The Bow and the Blanket: Religion, Identity and Resistance in Rarámuri Material Culture

Abstract

The identification of subcultures among the Rarámuri (Tarahumara) of northwest Mexico usually has been discussed in terms of differences pertaining to religion rather than material culture. This article, however, suggests that different subsets of the same material culture also reflect internal differentiation among the Rarámuri and explores how these may be correlated with distinctions between "baptized" and "unbaptized" subgroups. Special attention is given to how unbaptized Rarámuri in one area deploy salient object classes as an expression of their local identity and ideological resistance to Mestizo hegemony. Analysis focuses on the cultural and symbolic meanings implicit in the manufacture and use of "archaic" kinds of textiles and bows and arrows. The article responds to larger debates on the relationship among identity, resistance, and material culture by suggesting that renewed consideration of the material markers of internal differentiation is a critical counterbalance to recent discourse emphasizing linkages between global and local economies.

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