Raramuri Sacred Corn and Drink Term Paper

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"When people get drunk that's why they act like children [the Raramuri believe]...Because the souls that are controlling their actions are the little souls, like little children" (Burnett, 2007). "By custom, participants will drink, dance, drum and carouse for as long as the tesguino holds out, whether two days or two weeks. [the] Spring planting will wait," and the harvest is a harvest of happiness as well as of corn. Instead of wishing one another a 'Happy Easter,' the Raramuri wish one another "bosasa" or "fill up, be satisfied, be contented" (Burnett, 2007).

This sense of joy during a celebration where conventional rules are suspended regarding behavior, and the blending of culture and Christianity are common in Meso-American celebrations of Holy Week all over Latin America. Also, Christians becoming like children before the feet of God is not an entirely foreign concept to Western Christians, nor is the featuring of grain (the host) and spirits (like wine) during communion. And like many Christian sects before them, the Raramuri believe the have been elected to be God's chosen people, "and that their mountain home is the center of the world," and the most sacred place in the world (Burnett, 2007). "In their colorful parades and festivals, they freely use Christian iconography to represent the struggle between the Raramuri and the outside world," transposing their own struggles onto the struggles of Christ and those who follow Christ (Burnett, 2007).

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The Easter Holy Week celebration today has become a great draw for tourists, and provided much-needed income for the Raramuri. The outsiders "marvel" as the Raramuri wear their traditional, colored clothing and play drums and flutes ("Tarahumara," 2007, Mexico Online). However, not all encroachments by modernity have produced such positive results. As more and more Raramuri have been driven to look for work in the cities, the centrality of drink in their culture, removed from its native context has meant that many have sought solace getting drunk "on a couple of beers or a bottle of tequila" rather than make tesguino and "share it with everyone" (Burnett, 2007). This further illustrates how preserving the Holy Week ritual provides an expression of the community's uniqueness and ability to survive in a world that the community has long rejected, and also how presence of beer in religious rituals provides an important sense of release of emotions in a contained format, that is lost outside of the confines of the ritual space and time of the Easter week celebration.

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