LibraryGuides: Day of the Dead: Library Resources

Books

Days of Death, Days of Life by Kristin Norget Kristin Norget explores the practice and meanings of death rituals in poor urban neighborhoods on the outskirts of the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork in Oaxaca City, Norget provides vivid descriptions of the Day of the Dead and other popular religious practices. She analyzes how the rites and beliefs associated with death shape and reflect poor Oaxacans' values and social identity. Norget also considers the intimate relationship that is perceived to exist between the living and the dead in Oaxacan popular culture. She argues that popular death rituals, which lie largely outside the sanctioned practices of the Catholic Church, establish and reinforce an ethical view of the world in which the dead remain with the living and in which the poor (as opposed to the privileged classes) do right by one another and their dead. For poor Oaxacans, these rituals affirm a set of social beliefs and practices, based on fairness, egalitarianism, and inclusiveness.
ISBN: 0231510144
Publication Date: 2005-12-13
Death and the Idea of Mexico by Claudio Lomnitz Death and the Idea of Mexico is the first social, cultural, and political history of death in a nation that has made death its tutelary sign. Examining the history of death and of the death sign from the sixteenth-century holocaust to contemporary Mexican American identity politics, anthropologist Claudio Lomnitz's innovative study marks a turning point in understanding Mexico's rich and unique use of death imagery. Unlike contemporary Europeans and Americans, whose denial of death permeates their cultures, the Mexican people display and cultivate a jovial familiarity with death. This intimacy with death has become the cornerstone of Mexico's national identity. It is tempting to view this rich elaboration of death imagery as yet another example of an "invented tradition," that is, a cult shaped by the modern state's cultural policies or by the narrow interests of contemporary identity politics. Lomnitz takes a different approach. Rather than flattening out the tradition by insisting only on the ways it is willfully manipulated, this book focuses on the dialectical relationship between dying, killing, and the administration of death, and the very formation of the colonial state, of a rich and variegated popular culture, and of the Mexican nation itself. The elevation of Mexican intimacy with death to the center of national identity is but a moment within that history -- within a history in which the key institutions of society are built around the claims of the fallen. Based on a wide range of sources -- from missionary testimonies to newspaper cartoons, from masterpieces of artistic vanguards to accounts of public executions and political assassinations -- Death and the Idea of Mexico moves beyond the limited methodology of traditional historiographies of death to probe the depths of a people and a country whose fearless acquaintance with death shapes the very terms of their social compact. This work effects a novel turn in the classical historiography of death -- a turn that can be characterized by a move from social and cultural history to political history. The move toward the politics of death gives readers a unique insight into the peculiar story of death in the Americas.
ISBN: 1890951536
Publication Date: 2005-10-01
Digging the Days of the Dead by Juanita Garciagodoy Dias de muertos -- Days of the Dead -- is celebrated in Mexico each year in late October and early November. It is a family reunion in which the dead are the guests of honor who are welcomed with their favorite foods, carefully chosen gifts, and ritual paraphernalia such as candles and incense. Some of the objects show tenderness, some, a sense of perspective about life and death, and some, a frank sense of humor. In Digging the Days of the Dead, Juanita Garciagodoy depicts various aspects of the celebration -- including Prehispanic and Spanish Catholic traces on its development as well as folk and popular culture versions -- and describes its changing place in contemporary Mexico. She dedicates two chapters to close readings of calaveras, figures and scenes of "lively" skeletons that reveal details of popular philosophy about, for instance, gender and class relations and identity politics. There is also an analysis of the struggle between the traditional holiday and Hallowe'en. Garciagodoy examines in detail differences in attitudes towards death in Mexico and the United States. In part because the living do not exclude the dead from their family circle, celebrants of Dias de muertos treat death as an intimate life companion and fear it less than their northern counterparts, who tend to view death as inimical. Lavishly illustrated with 96 black and white photographs and reproductions of Posada's engravings, Digging the Days of the Dead is indispensible for scholars interested in Mexican religion and culture.
ISBN: 0585042462
Publication Date: 1998-01-01
Singing for the Dead by Paja Faudree Singing for the Dead chronicles ethnic revival in Oaxaca, Mexico, where new forms of singing and writing in the local Mazatec indigenous language are producing powerful, transformative political effects. Paja Faudree argues for the inclusion of singing as a necessary component in the polarized debates about indigenous orality and literacy, and she considers how the coupling of literacy and song has allowed people from the region to create texts of enduring social resonance. She examines how local young people are learning to read and write in Mazatec as a result of the region's new Day of the Dead song contest. Faudree also studies how tourist interest in local psychedelic mushrooms has led to their commodification, producing both opportunities and challenges for songwriters and others who represent Mazatec culture. She situates these revival movements within the contexts of Mexico and Latin America, as well as the broad, hemisphere-wide movement to create indigenous literatures. Singing for the Dead provides a new way to think about the politics of ethnicity, the success of social movements, and the limits of national belonging.
ISBN: 0822354314
Publication Date: 2013-05-29
Skulls to the Living, Bread to the Dead by Stanley Brandes Each October, as the Day of the Dead draws near, Mexican markets overflow with decorated breads, fanciful paper cutouts, and whimsical toy skulls and skeletons. To honor deceased relatives, Mexicans decorate graves and erect home altars. Drawing on a rich array of historical and ethnographic evidence, this volume reveals the origin and changing character of this celebrated holiday. It explores the emergence of the Day of the Dead as a symbol of Mexican and Mexican-American national identity. Skulls to the Living, Bread to the Dead poses a serious challenge to the widespread stereotype of the morbid Mexican, unafraid of death, and obsessed with dying. In fact, the Day of the Dead, as shown here, is a powerful affirmation of life and creativity. Beautifully illustrated, this book is essential for anyone interested in Mexican culture, art, and folklore, as well as contemporary globalization and identity formation.
ISBN: 1405152478
Publication Date: 2007-01-08

Films & Videos

Documentaries:

Connecting traditions. Rendezvous with the Dead (Mexico) [Video] All around the world, mankind perpetuates traditions, passing down skills and a way of life to future generations. Whether this involves rituals or mastery of techniques, handing down customs is a way of reinforcing the identity and singularity of a group of individuals in keeping with their lifestyle and their environment. Through the discovery of some exceptional locations, Alexandre Mostras leads us on an encounter with the last guardians of a unique heritage. In a first-person travelogue, he recounts the simple tale of a community and the importance of inter-generational transmission that plays a direct role in the survival of its culture.
Culinary journeys. Season 2, episode 9, Enrique Olvera : Mexico The history of Mexico is one that is told through its cuisine - bold flavours from the Aztecs of Mesoamerica and the conquistadores of Spain which have fused together and are found today in streets filled with tortas, tacos and tamales.
The Day of the Dead [Video] The Mexican character, shaped by the fusion of Christianity and indigenous religion, is perhaps epitomized in the celebration of the Day of the Dead. This fanciful film takes us to the village of Patzcuaro, where, like villages all over Mexico, on October 31 people return home from everywhere to celebrate their ancestors and communicate with their long dead loved ones. This impressionistic pilgrimage takes us to the cemetery where graves are decorated and turned into works of art, with flowers, personal objects, food, offerings and thousands upon thousands of candles. For a twenty-four hour period,we follow Death on a tongue-in-cheek guided tour through the soul of a people.
Festivals: Day of the Dead, Mexico [Video] Festivals of life nourish us with ancient rituals in a fast-changing world, covering all facets of the human condition, the changing seasons, weddings, coming of age ceremonies, births and deaths, the worship of gods and the battle against evil spirits. This film showcases Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations that unite the living and the dead in feasting, dancing and decoration. In Oaxaca City, local artists create sand tapestries and enter an altar competition. Families gather at the public cemetery to clean the graves of loved ones and make offerings. In Etla, muerteadas, or street parades, last all night as rival bands engage in mock battles. Join a local family for a traditional lunch of chicken and mole, and learn about Aztec and Spanish religious customs that blended to form today’s Día de los Muertos festival of remembrance.
Flor De Muertos [Video] A celebratory journey into the rich borderlands culture between Tucson, Arizona and the towns of Nogales, Arizona and Mexico. Director Danny Vinik evokes the power and beauty of the Sonoran Desert and its people in this poetic exploration of life and death along the US/Mexico border. Features a stunning performance by acclaimed Americana band Calexico at Tucson's historic Rialto Theatre.

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