Hidden Transcripts among the Rarámuri: Culture, Resistamce, and Interethnic Relations in Northern...

Hidden Transcripts among the Rarámuri: Culture, Resistance, and Interethnic Relations inNorthern MexicoAuthor(s): Jerome M. LeviSource: American Ethnologist, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Feb., 1999), pp. 90-113Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/647500Accessed: 01/07/2010 11:48

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hidden transcripts among the Raramuri: culture, resistance, and interethnic relations in northern Mexico

JEROME M. LEVI-Carleton College

Over half a century ago, Herbert Passin published two articles describing the pervasiveness of dissimulation among the Tarahumara, with special reference to the socioeconomic life of this indigenous Mexican group (1942a) and the problem dissimulation posed for his fieldwork (1942b). He reminded his readers that almost 30 years earlier, in 1914, Malinowski likewise mentioned the practice of circumvention among the Trobrianders (Passin 1942a:1 2). Passin was

among a small cadre of anthropologists in the first half of this century to appreciate that the "hidden" was itself a worthy topic of ethnographic analysis. Significantly, concealment, secrecy, and the culturally constructed veiling of referents have recently become a focus of renewed interest in anthropology (Abu-Lughod 1986; Bercovitch 1994; Dennis 1997; Gable 1997;

George 1993; Heyden 1986; Raybeck 1991; Rodriguez 1996; Rohatysnkyj 1997; Sommer 1991). Although the Tarahumara, or Raramuri as they call themselves, were among the first

people noted in the ethnographic record for their skill in deploying the arts of disguise, they have not figured in theoretical discourse on the use of silence and secrecy. In this article, I seek to redress this lacuna by showing the relevance of Raramuri ethnography to current debates in this area.

Part of the renewed interest in the hidden is due to the influence of James Scott, a political scientist. In Weapons of the Weak (1985), Scott's theoretical goal was

to understand what we might call everyday forms of peasant resistance-the prosaic but constant struggle between the peasantry and those who seek to extract labor, food, taxes, rents, and interest from them. Most of the forms this struggle takes stop well short of collective outright defiance. Here I have in mind the ordinary weapons of relatively powerless groups: foot dragging, dissimulation, false compliance, pilfering, feigned ignorance, slander, arson, sabotage, and so forth. [1985:29, emphasis in original]

In Domination and the Arts of Resistance (1990), Scott elaborated his concept of "hidden

transcripts"-the source of my title-while extending his theory of peasant resistance to include

An understanding of Rara'muri (Tarahumara) cultural style and resistance to domination is enhanced when interpreted in relation to theories of muffled protest and discourse strategies based on dissimulation. In this article, I consider Scott's (1990) notion of discerning everyday resistance through what he calls "hidden transcripts, " here in the context of Raramuri-Mestizo relations in northern Mexico. Scott's

generalizing framework should be tempered in light of discussions of concealment, secrecy, and isolationism in Raramuri culture. Analysis of the ritual, language, and behaviors associated with Rarimuri secrecy indicates that although the broad outline of his thesis is corroborated, specific elements invite reassessment. When hidden transcripts go public, the most compelling part of Scott's framework is also the weakest. [resistance, secrecy, interethnic relations, political symbolism, Tara- humara, Raramuri, Mexico]

American Ethnologist 26(1 ):90- 13. Copyright ? 1999, American Anthropological Association.

90 american ethnologist

subordinate groups worldwide. In this article, I examine the utility of Scott's (1990) analytic categories in the Raramuri case-especially his notion of how people deploy hidden transcripts as a form of everyday resistance. The exercise is instructive for several reasons. Scott intends his theory to be of general application. His examples, therefore, are drawn from very diverse

societies, past and present. This breadth may give the impression that Scott has advanced a

virtually universal theory of dissembled forms of political protest among oppressed groups. Explaining quite a lot and assuming very little, Scott approaches his question with parsimony and interpretive power. Still, it is possible to question Scott's theory on matters of fact and logic, for what looks elegant as political science may be problematic from an ethnographic standpoint. On the one hand, the sheer breadth of his examples-from 19th-century slaves in the United States to contemporary southeast Asian peasants-is reminiscent of Frazerian ethnology, facts taken from their ethnographic and historical contexts and recomposed as elements of a tidy theory (Frazer 1958). On the other hand, Scott's intellectual tool kit accounts rather well for a number of empirical cases. From afar, Scott's theory appears to be more solid than it does when examined closely in light of ethnographic evidence.' Scott acknowledges that his analysis "is one that runs roughshod over differences and specific conditions that others would consider

essential, in order to sketch the outlines of a broad approach.... If this approach has any merit, that merit would have to be demonstrated in case studies grounding these broad assertions in contexts that were both culturally specific and historically deep" (1990:22). This article is offered in an attempt to take seriously the kind of case study scholarship Scott invites.

I examine Scott's theoretical framework in light of Raramuri ethnography. Although one article lacks the space to test all of Scott's main ideas, I intend to apply his most salient points. I shall illustrate how a style of veiled interaction among cultural insiders is intertwined with external relations of resistance. As noted at the outset, the Raramuri are reputed in the

anthropological literature as a somewhat taciturn and secretive people who have refined the art of circumvention to a considerable degree (see discussion of sources below). I demonstrate in the first half of this article how Scott's theory is largely supported by the tactics of concealment and containment strategies deployed by Raramuri in their relation to Mestizos, who are the dominant ethnic group in the region. Yet in the second half of this article, I extend Scott's analysis ethnographically by showing how implicit hierarchies and inequalities generate an additional set of concealment practices. Whereas Scott emphasizes the veiling of the self that exists between dominant and subordinate groups, I highlight the production of hiddenness as a cultural strategy within subordinate groups themselves. That is, I demonstrate how Raramuri modulate the self in relation to other Raramuri, not simply in relation to Mestizos.

The Raramuri are the largest indigenous ethnic group in northern Mexico, with a population of approximately 70,000 (Merrill 1993:1 30), most of whom live in the Sierra Madre Occidental of southwestern Chihuahua. In view of the ever worsening situation jeopardizing the peoples of the Sierra, the question of the future viability of what historically has been a successful Raramuri survival strategy takes on increased significance. Since the first adelantados (advance soldiers) entered their territory in the 16th century, the Raramuri have persevered against significant threats from foreigners encroaching on their territory (Champion 1962; Gonzalez-

Rodriguez 1982:150-154; Kennedy 1996; Merrill 1993). Now they are faced with new and more menacing threats. Soil erosion and ecological degradation have followed in the wake of commercial deforestation and overgrazing. Roads and tourism have expanded, bringing oppor- tunities for some but problems for others. In the early 1990s, a drought gripped the land; some Raramuri people whom I interviewed attributed the area's low rainfall to timber depletion in the highlands. For several families in the gorges, subsistence crops dwindled from around 500 to 50 kilos per year by December 1994. Two years later, the springs from which people drew their water began to run dry. There were predictions, from the Batopilas area, that future planting

hidden transcripts among the Raramuri 91

would be futile if the rains did not come. Rain finally did come in July 1996, but people worried that it might be too little and too late.

Environmental degradation is not the only problem in the Sierra. Alvarado (1996) characterized the Sierra Tarahumara as a "wounded land" due to the usurpation of land to cultivate

drug crops and the subsequent violence. Unscrupulous forestry practices, illegally operated sawmills, and unfair distribution of revenues from the lumber industry have compounded further the social and economic pressures on the Raramuri (Lartigue 1983; Shoumatoff 1995). Still, the Sierra Tarahumara remains a haven for tourists seeking places of unparallelled beauty off the beaten path (Fisher 1996; Schwartzman and Melia 1995). All of this has led the international media to shine a spotlight on formerly hidden recesses within some of North America's deepest and most serpentine canyons. Today the plight of the Raramuri is a newsworthy item, appearing everywhere from the New York Times (DePalma 1995a, 1995b) to National Geographic (Salopek 1996) and from network television to the internet.2

Ironically, Raramuri themselves seldom have sought this publicity. On the contrary, although they have sometimes rebelled against civil and ecclesiastical orders that sought to expropriate Raramuri resources or reorganize their culture, particularly but not exclusively during the 17th

century (Boudreau 1986; Neumann 1991; Sheridan and Naylor 1979), they have far more often withdrawn to more benevolent locales and into their own groups, while camouflaging their

trails, identities, and communications. Whereas formerly they could retreat deeper into their

rugged homeland, today there is no place left for them to go-except hiding further within the convolutions of their own social landscape.3 To be sure, now as in the past, some Raramuri are

speaking out about the infringement of their rights rather than suffering in silence, but unfortunately

many have paid dearly for their courage. There are reports from some areas of the Sierra that

outspoken Raramuri have been intimidated, beaten, and killed (Hitt and Gingrich 1995:21). One may well ask, therefore, if the costs of overt resistance outweigh the benefits of secrecy and oblique language in the struggles against new incursions.

Here I do not presume to know what is best for the Raramuri. Rather, precisely because so much is at stake, I restrict myself to outlining an existing set of performative survival strate-

gies-composed of distinct interaction styles and elliptical representations-in order to stress how Raramuri modes of communication are to be understood as aspects of their present struggles.

The data I analyze here derive from two sources: the published ethnographic record and my own field notes from the Municipio de Batopilas.4 I conducted my research in rancherias (hamlets) down river from Batopilas in the gorges of the Cuervo district and the adjacent Barranca de San Rafael among the unbaptized Raramuri, known as gentiles (pagans), cimarrones (fugitives), or broncos (wild ones). For comparative purposes, I also conducted some fieldwork among the

baptized Raramuri, known as pag6tame (washed ones) or reweame (named ones), most of whom live up river from Batopilas. The main difference between these two groups is that the gentiles generally dissociate themselves from the churches and pag6tame leaders of the pueblos (township centers), instead maintaining their own officials in their rancherias (Kennedy 1996; Levi 1993).5

on Raramuri secrecy

As noted earlier, Passin (1942a, 1942b) was the first to comment on the importance of

concealment, prevarication, and secrecy as major themes in Raramuri culture, specifically when it came to subjects that were esoteric, derided by outsiders, or could affect a person's social or economic standing. Writers both before and after him, however, also mentioned these proclivi- ties among the Raramuri. From the inception of anthropological fieldwork among Raramuri in the 1890s to the most recent works in the 1990s, ethnographic reports make reference to

dissimulation, camouflage, and avoidance in a wide array of contexts. Bennett and Zingg

recorded that Raramuri minimized contact with others by situating their homes away from trails (1935:326). They also described a notable event in which a Raramuri man went two miles down river in order to hide while butchering a pig, thus avoiding the obligation of food sharing (1935:326). Lumholtz earlier had observed the circumvention of this Raramuri norm when he characterized the close of a typical day: "About sunset the husband returns, bringing a squirrel or rabbit, which he carries concealed in his blanket, that no neighbour may see it and expect an invitation to help eat it" (1902:263). In the end, Bennett and Zingg concluded that physical, social, and psychological "isolation" was a "basic pattern" of Raramuri social life (1935: 183-187).

Raramuri are circumspect when they meet strangers-an attitude that can be explained by their history of abuse at the hands of outsiders.6 Bennett and Zingg noted that "the gentiles still maintain the rather strained formality (as described by Lumholtz) of waiting some distance from the house until the owner chooses to recognize their presence. Among the Christians this has broken down" (1935:326). A half century later, this practice was still preserved by the gentiles among whom I conducted fieldwork. When meeting strangers, their welcome ranged from pronounced shyness and evasive responses to visitors' questions, to hiding within their dwellings, silently melting into maize fields, or simply walking into the surrounding forest (Kennedy 1996:7; Levi 1993:8; Lumholtz 1902). Such evasions are more common among women than men and are more usual among gentiles than pag6tame. Significantly, although these tactics of verbal and corporeal dissimulation often occur in interethnic interactions, they are not restricted to them, for Raramuri also hide from each other. For example, Raramuri sometimes withdraw into their homes, refusing to acknowledge the presence of visitors (in this case, other Raramuri) who are suspected of placing unwanted obligations on people. Such obligations might include taking political office, lending things, or giving away goods.

Raramuri are also very cautious with the disclosure of their "theoretical knowledge," a term Merrill (1988:3) uses to mean "cosmology, theology, mythology and other sets of fundamental ideas about the world." 7 Kennedy's (1996:256) work among the gentiles led him to believe that Raramuri tendencies toward shyness and withdrawal could be explained by historical variables (such as early military defeats by Spaniards and subsequent domination by Mexicans) together with ecological conditions (such as the broken topography that naturally separates people and favors dispersed settlement strategies).

Besides Passin, however, only Burgess (1981) has traced secrecy as an organizing principle in Raramuri social life. Yet whereas Passin examines hiding behavior in various social contexts, Burgess "discusses secrecy as it relates to the part of Tarahumara culture which appears to have remained the most hidden of all-the folklore" (1981:12). His perspicacious article is divided into two parts. In the first half, Burgess examines some of the reasons why the Raramuri do not reveal their mythology (1981:11-15). In the second, he examines four categories of secrecy that are manifested in the folklore itself (1981:15-17).

My analyses parallel Burgess's in some ways but diverge in others, though to a great extent the present discussion responds to and amplifies his seminal essay. I hold that although the insights of Passin and Burgess are important, they would shed even more light on strategies of cultural camouflage if they were conjoined to a more powerful interpretive lens. That lens, I suggest, is provided by James Scott's (1990) concept of hidden transcripts. At the same time, I will contextualize Scott's theory ethnographically and supplement it by showing how veiled resistance to external exploitation may be replicated by internal practices of covertness.

hidden transcripts: discovering strategies of disguise

The alternate veiling and disclosure of information relates to a wide scholarship on pragmat- ics, metaphor, and the culturally mediated transmission and sequestering of implicit meanings.8

Whether performances are public or private, backstage or front stage, coded communiques or

unambiguous texts are critical questions. They reveal not only whether the body politic is hidden or displayed, but also, most importantly, how and when someone is telling what to whom.

Scott argues that in situations characterized by asymmetrical power relations, when outright rebellion is impossible or the time for revolution not ripe, dominated groups employ two kinds of performances as modes of veiled resistance. What he calls the "public transcript" are those forms of discourse and bodily positions through which subordinated groups express themselves

openly before members of a dominant class, race, or ethnic group (1990:2). These public transcripts often assume forms that appear to support both the dominant group's view of themselves as well as the elite's negative stereotype of their social inferiors. But, Scott says, to conclude with Gramsci or Marx that the peasants, workers, serfs, and slaves are unwittingly duped into participating in their own subordination by supporting the reigning ideology is to mistake an impeccable performance for an actor's real feelings (1990:45-107). There is another kind of dialogue that takes place "offstage," uttered behind the backs of those who wield power. This second type of discourse is what Scott defines as the hidden transcript: "The hidden

transcript is thus derivative in the sense that it consists of those offstage speeches, gestures, and

practices that confirm, contradict, or inflect what appears in the public transcript" (1990:4-5). Power holders also have a cloistered transcript that they enact when they are among their own, but Scott focuses only on the guarded performances of the weak-the managed personas of

exploited classes and lower castes and the secret stratagems of slaves and peasants. Scott acknowledges that public and hidden transcripts do not operate as separate, inde-

pendent discourses. A public transcript is not a false discourse performed out of necessity before

the visage of power, and a hidden transcript is not a realm of unfettered freedom, revealing the

true yearnings of subordinates in the privacy of their own quarters. Indeed, Scott states that he

is concerned with the dialectical pressures exerted by one upon the other, how domination

shapes the form and content of what is hidden, and how the hidden transcript occasionally insinuates itself-disguised-into the public transcript (1990:5, 136-182).9

Bringing Scott's framework to the Sierra Tarahumara, the public transcript would comprise how many Raramuri talk and act when they are in the presence of Mestizos or when they address

them directly. Mestizos are the dominant people in the region-politically, economically, and

numerically. Raramuri conventionally stereotype Mestizos in terms they cast as inverse to their

own self image.10 The hidden transcript, by contrast, reveals the Raramuri's verbal and

behavioral repertoire when they are not under the direct observation or control of Mestizos-as

well as their meticulously choreographed strategies of nonviolent resistance and muffled protest when they are. The discrepancy between the two transcripts notwithstanding, they nevertheless

function interdependently, setting up a kind of dialogue between themselves in which one

surreptitiously blends into or comments on the other. The area of overlap is thus particularly

significant.

epithets

Before considering how the Raramuri with whom I worked insinuate the hidden transcript into the public transcript, I will first examine, as Scott might, the discrepancy between the two

discourses, with special reference to the way these Raramuri talk about Mestizos in their

absence. This offstage gossip usually contains a profusion of epithets. Mestizos are stereotypi-

cally denigrated as nasinakuri (lazy), risiruame (stingy), pardame (mean), and ey6game (deceit-

ful). In general, the Raramuri's ethnic others in the Sierra are seen as chigorame (thieves) and

kareame (liars). These characteristics are not regarded as mere surface qualities, nor attributes

that can be sloughed off at will. Rather, Raramuri regard them as expressions of the Mestizos'

essential identity, an identity cast at the time of creation. Some people I spoke with added that

individual Mestizos can and do ameliorate the worst of their inborn natures. For according to Raramuri mythology, the primordial maker and cosmic father of all chabochi (literally, "whiskered ones," i.e., whites, Mestizos, non-Indians) is none other than the devil himself. By contrast, the Raramuri regard their own spiritual father as God, the devil's younger brother. God is said to have given the world its soul by imparting life-giving breath to all creation, including his elder

sibling's creatures, since the devil could not make even his own children come alive.

Although Mestizos I knew clearly recognized that Raramuri normally do not have a high opinion of them, they usually were not privy to the quiet conversations that lay bare the differences. Alluding to their origin myths, one Raramuri man described the ethnic opposition and associated contrasts this way:

The main difference between chabochi and Raramuri is that the chabochi are very white, because chamuko [the devil] made the chabochi from ashes. But God made the Raramuri from clay [hence they are the color of the earth]. Also, the chabochi are richer, because they do a different kind of work. They sit and write papers and that is how they make money; this is how they earn the bills. Raramuri just work in their fields, so they are poor. It is because long ago God had us do another kind of work. We were supposed to dance and to plant. It is better to plant, so that people can eat.

Another Raramuri man explained the difference in terms of Raramuri cosmography and

eschatology, stating the common view that people's places in the afterlife are determined largely by their ethnic affiliations in this life: "When Raramuri die, they go above with God. They go up high above in the sky with Onoruame [the One Who Is Father]. Chabochi go down below with the devil."

Still another man differentiated between Mestizos and Raramuri in exclusively economic terms:

Look, this is how it is: if it were not for the Raramuri, the chabochi would be poorer than we are. We plant their fields, hoe their fields, harvest their fields. We are the ones who do all their work. That is the main difference. They are lazy and we work. There is another difference too: Raramuri share and divide [nachuta] what they have; we give aid to each other. Not the chabochi. They only give to us if we have money to buy things. Even among themselves, they only buy and sell.

This statement reiterates the stereotype that Raramuri work while Mestizos are lazy. It also contrasts the typical forms of exchange between the two ethnic groups and morally evaluates them. Raramuri reciprocity is portrayed as highly social, characterized by sharing, redistributing, and giving to those in need. Conversely, Mestizos exchange by buying and selling; transactions take place, not through the mutual obligations placed upon those belonging to a community of

equals, but through the impersonal medium of money. Whereas Raramuri live by "planting and

dancing," Mestizos harvest profits through business. The Raramuri regard the latter as a sordid affair.

A good portion of the Raramuri's private talk about Mestizos attempts to account for the

discrepancy in wealth between the two ethnic groups. The Raramuri tell a story of the gorges surrounding the colonial mining town of Batopilas. There, Mestizos still sluice the waterways for gold and silver with large homemade pans (bateas) carved from the wood of strangler fig trees or, until the 1960s, the carapaces of sea turtles brought by traders of sea salt from the Sinaloa coast. The story attributes Raramuri poverty to a race run by God and the devil to a river. The devil arrived first, bathed, saw some silver gleaming in the water and took it, leaving none for his younger brother. When God arrived, the water was already muddied and the silver

already gone. Hence, the Mestizos, children of the devil, are white and rich but morally bankrupt; while the Raramuri, children of God, may appear dirty and poor yet they are honest and morally superior." Not only does this account show how the cultural creation of hidden

transcripts reflects stereotyped interethnic relations, but also that myth is often shot through with

history (Levi 1988). Hidden transcripts here also seem to be a site of production for ethnic stereotypes.

These are some of the ways Raramuris talk about Mestizos when Mestizos are out of earshot. How do Raramuri modulate their utterances and gestures when Mestizos are present? In order to answer this question, I must ask a prior question: what are the situations in which Raramuri and Mestizos regularly come into association with each other?

arts of political disgiuse

Some of the first contacts between Europeans and Raramuri were in the context of ecclesiastical activities. Between 1675-76, Jesuit priests Tarda and Guadalajara went into the Sierra

establishing far-flung missions. The Raramuri demonstrated strategies of veiled resistance that Scott (1990:136) might analyze in terms of the "arts of political disguise," exemplifying how the hidden transcript emerges surreptitiously in the midst of the public transcript. According to Sheridan and Naylor,

these missionaries did not encounter armed resistance among the Tarahumara, but instead a passive, yet stubborn, antagonism. When the priests attempted to baptize many of the gentiles, they offered a multitude of excuses as to why they did not wish to receive the sacrament. In these sullenly imaginative responses one can see the beginnings of Tarahumara non-violent retreat-psychological as well as geographi- cal-from the intrusions of the Europeans. This tactic was to become a pervasive Indian reaction to European colonization in the eighteenth century after suppression of the last major Tarahumara rebellion in 1698. [1979:33]

Although most Raramuri continue to have occasional contact with priests, virtually all must interact periodically with Mestizos for economic purposes and some for political reasons as well. Raramuri come to Mestizo towns to trade for manufactured goods (hoes, machetes, axes, buckets, cloth, beads, needles, etc.) or to seek periodic wage labor (as workers in households or lumber mills). Conversely, Mestizos come into the Raramuri's scattered communities to recruit field hands, purchase crops and livestock, peddle wares from house to house, buy crafts for resale or, in the Cuervo district, arrange for interethnic hunts in which Raramuri runners and beaters drive deer to predetermined spots where Mestizos dispatch the animals with rifles.

Finally, for political purposes, some Raramuri regularly must deal with Mestizos. They may belong to the same ejido (agrarian reform community), or they may wish to speak to the

municipal authorities, who almost always are Mestizos. The innocuous intrusion of the hidden into the public transcript can be detected in the

numerous attitudes, actions, and verbal arts deftly manipulated by Raramuri when interacting with Mestizos. These range from physical and verbal avoidance to sham acts of deference and

agreement when interaction is either necessary or unavoidable. When Mestizo traders enter a

community, particularly if they are not established norawa (trading partners), Raramuri (especially gentiles, women, and children) will often silently withdraw into cornfields, hide inside

houses, and refuse to speak even if addressed in Raramuri.12 Sometimes contact with Mestizos is desired or unavoidable, when Raramuri occasionally go to towns and farms to trade or work. There Raramuri may exhibit outwardly deferential speech and behavior, feign ignorance about a certain topic, pretend not to speak Spanish, play the fool, or quietly absorb the verbal

indignation that comes from being addressed as muchacho (Spanish for boy), towi (Raramuri for boy), or indito (little Indian). Alternatively, they may verbally acquiesce to Mestizo demands for labor or goods in order to avoid conflict but later go about their business another way. In

short, Raramuri often tell Mestizos what they want to hear-for example, saying they will weed fields on a certain day or sell a prized ram when it is herded back to their corral-but if these

agreements are contrary to their own needs, they often dismiss them. They do not regard this as a breach of ethics, for one is not morally bound by agreements made with immoral persons, which Mestizos conventionally are, according to Raramuri.

On other occasions, Raramuri may agree to perform certain tasks for Mestizos and even execute them, but they may take an excessively long time in doing so. A leisurely work pace may be a normal aspect of Raramuri cultural style. Yet under some circumstances, something else is involved. When Mestizos order Raramuri to do something "right away!" (orale) or to

"hurry up!" (apurate), the Raramuri's slowness communicates more than just a reluctance to

step lively. It is a subtle, and relatively safe, act of defiance. This is Raramuri foot dragging, a

bodily stratagem of nonaggressive resistance against Mestizo domination. One Raramuri man who was given one meal a day plus a meager daily wage to weed a Mestizo's field said he was in no particular rush to finish the job, since the longer he took, the more money he made. He added he would rather eat the Mestizo's tortillas and beans than use up his own family's dwindling supply. Furthermore, he stipulated that this was only just, since the wealthy Mestizo had plenty to spare, while his own family was teetering on the brink of starvation. Since Raramuri

provide the cheapest labor in the region and are regularly paid below minimum wage and sometimes only in food, most Mestizos understand that the Raramuri's begrudging compliance with their work orders constitutes a silent protest against exploitation. Indeed, the comments of several Mestizos indicated that they knew full well that Raramuri lethargy was little more than a thinly disguised ruse aimed, among other things, at irritating their employers.

This ability sometimes to dismiss, avoid, or subvert Mestizo demands illustrates the recipro- cal-although submerged-linkages between public and hidden transcripts; how adroit reac- tions against domination molds the latter, and how the resentment can protrude, seemingly innocently, into the former-as Scott's model would predict. Attending even more closely to the Raramuri's hidden transcript, it can be noticed that the stereotype of Mestizos epitomizes the worst qualities Raramuri detect among some members of their own society. Thus, because

they make abundant use of polysemic tropes whose meanings suggest a wide range of referents that shift with context, hidden transcripts offer ways to point at everyone from family members to utter strangers, albeit ambiguously.

euphemism, metaphor, and joking

One way to point without being seen is through the use of euphemism, which Scott (1990:152-1 54) classifies as an "elementary form of disguise." Similarly, joking draws attention to delicate and even taboo subjects at the very moment that the teller of the joke makes light of them, often through the use of metaphor. Through the deployment of euphemisms and verbal

play, therefore, subordinate voices can speak to power through veiled references with diverse

meanings-variously critical, abstruse, innocuous, or funny, as when Raramuri speak about

powerful people, places, plants, or animals. The verbal substitutions and double meanings suggest the common belief that there is a close connection between a thing's name and its

identity; knowing the former apparently gives a measure of control over the latter. Not surprisingly, ambiguity and concealment are manifest in personal names, as others have

noted.131 observed semantic ambiguity in place names and the precise spots they designated.'4 Linguistic substitution and euphemization likewise occur in reference to the names of certain

powerful plants and animals. Bakinawi, for example, is one of a number of plants conceptual- ized as possessing a soul, as humans do. It can appear in dreams in the form of a person, imparting songs, good luck, and health to those who possess its roots or who use them in curing ceremonies. Bakanawi, however, is also potentially dangerous, and many precautions must be taken to use it safely. In different parts of the Sierra, it has been identified with various plants, ranging from ball cactus (Bennett and Zingg 1935:136-137; Thord-Gray 1955:84) to Scirpus sp., a kind of sedge (Bye 1979:36; Merrill 1988:121 ). 5 In the Cuervo district, bakanawi is neither a ball cactus nor a sedge. Rather, it is an herbaceous vine that creeps along the ground on the

shaded slopes of the gorges, growing in great profusion near the tiny rancheria of Bakanachi

(literally, Place of the Bakanawi). Here bakanawi is most likely a species of Ipomea.16 The salient point, however, is that the plant was rarely called bakanawi, which is its proper

name. According to Raramuri, bakanawi does not like to have its name uttered aloud; therefore, it is seldom mentioned directly. Instead, bakanawi is usually called by terms for other powerful plants, such as chuchupate, a medicinal herb used in curing scorpion bites and other afflictions. But by far the most common euphemism for bakanawi is hikuri, meaning "peyote" (Lophophora williamsii)-a spineless cactus that grows far to the northeast and is similarly employed in ceremonial contexts with great circumspection.17 Even middle-aged Mestizo men near the Cuervo district who were conversant in the Raramuri language-either because their own

grandparents were themselves Raramuri or due to their long association with the indigenous people-refer to the vine as hikuri (peyote). When I questioned them, they were neither aware that the term for the plant was bakanawi, nor that the true peyote grows over 100 miles away in the high deserts near Delicias and Camargo. Thus, by euphemistically glossing bakanawi as

hikuri, they mask and obscure the actual referent, a conventional linguistic practice even among Raramuri.

Euphemism about powerful plants parallels the cautious use of proper names for certain animals. According to Burgess, when Raramuri are relating narratives about bears, or are simply talking about them, "the speaker is usually very careful not to use the word for bear, 'ohi.' Instead he uses another word, such as 'apol6ci,' or Anthony, 'Antonio.' Bears are said to have excellent

hearing and if one hears 'ohi,' he will become enraged, go find whoever said his name and bite all of his joints, leaving him for dead" (Burgess 1981:16).

A similar pattern of name avoidance regarding animals applies when men hunt deer, as I discovered while accompanying a group of Raramuri hunters. After an unlucky first day of a

two-day hunt, I asked the others if they thought we would have better luck the next day in killing a deer. When they stared back at me as if I had said the unthinkable, I was perplexed until one man explained that Raramuri never utter the word chomari (deer) while in the process of

pursuing them, for deer have acute hearing and if they hear hunters speaking their name they will flee farther into the bush. As a gentle reprimand, he added that at night only coyotes are brash enough to make such talk. In reference to his example about bears, Burgess (1981:16)

suggests "the idea that you never know who might hear what you say could possibly explain other types of secrecy as well." The general pattern of substituting names for powerful plants and animals may indeed be based on this idea. At the same time, this practice suggests that

euphemisms have linguistic and cognitive functions (such as coding elements of worldview) unrelated to secrecy. Raramuri also speak in oblique terms about powerful subjects even in the

process of directly addressing them. This is illustrated by the way they commonly disguise their criticisms of Mestizos, especially when the latter are in Raramuri spaces. A particularly eloquent example of this subterfuge, showing how Raramuri speech can be opaque even to those who understand it, is the following. One Mestizo trader, who thought he spoke fluent Raramuri, noticed that when he had finished trading with Raramuri families, they would sometimes

laughingly call out to him "kosi s6tame." He knew that kosi sdtame literally meant "buttocks sewn shut," yet he had no idea how this related to him. He reported that he sometimes turned around and looked at his behind, which only brought on more peals of laughter. I eventually learned from Raramuri that the phrase was a brilliant euphemism, a wonderful joke that played on a metaphor linking together several semantic domains. The phrase is used to describe Mestizo traders who do not pay fair prices for Raramuri goods, chickens that do not lay eggs, and mature married couples (particularly women) who have not produced any children.

Why are stingy Mestizo traders, childless Raramuri couples, and barren chickens all catego- rized as kosi s6tame? They are all seen as incapable of egress, flow, or bringing forth: they are construed as selfish because they cannot "let go." They are in some sense "stopped up," if not

actually hoarding, then at least going against their culturally defined roles as beings from whom either babies or commodities are supposed to issue forth into the community. They are kosi sutame because the openings from which the valued things flow have been, at least metaphorically, sewn shut. Besides suggesting that tight-ass is an idiomatic expression transcending many linguistic and cultural boundaries, the above demonstrates that even though Raramuri may be taken advantage of in business transactions, they at least can manipulate sociolinguistic scenarios so they have the satisfaction of having the last laugh. In doing so, moreover, they are not only saying something obtuse to the man who cheated them, but are uttering a veiled riposte to Mestizo exploitation. For even if the Mestizo trader speaks Raramuri, it is unlikely he would

comprehend the poignant trope of having his "buttocks sewn shut." Scott's main point is unassailable: "Euphemization is an accurate way to describe what happens to a hidden transcript in a power-laden situation by an actor who wishes to avoid the sanctions that direct statement would bring .... What is left in the public transcript is an allusion to profanity without a full accomplishment of it; a blasphemy with its teeth pulled" (1990:152-153, emphasis in original).18

Although Scott is right to note that euphemisms are a particularly attractive way for subordinates to talk back to power without fear of reprisal, the targets of these blasphemies are not necessarily always members of the dominant group. Raramuri men readily engage in joking insults. For example, among themselves, Raramuri men do not always refer to turkey vultures by the word wiru (turkey vulture). Instead, they often employ a Spanish loan word for a ritual kinsman (compadre), normally a term connoting intimacy and friendship. When a turkey vulture soars by, Raramuri men sometimes tease each other saying, "There goes your buddy" [wamini mu kompare ra ba simil. Comparison to the lowly scavenger, an apparent insult, takes the pulse of their friendship. When smiles play across both of their faces, as usually happens, the joke not only tests the strength of their relationship, but reinforces it.19

ritual matters

Whereas euphemisms are an "elementary form of disguise," ritual and other collective representations of culture are "elaborate forms of disguise" (Scott 1990:156). Scott claims that when folk culture displays the frustrations of the dominated, it reveals the "infrapolitics of subordinate groups" (1990:136-201). Whatever else it may functionally accomplish or symbolically communicate, ritual is a performative act predicated on the existence of an audience. Consequently, by virtue of its polytropic symbolism, it can "insinuate ... meanings that are accessible to one intended audience and opaque to another audience the actors wish to exclude. Alternatively, the excluded (and in this case, powerful) audience can grasp the seditious message in the performance but find it difficult to react because that sedition is clothed in terms that also can lay claim to a perfectly innocent construction" (Scott 1990:158). Masquerade, burlesque, and rites of reversal are important arts of political disguise. The parodying, masking, suspension, or inversion of normal social rules "allows certain things to be said, certain forms of social power to be exercised that are muted or repressed outside this ritual sphere" (Scott 1990:173). Much has been written about the Raramuri tesguinada (ceremonial drinking party) and about its heavy functional load, ritual license, relation to everyday norms, and the intoxicating significance of catharsis among a people who are otherwise exceedingly modest.20 Most noteworthy for Scott's purposes, however, is that, during tesguinadas, Raramuri often burlesque Mestizos by speaking Spanish, playing ranchera (rural Mestizo) music, and miming what they typify as their mannerisms.

Drawing from Max Gluckman (1954) and Victor Turner (1969) while simultaneously distanc- ing himself from their common "idealist fallacy," Scott (1990:184-187) argues it would be wrong to conclude that ritual aggression is merely a safety valve substitute for the real thing or

a regulatory device to maintain the status quo. Indeed, when the hidden transcript makes a virulent appearance in the public sphere, ritual rebellion is not simply a way of letting off steam,

although there may be real anger. Instead, it is best understood as expressing the calculated limits of practical resistance (Scott 1990:191). A poignant illustration of Raramuri ritual aggression comes at the close of the Holy Week, frequently celebrated before Mestizo onlookers, when an effigy of Judas is ritually killed. The image is shot with arrows, stoned, bayoneted, or burned depending on local custom. The political protest evidenced here is not left to doubt, since Judas is conventionally represented as a Mestizo-often a caricature with cowboy hat,

boots, slacks, beard, prominent phallus, and outstretched grasping fingers (Kennedy and L6pez 1981; Merrill 1983; Slaney 1991:249-312; Velasco Rivero 1983:189-233). Indeed, this representation fits the negative image of the children of the devil: greedy characters with uncontrolled

appetites for power, sex, land, and resources. Sometimes these generic ethnic stereotypes are

verbally identified as specific persons. At the highland pueblo of Samachique in 1989, some

people said that the Judas effigy was meant to represent Carlos Salinas de Gotari, then President

of Mexico, who reputedly had not kept promises made to the community. Thus, before the

colonial mission and the eyes of Mestizos, while Raramuri celebrants were overtly venting their

aggression at the first enemy of the Church, at another level they were also demonstrating their

displeasure with Mexico's head of state.

Nevertheless, we would be mistaken to assume that all rituals surreptitiously introduce the

hidden transcript into the public transcript, before a public largely composed of members of

the dominant strata. On many occasions, Raramuri purposefully draw a curtain of secrecy around their rituals, shrouding performances and meanings not only from Mestizos, but from

each other. To be sure, pag6tame periodically require the services of priests for bestowing the

sacrament of Catholic baptism and also submit to Jesuit authority when the clergy occasionally visit their missions performing other duties. Yet in addition to the calendar round of syncretic Catholic ceremonies celebrated in and around the old pueblo churches, the pag6tame maintain

a markedly more indigenous, and covert, set of ceremonies in their dispersed hamlets. By contrast, the gentiles tend to reject the former and are diligent in maintaining only the latter-a

corpus of rituals marked by concealment in at least four ways. First, they are celebrated at private residences in scattered hamlets away from the vigilance

of ethnic others. These places, often accessible only by foot trails, are far from the pueblos that

have long been attractive to outsiders. Second, because these ceremonies (especially the first

rituals of the dead) take place only at people's houses, either within the privacy of the home

(kariki) or outside on the domestic dance patio (awirachi), they sometimes occur without the

knowledge of members of the dispersed community. Third, the timing of these rancheria

ceremonies further envelopes them in an aura of secrecy. For example, in the Cuervo district, the na'y6mari mo'ora (firing of one's head) rite-in which an infant is, as it were, "baptized with

fire" (Levi 1993:1-3, 409-415; cf. Merrill and Heras Quezada 1997; Slaney 1997a, 1997b) by

having a shaman bestow a name and burn off magical tendrils that emanate from its crown-is

customarily performed at sunrise. Few people are about, as the first rays of light streak across

the sky. So, too, certain yumaridances (which are domestic ceremonies) and virtually all rituals

involving a si'paame (literally a "rasper," the specialist responsible for conducting peyote and

bakanawi ceremonies) are held under cover of nightfall and hedged with great circumspection. Fourth, the ceremonies themselves, like all rituals, make use of metaphors that gain signifi-

cance primarily through symbolic communication. Therefore, unless the fan of meanings is

revealed, many referents remain hidden. When asked why yumari rituals were performed, men

variously said that the rites called the rain, appeased God's anger, or cured people, herds, and

crops. Only later did I learn that such responses, while not incorrect, in fact glossed individual

political, social, or economic events in the community under a homogenizing all-purpose answer. It concealed the specific crises to which the rituals were always responses (Levi in

press). By selling the forest and not distributing the money equitably, by not sacrificing goats or

failing to share the meat in a feast, by having many small fiestas rather than several big ones,

by selling Raramuri land to Mestizos, by failing to plant, dance, host tesguinadas, or be

generous-Raramuri explained that they suffered misfortunes that could only be redressed

through the performance of rituals on domestic dance patios. Gradually, I learned how the ritual space of the domestic dance patio and the actions

performed on it index aspects of Raramuri cosmology (cf. Bennett and Zingg 1935:269-270, 286-288). It was explained to me that as a physical representation of cosmography, the circular dance ground replicates in miniature the namukame (the cosmic disks "stacked like tortillas," as several Raramuri phrased it, comprising the earth, the heavens, and the lower worlds). The four legs of the dance patio's altar symbolize the t6na (cosmic pillars that support the namukame), while the central wooden cross stands for Onor6ame (God, literally "The One Who Is Father"). In the Cuervo district, this cross is unequivocally associated with the sun.

Similarly, the host or shaman opens a ceremony by casting droplets of sacramental maize beer

(tesguino, batari, or suwfki) upward from a drinking gourd in all directions around the dance

patio. Several men explained that this act is both an offering to God and a mimetic reenactment of the creation of the Raramuri people. When the world was new, God stood in the center of the earth-on the middle cosmic plane in the middle of the disk, as shamans symbolically do to this day while standing in the center of the dance patio-tossing libations of tesguino in all directions. He sprinkled drops of maize beer across the land, from which the Raramuri sprouted like so many plants. Thus, although no explicit mention is made in domestic rituals to either

cosmogony, cosmography, or the crises that precipitated the ceremony, all of these are in fact embedded in the rite and metaphorically allude to it.

modulating Raramuri selves in the face of Raramuri publics

While particular Raramuri verbal and corporeal modes of interaction support Scott's general thesis, I argue that his theory is flawed in terms of relating hidden to public transcripts. Scott

repeatedly links hidden transcripts with the self and the subordinate on the one hand and public transcripts with the public and the dominant on the other. He does describe cross-cutting linkages throughout the book, but it is clear that the thrust of his argument is to describe these

concepts in terms of linked oppositions. One way of scrutinizing these shortcomings is by interrogating Scott's notion of the public

transcript. Scrutinizing the public transcript makes sense because it is the powerful, yet ironically silent, partner to the work's master trope and twin concept: hidden transcript. Scott claims to "use the term public transcript as a shorthand way of describing the open interaction between subordinates and those who dominate" (1990:2, italics in original). In a footnote, he defines public as "action that is openly avowed to the other party in the power relationship" and transcript as "a complete record of what was said. This complete record, however, would also include non-speech acts such as gestures and expressions" (1990:2).

The concept of transcript is so generalized here-apparently including all paralinguistic, kinesic, and verbal performances-as to render it almost flat in terms of analytic value. Logically, the same is true of Scott's notion of hidden transcripts. That is, whatever Scott's concept of

transcript may gain in terms of interpretive breadth, it summarily loses in terms of analytic depth. As Popper (1962:34-41) says, no amount of empirical evidence, therefore, would ever be sufficient to falsify it, simply because Scott's transcript, as a working hypothesis, is so inclusive.

A similar problem occurs with Scott's conception of the "public." As Gal notes in her critique of Scott's book, "if public means merely an audience, then hidden transcripts, by definition, must also have their publics. Even the caveat that hidden transcripts are produced in opposition to power will not help to define them. As Scott acknowledges, power relations, after all, occur

inside subordinate groups too" (1995:41 7). Recognizing these problems, Scott argues there can be multiple "discursive sites" for the construction of transcripts, ranging in a hypothetical continuum from ones that are relatively more hidden to others that are relatively more public (1990:26). But, with Gal (1995:417), I would counter that "if there can be many hidden

transcripts and also many public ones-some of these occurring even within subordinate

groups," then Scott's original distinction between these analytic categories loses much of its force. My point is that Scott does not give enough case recognition to the hierarchies existing within subordinate groups and the kind of hidden transcripts they generate.

The strength of this critique is augmented by ethnographic data. These data graphically demonstrate, first, how hidden transcripts are performed before publics even among the

subordinates, and second, how veiled communication is not simply a way of hiding the self but also a means of revealing it through ideologically mediated forms. I observed that many Raramuri not only veil themselves from Mestizos but also deploy specific social and linguistic practices to disguise inequalities and differences among themselves-an observation corroborated by others. Explaining individual variations he found in conceptions of the soul, William Merrill writes that "the Raramuri create a facade of public consensus that veils the extent of their

privately held differences not only from outsiders but from themselves as well" (1988:9-10).

the disposition to conceal

Among the Raramuri, there is a disposition to conceal things from other Raramuri, as well as from Mestizos, and the practice carries a heavy functional load. In economic matters, an ideal ethic of reciprocity, equality, and sharing may conflict with the material reality of periodic or sustained differences in wealth. Contrasting themselves with the stereotype of greedy and divisive Mestizos, Raramuri often said of themselves, "tamuhe suwaba napawuka nachuta" (we share everything together) or "todos somos parejos" (we are all equal). Yet I eventually learned that a good deal of hiding and hoarding went on, despite what the Raramuri said about normative harmony and egalitarianism.2'

For instance, the family that hosts a drinking party (tesguinada)-the institution most basic to extrafamilial social life (Kennedy 1963; Merrill 1978; Pennington 1963)-normally secrets away in a corner of the house under blankets and clothing a pot of the batari (fermented maize beer) for their own consumption after the other guests depart. I was not aware of this practice until later in my fieldwork when people started "letting me in on the secret," furtively revealing the hidden batari while urging me, as well as a few others, to stay after the remaining guests departed.22

There exists among the Raramuri an institutionalized form of giving, or what recently and more precisely has been termed "demand sharing" in foraging societies (Petersen 1993). The custom is known in Raramuri as k6rima, from ko-the stem for both food and gift. The wealthier are morally obliged to share or divide some of their resources, especially foodstuffs, when less fortunate members of the community request their assistance (Kennedy 1978:91-92). Although being called miserly is an insult in most societies, it carries a special sting among people like the Raramuri where k6rima is an obligation. Without it, survival would be jeopardized for the

needy and because of the unpredictable environment, most households experience periodic shortfal Ils.

Nevertheless, some Raramuri state that individuals occasionally abuse these customs, claim-

ing to be needy when they are not, causing people to be rather canny and on guard about

showing others what they have. One Raramuri man told me he was embarrassed by the behavior of others who, in order to arouse pity, would put on their most soiled and ragged clothes and

go about asking for k6rima, even though he knew they had fine clothes back home and were

economically stable. One Raramuri family showed me how they would place a limited amount

of something like salt or sugar in a small jar and put the remainder in a larger container hidden from view. Thus when people would ask for some, they could give generously by showing them

they were only keeping a bit for themselves, or even none at all. The other party would

supposedly not be aware that there was more stashed away in the back. I observed, however, that those who felt that something was being withheld would ask pointedly if there simply were no more of it to be had. By asking rhetorically if "now no more exists" (ma ke ite) or if it was "all used up now" (ma suwfba), the speaker forced a choice between lying or revealing the hidden stash.23

The result is that, although a premium is placed on being honest (bichfwame), generous (nehaame), and tranquil (kiri), in practice people are anxious about the gap between an ideal of equality and the reality of differences in knowledge, power, and wealth. On the one hand, people attempt to preserve or gain access to limited resources by concealing or acquiring them

through nefarious means; while, on the other, they admit to fear of being called liars (kareame), misers (rusuruame), or aggressive (paruame). Openly, to their faces, they can be shamed by being said to act mapurega chabochi (like Mestizos). Covertly, behind their backs, they can be the subject of malicious gossip or accusations of sorcery due to suspicions of acquisitiveness or

hoarding. Whether they are compared to Mestizos or accused of sorcery, in either case an internal cultural critique is directed at Raramuri who behave in ways that are outside the Raramuri's moral universe. The point here is that Scott's theory can be extended empirically to include the production of hierarchy and hidden transcripts within subaltern groups, supported ethnographically by my observations that the Raramuri may hide things from each other as much as they do from Mestizos.

the disposition to reveal

Even when the hidden transcript is performed before a Raramuri public, rather than hidden from it, as in the cases described above, it is often veiled in culturally mediated forms. This holds true even for genres of oral performance that are specifically predicated on having an audience, however circumscribed it may be. For example, the fast-paced nawesari (sermons) given at Raramuri gatherings by political or religious leaders are shrouded with "a ring of

mysticism" (Burgess 1981:1 6). This mysticism is reflected in the ritualized use of esoteric words, rapid intonation, and cryptic indexing of Raramuri cosmology-all of which would make the sermons virtually incomprehensible without knowledge of the broader worldview to which the references correspond (Merrill 1988:71-79; Slaney 1992; Velasco Rivero 1983:123-131). So, too, for wikara (songs), especially those learned through dreams and associated with supernatu- ral power. "It is a common claim that the chants possess words but that only jargon is sung, since the real words are kept secret by the chanter" (Bennett and Zingg 1935:272). My data corroborate this observation, except that the lyrics are not kept entirely secret; sometimes, the words are disclosed to individuals within a trusted circle. In general, vocables are sung outside in public ritual contexts; whereas lyrics are intoned in private or when only few are present, as when healers sing lyrical chants for curing ceremonies conducted inside family dwellings.

The element of secrecy specifically surrounding Raramuri mythology-anayawari ra'fchara (words of the ancestors)-has already been discussed (Burgess 1981). Appreciating how well folklore is suited to the public performances of the hidden transcript, Scott explores tricksters as folk heroes, stating "nothing illustrates the veiled cultural resistance of subordinate groups better than what have been termed trickster tales" (1990:162-166). Observing that "the structural position of the trickster hero and the stratagems he deploys bear a marked resemblance to the existential dilemma of subordinate groups," he notes how Brer Rabbit in the tales of North American slaves defeats Brer Fox and Brer Wolf "by relying on his endless store of dissimulation, guile, and agility" (1990:163). A similar scenario applies in the numerous Raramuri tales

showing how Rabbit perennially escapes the clutches of Coyote.24 The problem, however, is not that Scott's suggestions fail to be corroborated by analyses of Raramuri folklore; they are so corroborated (Levi 1993:351-365; Robles 1991:87). Rather, Scott's analysis can be carried farther by ethnographic case material. Among most Raramuri, trickster tales are only one among many types of narratives about a whole gamut of anthropomorphic animals that function as allusions to prescribed and prohibited relations between numerous kinds of insiders and outsiders including, but not restricted to, dominant and subordinate peoples, most obviously Mestizos and Raramuri.25

That Raramuri folklore is a classic example of hidden transcripts appears to be supported strongly by Burgess's conclusion to his paper on secrecy: "Tarahumara folklore, like the folklore of all peoples, is an expression of their innermost selves. It is one of the last strongholds that the Tarahumaras have-the last place they can hide themselves from the outside world" (1981:1 7). With one important caveat, I would agree with Burgess. Raramuri folklore, as well as all other collective representations of culture, is not only a place for them to hide from the outside world. It is also a discursive means for them to reveal themselves to each other in culturally mediated

ways. Indeed, hidden transcripts, too, are enacted in public as hidden. For these reasons, I agree with Gal's assessment: "In proposing the idea of hidden transcripts,

Scott develops a notion of the natural (precultural, presemiotic) interacting self that is at odds with recent understandings about the role of linguistic ideologies and cultural conceptions of the self and emotion" (Gal 1995:409). Unlike Goffman (1959), who sees choreographed performances in every presentation of the self, Scott implies the existence of a pristine self, revealed in the privacy of safe havens, and a masked self, inexorably lying, posing, and

performing sham acts in the public domain (Gal 1995:411-412). Such conclusions, however, are contradicted by the evidence in this article. Scott's untenable bifurcation of the self would mean that Raramuri never hide things from each other, which they do, and that they always hide things from outsiders, which they do not. Ethnicity is a factor here, but it is not the only one. Indeed, concealment also needs to be understood in terms of levels of social relations. More sharing goes on within Raramuri households than between them, and more among trading

partners, members of the same community, and tesguino drinking networks than with people outside these groups. Nevertheless, when outsiders, such as myself or the occasional Mestizo, become members of these groups, we can, however partially, participate in these networks.

Conversely, even among members within the same household, some things conventionally are

kept secret-such as the location of a person's bakanawi roots. Scott recognizes such problems (1990:25-27), but he never really resolves them. "More generally," at a theoretical level, "the

expression of contradictory opinions by a single speaker, in different contexts, is not necessarily evidence of dissembling or inauthenticity" (Gal 1995:41 2). Raramuri ethnography also reveals situational variations in behavior, theoretical knowledge, and emphasis on the autonomy of

individuals (Kennedy 1996; Merrill 1988).

Finally, although the Raramuri show great skill at managing information, especially among

strangers, they are equally capable of opening up and sharing sensitive topics with others,

particularly individuals with whom they maintain relations of reciprocity, as Merrill (1988, 1992) also has observed. Therefore, while much has been written on the Raramuri's consider-

able skill in the arts of secrecy, it may well be asked: is this an apt portrayal of these people or

instead an accentuated dimension of social life present in all cultures? On the one hand, to say that in all societies the presentation of a culturally constructed self is one element in managing interactions with others is by now an anthropological truism. On the other hand, simply because

I, like others (Burgess 1981; Passin 1942a, 1942b), have noted dissimulation among the

Raramuri and organized data to reflect this theme in work devoted to the subject, it does not

mean that secrecy is the leitmotif of Raramuri culture. Nor should it be concluded that secrecy is distinctive of the Raramuri, perhaps no more so than in other societies.26 In the specifically

Raramuri version, secrecy and concealment cushion the physical and social space around

individuals, consequently amplifying the sphere of what constitutes intrusion.

conclusion

My analysis contributes to previous discussions of Raramuri secrecy by both introducing new data and situating these data in terms of recent explanatory models. In particular, I have examined the extentto which Scott's notion of hidden transcripts (1990), articulated as a general theory, is supported by sustained application to a particular ethnographic case. The Raramuri have garnered some reputation in the literature as a people who are extremely adept in the arts of dissimulation as a form of veiled resistance, though they have been absent from theoretical treatments of the subject. Scott's arguments about hidden transcripts appear sound so long as he is free to choose examples from an unbounded sample of castes, classes, and cultures, both

past and present. But, in this article, I have asked how well his ideas stand up against a set of data that is more enhanced by local understanding of how hidden transcripts are shot through behaviors more diverse and meaningful than those related to the power of the Mestizos.

Scott's ambitious theoretical framework is supported by this study. At the very points at which it becomes most interesting, however, it is also at its weakest. By this I mean that when hidden

transcripts and public transcripts are sealed off from each other as performances among the weak versus performances among the powerful (illustrated by cloistered Raramuri epithets about

Mestizos), Scott's theory holds. But when the former insinuate themselves into the latter-when the hidden transcript goes public-Scott's theory is limited. Thus, what I have analyzed in this article in terms of artful disguise, euphemism, collective representations of culture, and the circumvention of norms indicates a more equivocal validation of Scott's model.

Scott's insistence that subordinates are somehow free from linguistic ideologies logically leads him to see conscious dissimulation where others may see only unintentional acts of habit.

Moreover, the work's master trope, the "transcript," essentially reduces the analysis of language and culture to the reading of a text. While this interpretive turn may be useful at times (Geertz 1973), I believe literary analogies also have their limitations. Following Gal (1995), I maintain that there are flaws in Scott's conception of the self, the public, and the ideological mediation between them. The self is neither a natural presemiotic site of authenticity, nor is the public an arena of sham acts performed only before the powerful. Nevertheless, despite a less than perfect coherence, there is good correspondence between Scott's theory and Raramuri ethnography. I therefore conclude that the notion of hidden transcripts merits refinement, not rejection.

In response to four centuries of incursions by outsiders, the Raramuri have deployed concealment and oblique language masterfully as strategies of cultural survival. But now that

changing global forces are strangling the land and people of the Sierra, these may be possibly the most violent and frightening times since the conquest. Perhaps those at the helm of the new

economy are banking on Raramuri history, wagering that the natives, now made hostages in their own homeland, will become partners in a conspiracy of silence and secrecy. But if they draw such a conclusion, they misunderstand a crucial point. Hidden transcripts are also a way of talking, not just a way of keeping quiet. True, Raramuri resistance typically has been veiled rather than violent. But mistaking quotidian performances for quiet contentment frequently underestimates real desperation.

In conclusion, my reading of hidden transcripts among the Raramuri leads me to foresee two

possible outcomes to continued oppression; they are not mutually exclusive. On the one hand, I suggest that if external pressures continue, many Raramuri may respond in the future, as they have in the past, by relying on proven survival strategies of concealment, withdrawal, and veiled communication. If these pressures increase, however, the elaboration of even more refined hidden transcripts may continue. I have in mind here a performative analogue of the concept

of involution that describes "cultural patterns which ... continue to develop by becoming internally more complicated" (Geertz 1963:81). Goldenweiser (1936) used this concept to describe the aesthetics of the late Gothic, and Geertz (1963) subsequently developed the idea further to characterize the rural economy of Java in response to a rising population and Dutch colonialism. Raramuri arts of political disguise similarly may become more inscrutable the more

they are exposed to structures of domination. Some Raramuri's hidden transcripts, therefore, may undergo a process of cultural involution marked by "increasing tenacity of basic pattern; internal elaboration and ornateness; technical hairsplitting, and unending virtuosity" (Geertz 1963:82)-without ever really changing the fundamental method of covertness as a survival

strategy. On the other hand, fewer Raramuri in the future may be satisfied with voicing their indignation

simply by insinuating, albeit ever more cleverly, their hidden transcripts into the public ones.

Instead, as Raramuri not only find their own voices but also forge new alliances with environmental organizations, human rights groups, and national indigenous coalitions, the space between the two transcripts, at least periodically, may collapse altogether.27 Now that Raramuri are seeking political office and protesting in the streets, Mexico bears witness to change.28 Indeed, in the corridors of power, Raramuri are finding new ways of expressing sentiments hitherto conveyed only through muffled protests in their vast Sierra Madre. In the end, whether Raramuri actors let loose a waterfall of right actions cascading from the height of the capital to the depth of the Sierra's gorges, or instead intensify traditional techniques of muffled protest, the cumulative effect of their own private victories, matched by public courage, will translate into collective survival.

Acknowledgments. This article is dedicated to the late Juan Carlos Aguirre, whose conscientious work in the Sierra provided the inspiration to write it. I thank those individuals-both Raramuri and chabochi-who over the years have shared so generously of their time and knowledge. Financial support from the following institutions is gratefully acknowedged: Minnesota Humanities Commission ("Works in Progress" Scholar Grant); Carleton College (Large and Small Faculty Development Grants); Harvard University (Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts & Sciences Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, Peabody Museum of Ethnology and Archaeology, Committee on Latin American and Iberian Studies, Center for the Study of World Religions Senior Fellowship); Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Abroad Fellowship; Institute for International Education-ITT; and the Tinker Foundation. Some of the ideas presented here stem from my dissertation that benefited from the insights of Evon Vogt, David Maybury-Lewis, Sally Falk Moore, and Kenneth George. I am also grateful to John Kennedy and Luis Gonzalez Rodriguez for their suggestions concerning the direction of my research, Lawrence Sullivan for his insights on religious symbolism, Robert Bye for plying me with information on Raramuri ethnobotany, Don Burgess for his advice on Raramuri linguistics, and Claudia Molinari for assisting me briefly with fieldwork and archival research in 1988-89. I appreciated the opportunity to present this article at Texas Tech University, and I am obliged to Kal Applbaum, Phil Dennis, Jim Fisher, Bill Merrill, and Frances Slaney for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. I also thank Michael Herzfeld, Jane Huber, and the anonymous reviewers of American Ethnologist for their critical assistance. For her editorial sense, keen observations, and constant enthusiasm, I am deeply indebted to Tara, my wife.

1. One critic has voiced concern over the applicability of Scott's theory of everyday resistance to Latin America (Gutmann 1993b), sparking an interesting exchange (Gutmann 1993a; Scott 1993). Susan Gal (1995) has criticized Domination and the Arts of Resistance from a logical and linguistic perspective. My aim is to augment her insights from an ethnographic standpoint, in the same way that specific case studies have called into question purportedly universal models such as Freudian notions of the Oedipal complex or Levi-Straussian structuralism.

2. Although many reports on the plight of the Tarahumara have appeared in the popular media, few scholarly discussions of the subject exist in print. Balanced treatments of the current problems and prospects for the peoples of the Sierra Tarahumara can be found in Alvarado 1996, Estrada Martinez and Vega Carillo 1993, Gonzalez et. al. 1994, Raat and Janacek 1996, Robles and Vallejo 1995, and Sariego 1995.

3. Raramuri sometimes seek livelihoods elsewhere, on a seasonal or permanent basis, in nearby cities or even Ciudad Juarez, which borders the United States. These processual and transnational changes are modern extensions of the traditional culture although static and stereotypic views of the Raramuri might make them seem otherwise (Urteaga 1993).

4. I conducted fieldwork during the summers of 1985 and 1986, and again from January 1 988 to August 1989. I made brief visits to the Sierra in December 1994 and April 1997.

5. There are also differences in history, politico-religious organization, eschatology, birth and burial rites, and relative degrees of isolation and status of the two groups, but most other social features are much the same (Kennedy 1970, 1978,1996; Levi 1991, 1992, 1993,1998). Nonindigenous people are locally referred to as gente de raz6n (people of reason), blancos (whites), mestizos (mixed race), or chabochi (whiskered ones, in Raramuri).

6. Their reserve contrasts markedly with the demeanor of local Mestizos, who typically greet foreigners with open-handed hospitality.

7. The status of theoretical knowledge among the Raramuri poses an interesting conundrum in the literature. On the one hand, a number of authors have reported a relative paucity of interest in such topics among the Raramuri, while others have collected substantial data on the subject. For recent discussions of this debate in Raramuri ethnography, see Burgess 1981; Kennedy 1996:139, 146; and Merrill 1988:1-15.

8. For example, Abu-Lughod 1986; Basso 1970; Bercovitch 1994; Bricker 1981; Crumrine and Spicer 1997; Dean 1994; Dennis 1987, 1997; George 1993; Goffman 1959; Gossen 1996; Gumperz 1982a, 1982b; Haviland 1977; Herzfeld 1992; McKinley 1995; Moore 1976; Ohnuki-Tierney 1993; Raybeck 1991; Savishinsky 1974; C. Steiner 1990; G. Steiner 1967; Vogt 1993.

9. Although he is interested in the relationship between the two discourses, Scott ultimately implies that he is more concerned with the disparity between public and hidden transcripts. He argues that the area of discrepancy results more from the pressure of the former on the latter than vice-versa. Thus, while admitting there is an area of overlap between the two transcripts, he is quick to add: "What is certainly the case, however, is that the hidden transcript is produced for a different audience and under different constraints of power than the public transcript. By assessing the discrepancy between the hidden transcript and the public transcript we may begin to judge the impact of domination on public discourse" (1990:5, emphasis in original).

10. Frances Slaney (personal communication, April 11,1997) makes the important observation that while local Mestizos may dominate the Raramuri, as rural peasants they are themselves subordinates in relation to political officials, priests, and others representing intersections with supralocal levels. As such, Sierra Mestizos also have hidden transcripts.

11. People I spoke with also had their own theories. One man suspected that Mestizos acquire their wealth through magical means, having machines in their houses that manufacture money. Others warned their children to stay away from Batopilas, saying that the Mestizos there would snatch them into their houses, boil them down into soap, and then sell it as bars from their stores. In all these accounts, there emerges a prominent motif found throughout the Raramuri's hidden transcript. Namely, Mestizos make their living at the expense of the native people and their resources, like parasites or predators, extracting life from the very beings upon which they feed.

12. Since Raramuri and Mestizos interact most commonly for economic reasons, it is important to know that these transactions normally occur in situations when the individuals are already embedded in norawa relationships (Levi 1992:9-10). Raramuri define a norawa as someone who is a friend or trading partner. The relationship also conveys a tie of fictive kinship (Bennett and Zingg 1935:158; Kennedy 1970:199; Lumholtz 1 902:244) that may be a substitute, parallel, or prerequisite for the ritual kinship of god parenthood or compadrazgo (see Gudeman 1972). Once initiated, a norawa relationship ideally lasts throughout an individual's lifetime. Significantly, I found that it is not uncommon for there to be intergenerational transmission of norawa ties, both within and between ethnic groups. Raramuri differentiate, however, between norawa relationships they have with Mestizos and those that are enjoyed with other Raramuri (Thord-Gray 1955:303), the former generally hedged with greater caution and less trust than the latter. Thus, norawa relationships define many, though by no means all, of the situations in which the Raramuri find themselves before a Mestizo audience.

13. During my first months of fieldwork among the gentiles, some men, when asked, said their name was rehoi (man) while others initially gave names I later learned were wrong ones or, on various occasions, gave different names by which they were known in the community. Furthermore, as social distance increases from a Raramuri person's own family and rancheria, so is the likelihood that he or she will be known only by a nickname, usually describing a personal quality or physical trait. All of this leads many Mestizos, and even some pag6tame, to the erroneous belief that because gentiles are unbaptized, they either "have no names," as they put it, or change them at will. In actuality, gentiles may be given several names throughout their life in the course of special curing ceremonies known as na'yesa rewerama (to name by fire), or na'yemari mo'ora (the firing of one's head). As magical but life-threatening tendrils, called remugi (Merrill 1988:129), that emanate from the head are singed off, the person is given a new name imparting a new life. Meanwhile, in addition to receiving these fire names, pag6tame are also given a water name during Catholic baptism (Burgess 1981:16-17; Kennedy 1996:139, 179-180; Levi 1993:1-3; Slaney 1991:117-152).

14. Toponyms, often in Spanish, were used for general areas, but frequently neighboring people, especially Mestizos, were ignorant of indigenous place names designating more exact locales-of topo- graphic features and even whole rancherias. Since all could be subsumed under an area's generic name, their individual identities were nominally invisible. For example, Cuervo (Crow) denoted not only the specific rancheria of Korachi (Place of the Crow), but also glossed a network of other rancherias in the vicinity that came under its political jurisdiction. Yet by no means are all Spanish designations for Raramuri locales simply translations from the native toponym. Just below Cuervo, for instance, is a rancheria known as Cuervito (Little Crow). However, the residents there call it Wa'eachi (Place of the Cedars)-a name unfamiliar to Mestizos, who only know the place as Little Crow.

15. For an alternate view of Raramuri ethnobotanical knowledge, taxonomy, and experience, see Salm6n 1996.

16. This identification was made by Professor Richard E. Schultes of the Harvard Herbarium, based on examination of photographs and pressed samples.

1 7. In the Sierra Tarahumara, other species of cacti are also denoted as hikuri or peyote (Bye 1976, 1 979). 18. It would be wrong, however, to conclude from the above that all euphemisms, idiomatic expressions,

double meanings, metaphors, and puns are concocted in a conscious effort to lead astray, confuse, or conceal the true meaning of things or their real identity. Quite a few of these speech acts, for example, are uttered in a jocular vein, seldom failing to bring on smiles, as speakers spin verbal play while audiences comprehend the unnatural, but nevertheless conventional, turns of phrase. At the same time, it is also true that double entendres make life more interesting precisely because they are inside jokes, drawing lines, like Geertzian conspiratorial winks, between those who get them and those who do not.

19. Raramuri folklore often depicts foxes, crows, and hawks as occupying the same moral position as chabochis. All are thieves who prey on Raramuri crops and animals. Conversely, buzzard is the Raramuri's compadre. In stories people tell, turkey vulture or buzzard is sometimes duped in contests with wilier creatures, and, like the Raramuri themselves, is cast as poor but honest. Besides the elements of friendly put-down and ironic empathy that make the joke work in this context, there may be another level of linguistic play involved, an implicit allusion to male sexual predation (William Merrill, personal communication, September 17, 1997).

20. See, for example, Bennett and Zingg 1935:199-200, 328-329; Fried 1953; Kennedy 1963; Lumholtz 1902:253-257; Merrill 1978; Velasco Rivero 1983:234-241.

21. According to Slaney, the Raramuri governor of Panalachi, "owns a battery-run television, but he kept it hidden from view as it was an extraordinary possession for a Tarahumara and would undoubtedly heighten political opposition to him if the entire Tarahumara community knew about it" (1991:87).

22. The problem, of course, is that since the practice is so widespread there is always the suspicion some is hidden-so even when the host announces that the batari is all gone, there normally are a few people hanging around waiting for that last pot to be brought out.

23. On the flip side, however, I also observed that Raramuri who strenuously requested goods or insisted on making trades when the other party stated they had nothing to give or trade were scolded by being told they were "buying forcefully" (we iweame rarf ra). This is a negative sanction in its own right. Yet it was also explained to me that this is particularly hurtful to Raramuri because it compares them to the stereotypic Mestizo who harasses Raramuri to part with goods even when they say they have nothing to sell.

24. The smaller creature beats his larger adversary the only way he can-through reliance on rhetoric, timely action, and quick thinking. That the Raramuri see in the mythological relations between hungry predators and tricky prey, or simply contests between larger and smaller animals, an anthropomorphized situation analogous to that which exists between the politico-economic brawn of Mestizos and their own underdog status, where they live by recourse to social wits and survival savvy, is indubitable.

25. It is hardly surprising that the identities of dominant and subordinate groups should be masked by multivocal metaphors. But when it is recalled that in Aztec, a language related to Raramuri, the very word for metaphor means "disguised name" (Heyden 1986), the entire argument takes on increased significance.

26. One has only to be reminded of the Mehinaku in Central Brazil (Gregor 1977) or, closer to home, the concerns over privacy in cyberspace and the emergent field of cryptography in the culture of computers, to recall that the Raramuri are hardly peculiar. Furthermore, as Burgess astutely notes, sometimes Raramuri "are described as being secretive when actually something else is involved" (1981:14), resulting from misinterpretations of Raramuri codes of sociolinguistic interaction. For example, Raramuri often address their interlocutors, especially if they are of the opposite sex or from another community, by pointing with their lips, speaking sparingly and in hushed tones, averting their faces, or even turning their backs. Outsiders

may see this as evidence of secrecy and evasion, although Raramuri say this is a way of showing respect and being polite. As a people who do most of their living out-of-doors (Graham 1994) and, by definition, consequently are exposed much of the time, the Raramuri have elaborated what may be seen as a minimalist

style of interaction. 27. Since 1994, Raramuri have increasingly voiced their grievances to officials in Chihuahua City and

the Commission on Solidarity and Defense of Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization in the state

capital; made known the rape of their land to environmental watchdogs such as the Forest Guardians and the Chihuahua-based Advisory Council of the Sierra Madre; and participated in national indigenous conferences such as the National Indigenous Congress first convened in Mexico City in 1996. Raramuri also have benefited from programs organized by church and state agencies, such as the National Indigenous Institute, National Institute of Anthropology and History, National Commission on Human Rights and two Jesuit programs: the Tarahumara Foundation founded by Jose A. Llaguno and Father Verplancken's Tarahumara Mission based in Creel. For salient discussions of emergent Indian identities elswhere in Latin America, see Bonfil Batalla 1996, Collier and Lowery Quaratiello 1994, Howe 1992, Jackson 1995, Maybury-Lewis 1992, and Stephen 1997.

28. Significantly, Raramuri women recently have assumed a leading role in these causes. In 1997 at Cusarare, the exploitation of the local forest by national and transnational interests caused Maria Elena Quintero to be the first Raramuri woman ever to seek the office of comisarfa ejidal (commissioner of the local agrarian reform community). Similarly in 1997, Maria Soledad Batista Espino became the first Raramuri woman ever to run for the Mexican National Congress, running on the opposition Green Party ticket in

District 3 in the State of Chihuahua. But not all Raramuri have been content to seek justice through conventional channels of power. On May 19, 1997, about 100 Raramuri came to Chihuahua City to seek action on a claim filed six months earlier at the Attorney General's Office against a local political boss accused of having cheated the Indians out of their land. After several days of inaction, the demonstrators blocked traffic in front of the Attorney General's Office. They were forcibly removed by the judicial police, with some being sent to the hospital and others to jail. The confrontation prompted a second protest late the next day, when about 300 peasants and human rights activists marched to demand the release of the jailed protestors, many of them Raramuri who spoke no Spanish.

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1955 Tarahumara-English, English-Tarahumara Dictionary and an Introduction to Tarahumara Gram- mar. Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami Press.

Turner, Victor 1969 The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago: Aldine.

Urteaga, Agusto 1993 Su tonada en el desconcierto de las naciones. Ojarasca 21-23:19-23.

Velasco Rivero, Pedro de 1983 Danzar o morir: religi6n y resistencia a la dominaci6n en la cultura Tarahumar. Mexico City:

Centro de Reflexi6n Teol6gica. Vogt, Evon Z.

1993 Tortillas for the Gods: A Symbolic Analysis of Zinacanteco Ritual. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

accepted October 8, 1997 final version submitted January 24, 1998

Jerome M. Levi Department of Sociology and Anthropology Carleton College Northfield, MN 55057 jlevi@carleton.edu

Hidden Transcripts among the Rarámuri: Culture, Resistamce, and Interethnic Relations in Northern...

Documents

Methodological Issues in the Content Analysis of Computer Conference Transcripts

Detection of Transcripts for Retinoic Acid Receptors, Retinol

Cellular Localization and Processing of Primary Transcripts of Exonic MicroRNAs

Transcripts application - Relativity Documentation

Emotion without a word: Shame and guilt among Rarámuri Indians and rural Javanese

The interethnic generalizability of social control theory: An empirical test

Level 1 & 2 Mini Story Transcripts

Interethnic relationships of CYP2D6 variants in native and Mestizo populations sharing the same ecosystem

Practicum - Interethnic Integration in Education Project

INTERETHNIC RELATIONS, MINORITY RIGHTS AND SECURITY CONCERNS: A FOUR-COUNTRY PERSPECTIVE (UKRAINE – MOLDOVA – ROMANIA – HUNGARY)

Iron Smelting and Interethnic Conflict among Precolonial Maa-Speaking Pastoralists of North-Central Kenya

Structure and expression ofIck transcripts in human lymphoid cells

Instant Induction Transcripts desbloqueado

Russian-Chinese border Transborder trade on the Russian-Chinese border: Problems of interethnic communication

Interethnic Variations in the Presence of Schneiderian First Rank Symptoms

Del cuerpo a la persona: ensayo sobre una noción rarámuri

CNN.com - Transcripts - Colorado Judicial Branch

Consistent interethnic differences in the distribution of clinically relevant endothelial nitric oxide synthase genetic polymorphisms

Supplementary File 2 Respondent Interview Transcripts

TRANSCRIPTS OF THE ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE