To Stamp One's Feet: Resurgence of the Artesa as an Identity Reassessment in Afro-Descendant Communities of Costa Chica, Mexico

Abstract

An artesa is a large zoomorphic stamping platform in the shape of a cattle related animal (horse, bull or cow) made of one piece of parota tree wood (Enterolobyum Cyclocaroum). Until the midtwentieth century, most collective Afro-descendant celebrations in Costa Chica region (Mexico) implied a fandango de artesa, where stamping dance on an artesa –along with other musical instruments and singing– was the center of the festivity. Nevertheless, since then fandangos began to gradually fall into neglect until practically disappear. In the 1980s, through the intervention of some anthropologists, the fandango underwent into a process of resurgence. Firstly, immersed in the agenda of the institutional programme ‘Our Third Root’ -dedicated to the cultural recognition of Afro-descendants- and later on embraced by a local movement concerned with ‘Afro-Mexican’ political recognition, artesa resurgence went through substantial changes. This process brought new functions, meanings, performative formats, construction and esthetical values to this musical instrument. Based on regional field-work this paper explores artesa’s recent status as a selective cultural process where a re-interpretation and a new narrative have shaped a particular resurgence of this instrument and its contexts of appearance.