Fariseos Folk Tradition of San Pedro de la Cueva, Sonora

Guillermo Núñez Noriega is a professor and researcher at the Research Center for Food and Development, A.C.Norma Elia Cantú is the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University.

Núñez Noriega's study of the fariseos tradition insightfully probes how this folkloric expression enacts and rescripts the moral and gender imperatives of a community in Sonora, Mexico, located in the ancestral lands of the Opata. As a collective enactment of “catechesis” and “catharsis,” the social drama of the fariseos offers a critical window to grapple with the ludic, erotic, and irrational dramatization of pleasure, aggression, and transgression. Núñez Noriega masterfully illustrates how such a folk tradition codifies religious, cultural, and political demands while allowing the community to rehearse, experience, and negotiate compulsory performances of masculinity, morality, and sexuality.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsPreface Introduction1. Gender, Morals, and Folklore 2. Holy Week3. The Geographical Context: San Pedro de la Cueva, Sonora Mexico4. How Was the Folklore of the Fariseos Studied?5. Context, Text, and Texture6. The Performance as a Complex Symbolic Structure7. Public Expression of Forbidden Impulses and Paradoxes of the Fariseo Performance8. The Fariseo Performance and the Social Sphere: Trends and Challenges9. Conclusions: The Multiple Functions of FolkloreReferencesAbout the Author and Editor