Pre-Hispanic Component of the Syncretic Cult of the Dead in Mesoamerica

Abstract

the global configuration of the Catholic-folk-pagan religion. This article analyzes the pre-Hispanic component of the cult of the dead that, together with a structural and ideological equivalent of Spanish-Catholic origin, coalesced into a syncretic institution by the middle of the 17th century and has permanently marked the communal and regional discharge of folk Catholicism until the present. In a wider sense, it contributes to the study of syncretism, particularly of its native and folk components, as a historical process stemming from the confrontation of Christianity with many religions of the world. Todos Santos, Dia de Muertos, Dia de los Muertos, Dia de los Difuntos, and Dia de las Animas Benditas are the most common names by which the combined liturgical feasts of All Saints Day and All Souls Day are usually known in Mexico and most of Latin America. After Christmas and Holy Week (Easter), All Saints Day-All Souls Day is the most important celebration in the annual cycle of folk Catholicism in Mesoamerica. Of all the areas of Christendom, it is probably in this culture area that the ritual and ceremonial elaboration of Todos Santos acquires its maximum expression. The folk manifestation of Todos Santos extends well beyond the traditional feasts of All Saints Day and All Souls Day as practiced in orthodox Catholicism and in most regions of Mesoamerica it acquires significant social, economic, demographic, and even recreational dimensions. Todos Santos is a time of homecoming, remembering and propitiating the dead, cementing and intensifying one's kinship and compadrazgo (ritual kinship) relationships, and sacralizing, albeit temporarily, interpersonal relationships on a communitywide basis. During the period elapsing between five days before and seven days after the first and second of November (the heart of the celebration) the country and the city come together, the little community becomes the cosmological center of existence, and individuals and families are renewed by remembering their roots and paying homage to those who have departed. For a transient moment, the living and the dead are joined in shared existence.

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