live Here Anymore: The Culture of Marginality Among the Teeneks of Tantoyuca, Anath Ariel de Vidas Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl: The Once and Future Lord of the Toltecs, H. B. Nicholson The World Below: Body and Cosmos in Otomí Indian Ritual, Jacques Galinier SERIES EDITORS Davíd Carrasco Eduardo Matos Moctezuma EDITORIAL BOARD Michio Araki Alfredo López Austin Anthony Aveni Elizabeth Boone Doris Heyden Thunder Doesn’t Live Here Anymore The Culture of Marginality Among the Teeneks of Tantoyuca Anath Ariel de Vidas This English translation is a revised and abridged version of the French original, Le Tonnerre n’habite plus ici. Culture de la marginalité chez les Indiens teenek (Mexique) ÉDITIONS DE L’ÉCOLE DES HAUTES ÉTUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES, PARIS, 2002 Translated from the French by Teresa Lavender Fagan U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S O F C O L O R A D O © 2004 by the University Press of Colorado Published by the University Press of Colorado 5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C Boulder, Colorado 80303 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of the Association of American University Presses. The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, and Western State College of Colorado. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1992 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ariel de Vidas, Anath. [Le Tonnerre n’habite plus ici. English] Thunder doesn’t live here anymore : the culture of marginality among the Teeneks of Tantoyuca / Anath Ariel de Vidas ; translated from the French by Teresa Lavender Fagan.— Abridged version. p. cm. — (Mesoamerican worlds) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87081-769-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-87081-770-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Huastec Indians—Social life and customs. 2. Huastec Indians—Folklore. 3. Tantoyuca (Mexico)—Social life and customs. I. Title. II. Series. F1221.H8V5313 2004 305.897'4207262—dc22 2004010395 Design by Daniel Pratt 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Ouvrage publié avec le concours du Ministère français chargé de la culture–Centre national du livre. [This work has been made possible by a grant of the French Ministry of Culture–National Center for Literature.] Additional support has been provided by the Eugene M. Kayden Fund at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Haifa University’s Research Authority. All photographs were taken by the author. Portions of this book were translated by Martha Grenzeback. In memory of my father, whose questions of identity accompanied him throughout his life and even into death vi Contents List of Figures, Maps, Tables, and Myths / ix Foreword by Davíd Carrasco and Eduardo Matos Moctezuma / xi Acknowledgments / xiii Phonetic Transcription of Veracruzan Teenek / xvii Introduction: Is the Sparrow Hawk Dying? / 1 PART ONE—THE TEENEK UNIVERSE / 17 1 The Natural and Social Landscape of Tantoyuca / 21 The Social Scene / 23 Economic Life of the Tantoyuca Teeneks / 38 Can the Teeneks “Afford” Their Indianness? / 56 Political Organization of the Teenek Community / 59 Public Functions in the Communities / 65 The Community as the Immediate Social Framework of the Teeneks / 66 2 Teenek Alliances / 69 The Marital Alliance / 69 vii CONTENTS Social Alliances / 91 3 A Problem of Boundaries / 101 “The Problem” / 103 Three Sides to Every Story: Yours, Mine, and the Truth / 105 Land and Ethnicity / 116 Conclusion to Part One / 127 PART TWO—MESSAGES FROM THE UNDERWORLD / 129 4 The Reality of the Baatsik’ / 133 The Baatsik’ Space / 143 The Baatsik’ and the Souls of the Dead / 149 5 Teenek Etiology / 155 Balance Disrupted / 156 The Regulators / 166 Balance Regained / 190 Illness and Cosmology / 222 6 Teenek and Baatsik’: Terms of Coexistence / 227 Soul and Territoriality / 227 Conclusion to Part Two / 247 PART THREE—BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH / 261 7 “Hell Is Other People” / 265 The Others / 265 The Reality of the Ejek / 292 The Dilemma of Present-Day Teeneks / 311 8 The Space of Memory / 321 Veracruzan Teenek Dances / 322 The Myths of Thunder and of Corn / 351 Thunder, the Prophet, and the Man-God / 365 Conclusion to Part Three / 375 Conclusion: The Culture of Marginality / 387 Notes / 395 Glossary of Acronyms and Foreign Terms / 407 Bibliography / 411 Index / 423 viii