Week Three: Settling into the semester

-By Shana Rubenstein






Walking to a ceremonial site. Photo by Daniel Staples.


This past week, we focused on pre-conquest Cosmovison in Mesoamerica, as well as began to gain a grasp on neoliberal globalization. Cosmovision is defined by David Carrasco as ¨patterns of worldmaking, worldcentering, and worldrenewing…the ways in which cultures combine their cosmological notions relating to time and space into a structural and systematic whole.¨[1] These two themes were brought together in our visit to a Nahua indigenous village in Morelos. Through this visit, we learned both about Nahua cosmovision and its impact on generations of people, and how the current form of globalization, characterized by environmental destruction and disregard for people, is a constant threat to the Nahua community. Nahuatl is the most commonly spoken indigenous language in Mexico, and Nahuas trace their roots back more than 10,000 years[2]. We were fortunate to speak with a Nahua member of the communal land council, spiritual leader, and veterinarian.

One main idea expressed by the Nahua cosmovision is the notion of duality[3]. In this idea, everything had its opposite, but rather than a binary where one side triumphs over the other (such as the relationship between men and women in a patriarchal society) the emphasis is on finding balance between the equal pulls of the duality. The originary God, Ometeotl, embodies this balance by being simultaneously male and female. Other dualities include night and day, light and darkness, and life and death. There is a very strong emphasis on harmony with the earth, and with the earth and the people mutually sustaining one another.

During the time of conquest, the Spanish fought not only for land but also religious and ideological domination. The conquistadors, with the blessing of the pope and the royalty of Spain, violently instituted systems of patriarchy and racial hierarchy, systems that were the antithesis of the Nahua cosmovision. What has resulted from the introduction of Catholicism is a syncretism of Nahua and Catholic beliefs, and Nahua spirituality remains strong in the community we visited.

The Nahua speaker also spoke with us about the detrimental affect of developers who attempt to buy communally-held land illegally. This practice, along with the destruction of the environment, shows how some of the effects of globalization through the consequences of NAFTA reach this community in damaging ways. In order to join the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico under president Carlos Salinas de Gotari had to agree to repeal some elements of the constitution that were fought for and won during the Mexican Revolution, specifically Article 27 which responded to the struggle led by Emiliano Zapata for communal land rights. This article states that communal and ejido land (land repossessed from large plantations after the Revolution) belongs to those who work it, and asserts that this land cannot be bought or sold. Now that this article has been changed, the communal lands of indigenous groups, upon which their livelihood often depends, are in limbo.

In this trip, we were able to learn of the constant tension between the survival and spirituality of a community that has inhabited the land for thousands of years and the impinging demands of a system that blindly puts forth economic growth as the universal objective, regardless of human cost. As we continue to learn about globalization and liberation theology, we will have a greater grasp both of what brought us to our current situation, and who stands to be affected by policies and worldviews on a global scale.

[1] David Carrasco, Religions of Mesoamerica. (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1990), 50.
[2] Speaker, September 3, 2007, Morelos.
[3] Sylvia Marcos, ¨Bodies and Gender in Mesoamerican Religions¨ In The Body and Religion (SCM Press, 2002 Ed.s Regina Ammicht-Quinn and Elsa Tamez)








The group returning from a Nahua spiritual ceremony. Photo by Daniel Staples