PREHISPANIC THEATER: ORIGINS, CHARACTERISTICS, WORKS - ART - 2025

The prehispanic theater as a cultural expression, consisted of activities representing stories, dances, farce and comedies developed before the arrival of the conquistadors to America. All of them were executed on fixed dates as part of an entire ancestral culture transmitted orally from generation to generation.

Through pre-Hispanic theater, the American aborigine expressed their rites and beliefs. This artistic manifestation was stronger among the Indians who occupied the entire area of ​​the highlands of present-day Mexico. The most complete and preserved records of this type of cultural activity came from this area.

Representation of El Güegüense, a pre-Hispanic play

Due to its strong religious character, the pre-Hispanic theater was immediately attacked by the Spanish expeditionary. The worldview that this activity propagated, the gods to whom it was consecrated and the traits of its characters contradict the European culture of the conqueror.

Consequently, as a way to ensure domination, all these symbols and rituals were fought until they were practically extinct.

The missionary friars, in their place, imposed comedies with religious content that tried to establish Christian values ​​among the Indians.

In the case of the ancient Mexican pre-Hispanic theater, its significance was possible thanks to the work of the friars Andrés de Olmos and Bernardino de Sahagún.

These were dedicated to compiling the oral memory of the Indians and transcribing it in Latin script. In the process much of the originality was lost due to its inconvenience to European culture.

origins

Like the great cultures of antiquity, the pre-Hispanic theater had its origins in its religious festivals and commemorations. In their rites and processions, the priests marched, singing sacred hymns, with representative attire of their gods and they brought their divine poems to the people.

Over time, these ceremonies were remembered with symbolic representations performed on fixed dates. In addition, some archaeological remains of the Nahuatl culture give an account of some hymns and dances that were performed in different circumstances.

Thus, there were hymns and dances to celebrate victories, to make pilgrimages and to stop along the way during the course of an immigration.

All of them had the goal of thanking their gods. These demonstrations became formal - with libretti and even with special clothing - as the culture settled.

Upon the arrival of the Spaniards, there was already a group of ceremonies in which they performed, sang and danced. These ceremonies were rehearsed for many days. On the day of its presentation, costumes and masks were used that denoted the theatrical nature of the ceremony.

Nahuatl culture had a kind of sacred cycle called perpetual theater. This sacred cycle happened uninterruptedly throughout its 18 months of 20 days each. There, representations of ceremonies were made to the gods where the priests and the people participated.

characteristics

Orality

From its origins, the pre-Hispanic theater had a purely oral condition and with the purpose of preserving historical memory. In each transmission, changes were incorporated that helped the development of the genre.

For example, in the Nahuatl world, the tlamatini (the one who knows something) was in charge of guarding the itoloca (what is said about someone or something) and teaching young people the songs dedicated to the gods, friendship, war, love and death. The route used for teaching was the oral word and non-alphabetic writing systems.

In the same way, there were in all pre-Hispanic cultures people in charge of maintaining the historical memory of their people and transmitting it to the next generation. Upon the arrival of the conquerors, the Spanish missionaries and lawyers called themselves chroniclers.

So, they began to collect and transcribe this Amerindian memory. In the process, much of what was broadcast was removed or modified for religious or political reasons.

That was the end of orality in the registration and transmission of pre-Hispanic culture. All preserved works underwent a literacy process.

Participation of priests and the people

In pre-Hispanic theater, the actors were generally the people involved in the actions that they wanted to represent. There were two classes of actors, the priests and the people in general.

These disguised themselves, sang hymns and communicated with their gods within a mythical symbolism that surrounded their culture.

Some actors of the town had to interpret their own history representing the figure of one of their gods. This unique representation culminated in their sacrifice as a tribute to the god to whom they were offered.

Very often, maidens or young representatives of a particular goddess or god were selected for the role.

Religious topics

The themes of pre-Hispanic theater were always related to religious festivals and commemorations. For example, in pre-Hispanic Nahuatl culture, festivals were related to their sowing and harvesting cycles, and theatrical acts were staged to acknowledge the blessing of the gods.

Frequently, preceding this staging, ritual fasts and penances were performed. The work included men disguised as ferocious beasts such as eagles, snakes, and various varieties of birds.

The end of the works was the sacrifice that could be of birds or humans. At times, human victims represented their detachment from the world and their willing sacrifice.

Sometimes the themes were comical. Thus, in the adoration festivals of Quetzalcóatl (Mexican pre-Hispanic deity) the actors came out pretending to be deaf, afflicted with colds, disabled, blind and without arms.

All in his representation pleaded with their gods for his healing. These disabilities were cause for laughter to the audience.

Works and authors

The Rabinal Achí or Dance of the Tun

Pre-Hispanic theater scholars consider it to be a 13th-century Mayan play that represents the ritual sacrifice of a prisoner of war.

For indigenous cultures, the territorial space was sacred and their invasion by strangers was punishable by death, according to the command of the gods.

So a ritual sacrifice was one of those occasions for which there was an entire theatrical ceremony planned. Her libretto contained a kind of actions and justifications that were at odds with the morals and thought of Europeans. Among them could be ritual cannibalism.

However, the version of this activity was censored and cut by the person in charge of transcribing the oral accounts. Initially, this process of transcription was carried out by Brasseur de Bourbourg (French writing, 1814-1874).

This version was prepared directly for the consumption of European readers. As a consequence, there are many missing elements of what this culture was. However, it is one of the few samples that could be preserved.

The Bailete del Güegüense or Macho Ratón

The Male Mouse is a Nahuatl work from the 16th century approximately. In it, all the participants dance and personified animals participate.

In pre-Hispanic culture, there is a belief in a condition called nahualism (human ability to change spiritually and bodily to an animal form) which is a shamanic practice.

Likewise, actors participated in this play impersonating the blind, lame, deaf, and handicapped who, during the dance, made fun of particular characters. One of the favorite jokes was that of the sexual ambiguity of which the colonial authorities were targeted.

References

1. Portilla León, M. (s / f). Prehispanic Nahuatl theater. Taken from cdigital.uv.mx.
2. Taylor, D. (2004, October 3). Scenes of Cognition: Performance and Conquest. Taken from hemisphericinstitute.org.
3. Henríquez, P. (2009). Orality and writing in the pre-Hispanic indigenous theater. Taken from scielo.conicyt.cl.
4. Karl Schuessler, M. (2014). Foundational Arts: Mural Painting and Missionary Theater in New Spain. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
5. García Canclini, N. (2010). Transforming Modernity: Popular Culture in Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press.