University of Illinois Press, American Folklore Society The Journal of American Folklore

"They Will Come from the Other Side of the Sea": Prophecy, Ethnogenesis, and Agency in
Yaqui Narrative
Author(s): Kirstin C. Erickson
Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 116, No. 462 (Autumn, 2003), pp. 465-482
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of American Folklore Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4137758
Accessed: 18-09-2016 09:03 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
University of Illinois Press, American Folklore Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to The Journal of American Folklore
This content downloaded from 204.78.0.252 on Sun, 18 Sep 2016 09:03:08 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
KIRSTIN C. ERICKSON
"They will come from the other side of the sea"

Prophecy, Ethnogenesis, and Agency
in Yaqui Narrative
For Mexico's Yaqui Indians, ethnic identity is both represented and renegotiated
in narrative moments. In this article, I examine the process of narrative self-fash-
ioning through the lens of the "Talking Tree," a story that portrays Yaqui ethno-
genesis as a reaction to a prophecy of Spanish conquest. I contend that this narra-
tive accords the Yaquis a level of agency that ordinary histories do not, refiguring
them as informed actors in the determination of their own destiny.
Histories told and remembered by those who inherit them are discourses of identity; just as identity is
evitably a discourse of history.
--Geoffrey White, Identity through History
I WAS WAITING FOR A BUS in the shade of a mesquite tree on a Sunday morning
June 1997, when an opportunity presented itself. For ten months, I had been conduc
ing dissertation research in Potam, a desert pueblo (town) on the Yaqui Indian R
serve in the Mexican state of Sonora. Despite my efforts at maintaining a rigorous
interview schedule, regular rounds of visiting, and attending important pueblo cer
emonies, it seemed that the most interesting ethnographic prospects simply mater
alized, unbidden; fortunately, this one was not difficult to recognize. A gentleman
his late sixties approached me, and, although I had never been formally introduced
to Ram6n Hernandez Leyva,' he always made polite conversation when we happened
to bump into one another. On that warm spring morning, Hernandez greeted me i
the Yaqui language and asked where I was going. I told him I was on my way
Sonora's branch of INAH (Instituto Nacional deAntropologia e Historia, the Nationa
Institute of Anthropology and History) in Hermosillo, to use the library. After that
would be passing through Tucson, Arizona, on my way to visit my husband fo
month and a half. Hernandez smiled and said that he himself had been to "Tucs6n"
several times, to give talks about the Yaqui tribe. "I know much about history," he
declared, adding that he had been "recorded" at the University of Arizona and had
KIRSTIN C. ERICKSON is Assistant Professor of Anthropology,

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Journal ofAmerican Folklore 116(462):465-82

Copyright @ 2003 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
466 Journal of American Folklore 116 (2003)
participated in a symposium in the town of Ajo, on the Tohono O'odham Rese

tion. "I know many things; come to my house when you return from el otro la
'other side' of the border]."
It was not until September 1997 that Hernindez and I were able to have the fi
our three lengthy interviews. Sitting in his adobe house in Potam, Hernindez sw
on a clattering fan and attached the microphone to his lapel while I set up the
recorder. Recalling his enticing claim that he knew "much about history," I beg
a query about Yaqui resistance to the colonization of their land by Mexican set
farmers and the ensuing "Yaqui Wars" of the nineteenth century. Hernindez's
sponse was both unexpected and illuminating:
The Mexicans? The Mexicans, well, they are just Mexicans. And throughout time, well, that
have brought many consequences upon us, the Mexicans. Throughout time, in times past, t
tribe was one single tribe. Nothing more. One single tribe. Yes. Before the Spaniards came.
they had been told, no? By their gods, the Yaqui tribe. And by means of their dreams, they wer
They understood that certain disasters were to follow. The sun was the father of all. He was
ther, a papd, the sun. And the moon, well, that too, they treated her as if she were their ma
respected her greatly. The moon, yes. And over time then, before the Spaniards arrived, they had
by means of their own wisdom. They already had their own customs, but very ancient, hmm? A
a Yaqui poetess said that with the passage of time, there would come another generation, in
form. And with all this knowledge, no? They understood it well, by means of their thought
talking-with the stars, and with all classes of animals.
I had inquired about the Yaqui Wars, expecting a conventional history, or perh
family story-a Yaqui's perspective on a familiar tale. Instead, Hernandez allude
a narrative that I immediately recognized from my readings (Evers and Molin
[1987]; Giddings 1993 [1959]; Painter 1986; Sands 1983; Spicer 1980; Vale
Kaczkurkin 1977) as a version of the "Talking Tree," a mythic history that prop
the arrival of the Europeans and the ensuing baptism and ultimate transform
of the Yaqui people.
During my field study, I lived with a Yaqui family in Potam. Although I cond
the majority of my ethnographic research in Potam, I also visited regularly wit
sultants in several of the other Yaqui pueblos that dot the desert landscape alo
Yaqui River. Not long into my study of Yaqui economic and narrative practice
covered ethnic identity to be of significant concern to local community membe
Yaqui consultants were adamant that I understand the distinctions, as they pe
them, between themselves and Yoris (non-Yaqui Mexicans, or "white" peop
history of conflict between these two groups, and persisting economic and po
inequalities.2 They strove to illustrate their sense of "Yaqui-ness" for me by c
attention to certain ways of behaving and believing. Interviews inevitably inc
mention of ethnicity, and casual conversations were awash with references to
tity. Following the lead of my consultants, I redirected my focus to include an
nation of narratives and behaviors that might allow some insight into the wa
which Yaquis give meaning to, present, and constantly renegotiate their own et
This article is an examination of the narrative construction of identity. Cho
to take seriously the claim that language, in use, is "deeply constitutive of re
Erickson, Prophecy, Ethnogenesis, and Agency in Yaqui Narrative 467
(Riessman 1993:4; see also Bakhtin 1986; Martin 1994; Sherzer 1987), I explore Ram6n
Hernindez's Talking Tree history as one such constitutive narrative event-a
contextualized and self-creative "telling" that contributes to a continuing process of
ethnic identification. My concern here is not with the organizational (the Yaquis'
conscious presentation of themselves as a group in the national or international po-
litical sphere through public discourse, political oratory, or formal rhetoric); rather,
I am interested in processes of ethnic identification and the creation of ethnic mean-
ing at the level of the individual. On that searing September afternoon, I asked
Hernandez about Yaqui resistance during the nineteenth century. He chose to begin
with a story about a time before Yaqui-European contact, a revealing narrative about
prophecy, impending invasion, and the consequences of difference. I contend that this
Talking Tree story remains significant to tribal historians-people like Hernindez-
because it concerns the ethnogenesis (the coming-into-being) of the Yaqui people-
the very inception of Yaqui identity. But also, and perhaps more critically, I argue that
the Talking Tree story is an alternative history: one that presents Yaquis as agents rather
than victims, and that refigures the relation of Yaqui Selves to Yori Others in the pro-
cess of ethnogenesis.
Identity through Narrative
[N]arrative is first and foremost a mediating form through which "meaning" must pass. Stories, in other
words, are productive. They catch up cultural conventions, relations of authority, and fundamental spatio-
temporal orientations in the dense sociality of words and images in use and produce a constant mediation
of the "real" in a proliferation of signs.
-Kathleen Stewart, A Space by the Side of the Road
It has been well established that speech acts produce cultural meanings and enable
individual actors to construct personal identities and negotiate cultural ideologies
(Abu-Lughod 1986; Basso 1979; Bauman 1977; Bauman and Briggs 1990; Bauman
and Sherzer 1974; Herzfeld 1985). Narratives can be elicited in the context of the eth-
nographic interview or may arise more spontaneously in everyday conversation.3
Some narratives shore up cultural ideologies, whereas others have a way of exposing
what is typically imperceptible and taken for granted, revealing the constructedness
of cultural beliefs and practices. In this way, Steven Parish argues, narratives have the
capacity to engender a "critical consciousness" (1998:78). Parish explains: "In gen-
eral, narratives have special characteristics that lend themselves to making critical
judgments. First of all, narratives provide a way of overcoming the transparency of
culture, the way culture is 'not there' to common sense because it presents itself to
experience as natural, as reality, simply the way things are. Narratives can make the
premises of cultural practice 'visible,' presenting them as mental objects that can be
thought about, evaluated, and reinterpreted-a story is detached from reality, al-
though it may be about it" (1998:56).
But narratives do not do such work on their own; stories, marked with the context
of their narration (the time, place, and cultural expectations), are communicated by
468 Journal ofAmerican Folklore 116 (2003)
narrators and are witnessed by an audience. Catherine Kohler Riessman main

"Informants' stories do not mirror a world 'out there.' They are constructed,
authored, rhetorical, replete with assumptions, and interpretive" (1993:4-
Riessman points to the tremendous potential for agency in every narrative ac
tors, together with their audiences, generate meanings that shape the social w
themselves in the process) by recounting or recoding past events, by affirming th
ture of social authority, or by imagining alternatives when interpreting exp
history, or events (Hill 1988; Reissman 1993).4 This is the pertinence of a stud
rative to the project at hand: it is not only ideology and social structure, but
sonal and cultural identities, that can be created or contested in narrative m
Just as present concerns shape interpretations of the past, so stories about the
erfully fix identities as people present themselves as they would like others to
The identities that define the self are created and recreated in narrative.
Herndndez's Talking Tree History
On that afternoon in September 1997, Ram6n Hernandez performed his ve

of a story that Edward Spicer first called the "myth of the Talking Tree" (198
narrative that prophesies the Spaniards' invasion, foretells a radical conversi
Yaquis to Christianity through baptism, and ultimately describes the transfo
of a people's cultural identity when confronted with a dominating Other.
In the first decades of the sixteenth century, Spaniards exploring the north
edge of New Spain encountered roughly 30,000 people practicing agriculture
floodplain of the Yaqui River (Spicer 1980:5; Perez de Ribas 1944 [1645]:6
summers and insufficient rainfall made this desert lowland along the Gulf o
fornia inhospitable to human habitation, with the exception of river valleys
Yaqui-a green oasis in an arid region otherwise home to groves of thorny m
and acacia, aloes, and spiny cacti. At the time of European contact, aborigina
lived in eighty semipermanent hamlets scattered along the lower sixty mile
Yaqui River. There, they cultivated maize, beans, pumpkins, squash, and cotton
alluvial soils and supplemented their farming with hunting, fishing, and gat
(Hu-DeHart 1981:9-11; Perez de Ribas 1944 [1645]:64; Spicer 1969:787, 1
In 1533, Captain Diego de Guzmin and his soldiers attempted to enter Yaqu
tory and claim it for the Spanish Empire, but they were violently repelled by Y
riors. During the first decade of the 1600s, Captain Diego Martinez de Hurda
his forces were repeatedly defeated by Yaquis defending their land. Despite the
the Yaquis had successfully fended off European invaders, the Spaniards mad
that assaults would continue. The Yaquis acquiesced, agreeing to allow Jesuit
aries to live in their midst (Hu-DeHart 1981:14-6, 25-7; Spicer 1980:5, 13-
And so it was in 1617 that Fathers Andrds Perez de Ribas and Tomis Basilio
for the Yaqui River Valley to convert Yaquis to Christianity and to transfor
aboriginal territory into a Jesuit mission. From the beginning, the missionar
mented the standard Jesuit practice of reduccidn ("reduction"-gathering sm
persed Indian communities into larger, more densely populated pueblos). Hu-
describes the Jesuit strategy for a massive relocation and re-organization of t
federation" (1981:23) of Yaqui-speaking communities: "First of all, they had Indian

assistants from established missions transport prodigious quantities of food to the
new mission site. They needed these provisions to entice Yaquis from distant, dispersed
rancherias (hamlets) to leave their homes and fields to take up new residence ... along
the river" (1981:32). The missionaries directed the construction of eight churches, the
building of which "was designed to set in motion a process of change in physical lo-
cation of the whole Yaqui population" (Spicer 1980:27), and, by 1623, they claimed
to have baptized all of the Yaquis in the surrounding region (Hu-DeHart 1981:33).
They introduced domesticated cattle and goats, novel crop varieties, and new irriga-
tion techniques to Yaqui farmers (Hu-DeHart 1981:36-8; Spicer 1980:30). Spicer es-
timates that by the mid- 1700s, but possibly as early as the mid- 1600s, the majority of
the 30,000 people who formerly inhabited eighty scattered hamlets had relocated to
the eight large pueblos of Potam, Vicam, Cocorit, Bacum, Torim, Huirivis, Rahum,
and Belem (1980:27).
The events described in the Talking Tree story occur on the eve of European-Yaqui
contact, before the Spanish colonial presence in northwestern New Spain and the
establishment of Jesuit missions; as such, this narrative marks what Spicer calls the
"beginning of the Conquest" (1980:172) in the Yaqui historical imagination. The
Talking Tree story continues to have a unique status in Yaqui oral literature. Kathleen
Sands notes, "Unlike many other tribes, the Yaquis do not have a cohesive and com-
prehensive body of lore concerning their origins and identity. Though a great deal of
Yaqui lore has been collected, no lengthy cycles or extended narrative texts have come
to light" (1983:359). This story is the exception in that portions of it are well known
by many older Yaqui people in the Sonoran Yaqui communities.
As the most prominent and lengthy example of a myth uniquely identified with the
Yaquis, the Talking Tree story has attracted the attention of numerous scholars of Yaqui
culture (Evers and Molina 1993 [1987]; Giddings 1993 [1959]; Painter 1986; Ruiz Ruiz
and Aguilar 1994; Sands 1983; Savala 1980; Valenzuela Kaczkurkin 1977), beginning
with Spicer (1954, 1980, 1984 [1940]), who argues that the myth's principle
significance lies in its separation of baptized, mortal Yaquis from their unbaptized,
"enchanted" ancestors-people of diminutive stature, called Surem (1954:121). Spicer
maintains that the Talking Tree story "provides sanction for the conception of the dual
universe," sacralyzing both Yaqui aboriginal land and the Jesuit-era pueblos
(1980:172). In her analysis of different versions of the story, Sands (1983) links the
myth's survival to an amazing "flexibility"-the Yaquis' capacity to conserve indig-
enous concepts while incorporating Christianity as a central part of their identity. And
Larry Evers and Fellpe Molina (1993 [1987]:35-9) argue that the narrative's concept
of the world as dual (simultaneously Christian and enchanted) is key to the under-
standing and interpretation of Yaqui deer songs.
During our interview, Ram6n Hernindez talked about the presence of Jesuit mis-
sionaries, the conversion of the Yaquis to Catholicism, the resistance to Mexican colo-
nization of Yaqui territory led by his great, great-uncle Juan Maldonado Tetabiate in
the 1890s, and a terrible flood that is also recounted in the Bible. At one point, in an
attempt to draw him back to the narrative with which he began our interview, I asked
Hernindez to tell me what he knew about the ancestral Surem, the people who in-
habited Yaqui territory when the mysterious Talking Tree first began to sound
prophetic message.6 In the following pages, I present Hernaindez's version of the
ing Tree" history, followed by an elaboration of some specific portions of the
and an analysis of its implications for understanding the negotiation of Yaqui
tity through historical narrative.7
H: Yes. The Surem. This is a dicho [saying], nothing more. It is a dicho, that the Yaqui tribe, wel
cerning the issue of history, they are very backward. In the questions of archaeology, the tribe
ing, no? In the question of history. Very poor.
In those times, they passed the story along (but just by word of mouth, with words only
Surem. Well, about 5000 years ago, those people lived here....
And at one time, down to there, down to Belem, that place was ruled by, dominated by, th
The Pimas, no? Because they had not yet moved themselves further north. They moved about ou
no? Hiding. ... And after some time, well, now the Spaniards arrived here. The Mexicans, the
Already you have been spoken to many times, no? About los Ocho Pueblos [the Eight Yaqui T
At that time, the Pimas disappeared from here. But much earlier, the Surem lived here. It is a
I have gone many places, no? Giving talks. Investigating, no? About the Surem. ... And a lo
ago, while walking about on the lands, I found a little metate [grinding stone] like this. [H
spread his hands about a foot apart, indicating the size of the metate.] A little metate like this.
out there. They were very short people, like this, the Surem. [Hernandez held his hand about
from the floor to demonstrate the stature of the Surem.] Hmm. And supposedly, they even say
the ancestors, that these people surely did exist. And that they were very, very wise, as well. T
that the Spaniards were going to come here. Some went up into the sierra, and others fled unde
underneath the earth, here. Hmm? And the Surem, well, they were very able in every respec
the Spaniards came.
There was a Yaqui poetess, no? They went for her. Here at Omteme Mountain, there in that pla
appeared a wooden pole. A wood pole like that, tall. ... It was like a telegraph, no? Like that. But
understood it. And they went for a wise man who lived out there. And there were other wise on
they went for them too.... I believe that it became angry. It became angry because man
gathered. ... They call it that, "angry," the Angry Mountain, Omteme. Kawi Omteme. They h
the question of all of the animals, of all the birds who were there. They asked the question....
Here, something appeared, a pole, very tall. And in the afternoon, it sounded off in this w
no-one understood what it said. ... And the ancestors knew that a warning was going to com
I believe that that is what this is. Get the wisest person in the land; look for him here among the
And they went out there. And so some little birds came. Little birds like this. They came and sa
knew where the wise one lived. It was a woman. "This one," they said, "lives out there. Near
Near the sea, that is where she lives, Maapol. Hmm. ... One who is called Maapol. And this o
know. She lives there," said the smallest bird.
And so they went for the young woman, a Yaqui poetess. "That is fine." And they arrived out
And she accepted. She told them, "Tomorrow, very early in the morning I will head over th
got to notify my papd and everyone." In achai [my father]. In achai. That is how they said t
"my father" at that time, "in achai." Hmm. ... And they left and arrived.
And then in the morning, at about one o'clock in the morning there, the young woman got u
She grabbed her bow and her arrows, made a lunch, ... el agua [water] ... and she wrapped i
in a bundle. She told them that she was going out there. Coming over here ... "I have to go
them, because they don't know what is happening. Soon I will tell them. Now I am going ove
It is when the Surem were there, no? They left. The Surem said to themselves, "Times are no
to be good from now on; other people are going to come." Many went away.
Now the Yaqui poetess took to the road. And she didn't arrive that same day. Until the next d
twelve o'clock. At midday she arrived. But with her came her entire troop. Along with
mochomos [ants], scorpions, ants. Hmm? And then they arrived there. And the animals arriv
with her. They were her soldiers. Many people were frightened. Many people disappeared when they
saw these animals coming.
"Bueno [Well], here I am. Now I am here." And this was their salutation, no? "Jaisa wewu, jaisa wewu.
Jaisa wewu."8 That was the greeting because they still didn't know Dios [God].
E: Meaning they couldn't say Dios em chania-bu [May God help you]?
H: No. They still didn't know. And so they said "Jaisa wewu. Jaisa wewu." And now they gave her an
explanation of what was happening there. "We don't understand anything. Let's see if you do." And
now in the afternoon, she began. She lit a cigarro [cigarette], of the macuchus.9 And she began to smoke
it. They lit their cigars, and they smoked, every one of them. And now she began to dream. She dreamed
for a long time. Hmm. "Well, gentlemen," she said, "now everything has come to me. It is nothing,
this. Other people are going to come. They will come from the other side of the sea. People ... like us.
The same. It's just that they are from over there, and we are from here. But they are the same people.
They have the same spirit, the same thoughts that we have. The same heart, the same eyes, the same
nose. All of it. They are going to come here. And from here on, when these people arrive, there is go-
ing to be a change. A change, another way of life. They are going to bring a thing called religion. They
shall bring an upright pole, crossed with another. [Hernandez made the sign of the cross with his hand.]
There is a person hanging there. And this is the way it will be. Now there will be no deaths. Everyone
shall continue living. Hmm. And there is a person who died for all the people.
We are not the only people. On the other side of the sea, there are more people. And they are people
like us. And now their customs shall come here. ... And there is another Lord called God. He sent that
one here to save the world. They will bring this knowledge to us, so that we might learn it.
Hmm. ... They are going to teach you with this [right] hand, to make a cross, to cross yourselves. They
will teach you that he died for us. They are going to bring many things. And they will bring a green
ball like this, with some seeds in the center, that you are going to learn to plant. And they are also go-
ing to bring with them a little bundle that looks like a little nose, a seed, and this you will also plant.
You are going to plant garbanzo. And other things. And some other tiny seeds, to plant here. These
people are going to come here. ... You just need to prepare yourselves. You are going to need many
things, bows. So that they don't grab you by surprise. Guard your territory here. Guard your territory.
Mark your borders. Mark them. They are going to come."
After awhile, she was with them for awhile, "Now I am going back," she said, "I am going back."
And she went out there, no? The poetess. Toward the south. And the poetess told the Yaquis to get their
arrows, to raise their bows. [Hernandez explained that they stood in a line and shot their arrows into
the distance.] "Now it is marked. Now it is marked." And in fact, where the arrows landed, they sur-
rounded it with some marks. "And now they are going to arrive here." [Hernandez asserted that the
boundaries abutted Mayo territory to the south and extended northward to Rio Colorado; they were
marked everywhere an arrow landed.] "There shall come some bearded men, white; many of them have
white hair." Hmmm. This is what the poetess said. ... And they shot off some arrows over there. And
from there, they came here....
And that is what the Yaqui poetess said. Hmm? Hmm. And so the Surem who were there, they left.
They wrapped up a piece of the Yaqui River, like this. [Hernandez made a wrapping motion, as if bun-
dling something with his hands.] Each one grabbed a piece of the river. This was the river that used to
flow over there. Over there it flowed, 5,000 years ago. Hmm.
And so... New Spain was established .... And that is the way it happened. The Yaqui tribe has never
left the Yaqui River. The government of Porfirio Diaz, and General Lorenzo Torres-they all wanted this
land, the land of the Yaquis. They sent them to Yucatan, Oaxaca, the Valley [Valle Nacional]. But they
couldn't finish them off. Many fled to Tucson, over there. And to this day, they are there. They have their
own reservation and are now recognized as a North American tribe .... And that is how it was.
Before commenting on the significance of this story to issues of representation and

the negotiation of ethnic identity, I will begin with an exploration of Hernindez's
narrative itself: its placement in time and space, his description of the Surem,
ways in which other versions of this well-known myth illuminate Hernindez'
rendition. In the following discussion, I examine portions of his version of th
ing Tree story, ranging in length from individual words, to phrases, and eve
paragraphs. Hernindez's words have been italicized, so that the reader can mor
ily differentiate them from my own, as well as from versions of the story coll
other anthropologists (in quotation marks) and quotes from academic sour
According to Hernandez , the Talking Tree's prophecy occurred 5,000 years
before the Pimas were here, before the Spaniards arrived, before the Mexicans,
Yaquis. It is a story set in the mythic past, a time characterized by Karl Luckert
of "prehuman flux" (Luckert 1975, cited by Nabokov 1996:20). At the very be
of our interview, Hernandez had described an era when animals and huma
not sharply differentiated, when communication was not limited within sing
cies: "And across time, well, before the Spaniards arrived, they had a vision by m
their own wisdom. ... They understood it well, by means of their thoughts, and by
of talking with the stars and with all classes of animals."
Through her research with the Yaqui communities in Tucson, Muriel Thayer P
came to understand that the Surem "lived a nomadic life in a unitary world i
man and animals, insects, flowers, indeed, the whole world of nature and ma
common psychic life" (Painter 1986:4). While the essence of this time is mark
the ability of people and animals to interact, however, the Talking Tree story i
ated on and centrally concerns the boundaries of today's Yaqui territory. In h
rative, Hernandez connected the ancient past with the present-day homel
mentioning places still familiar: Belem, one of the original Ocho Pueblos of the
and the place that the vibrating stick appeared-Kawi Omteme (Angry Mo
a rocky peak located just to the southeast of Vicam Pueblo.
As Hernandez explained, the Surem were the ancestral inhabitants of this lan
were short in stature and very wise. Stories of discovery-the small metates (g
ing stones) and tiny pots stumbled upon byYaquis walking through the bush
way to the fields or to a relative's home for a visit-are occasionally cited by o
informants as physical proof, evidence of the existence of these ancient peop
unexpected appearance of a tall wooden pole on Kawi Omteme, a pole that
a sound like a telegraph, was the event that changed everything for the Sure
turing the contours of their existence."' In their perplexity and their determ
to understand the message emanating from the pole, the Surem sought out th
est person in the land to translate; they were informed by little birds that the
lived near the sea and that her name was Maapol.
The character HernAndez called Maapol happens to be the only identifiable i
vidual in this narrative. In some versions of the Talking Tree myth, her
Yomumuli" (Giddings 1993 [1959]); occasionally she is described as twin gi
at times she is called Sea Hamut (Flower Woman).12 Regardless, in every r
version, the wise one is young and female. According to HernAndez, Maapol liv
her father in the wilderness, significantly, near the sea, a place that Yaquis oft
ciate with danger and power (Sands 1983:364).'3 The wise one broke traditiona
gender conventions: she prepared for her trip by gathering a bow and arrows-male
hunting equipment; and she made the long trek inland without accompaniment.14
Maapol's association with the wilderness is reinforced by another detail in
Hernindez's story: she journeyed to the country of the Surem with an army of dan-
gerous and frightening insects.
When Maapol arrived at Kawi Omteme, she greeted the Surem people and pro-
ceeded to smoke macuchus (Yaqui tobacco) in order to have the dream by means of
which she came to understand the strange humming of the wooden pole. While some
Yaqui storytellers have identified the young woman as a "prophetess" (Sands
1983:363), Hernandez called her a poetess. Even if unintentional, the implication of
Hernindez's word choice is meaningful: as Evers and Molina point out, an ability to
relate sound to meaning is required for the interpretation of a message (1993
[1987]:36).15 The young woman foretold unimaginable changes: the arrival of people
from the other side of the sea, men with beards and white hair who would bring a re-
ligion symbolized by a cross and who would introduce new seed varieties.
Maapol warned the Surem to delineate the boundaries of their land by standing in
a line and shooting off arrows in all directions; the final landing place of those arrows
would mark the full extent of their territory.16 At several points during his narrative,
Hernandez referred to the response of the Surem after they heard the prophecy. The
Surem said to themselves, "Times are not going to be good from now on; other people are
going to come." Many went away. The ancestors of the Yaquis knew that the Spaniards
were going to come here. [And] some went up into the sierra, and others fled underneath,
underneath the earth. Eventually, HernAndez insisted, the Surem simply left, taking
with them pieces of the Yaqui River. Hernindez's description of the disappearance
of the Surem is not inconsistent with the explanations provided by other consultants.
Many residents of Potam spoke to me about the descent of the Surem into the earth,
their journey to "the North," or simply into the hills. Although there is no widespread
consensus as to where the Surem went when they fled the invaders, it is generally
agreed that they continue to exist in a world parallel to the visible."7
Narrating Ethnogenesis
Alhough it does not explain the creation of the world, the Talking Tree story typi-
cally outlines the ethnogenesis (the coming-into-being) of the group of people who,
today, identify as Yaqui. In one version of the myth, recounted by Luciano Velasquez
to Yaqui scholar Felipe Molina in 1982, the depiction of Yaqui ethnogenesis is quite
explicit.'" Upon hearing the translation of the tree's message, the Surem
didn't really like some of the things they heard, so they planned a big meeting .... At this meeting some
of the Surem decided to leave the Yaqui region, while others decided to stay and to see these new
things. .... [T]he Surem who were leaving cut up a portion of the Yo Vatwe [Enchanted River], wrapped
it up in a bamboo mat, and took it north to a land of many islands. Other Surem stayed around and
went into the ocean and underground into the mountains. There in those places the Surem now exist
as an enchanted people. Those who stayed behind are now the modern Yaquis, ... the Baptized Ones.
(Evers and Molina 1993 [1987]:38)
The Talking Tree's prophecy was a decisive moment in that it precipitated t

ferentiation of those Yaquis who remained in their original form-as immorta
(those who fled), from those "modern" Yaquis who chose to await the newcom
accept Christianity (Evers and Molina 1993 [1987]:38; Spicer 1980:67
Hernindez's narrative does not categorically label those Yaquis who decided to
the "Baptized Ones," yet his description of ethnogenesis is implicit within th
He told of the many Surem who went away upon receiving the prophecy, and h
merated the great changes in store for those who remained behind.
At one point, Hernandez illustrated a shift in the Yaqui belief system by po
to language itself: "And this was their salutation, no? 'Jaisa wewu, jaisa wewu
wewu.' That was the greeting because they still didn't know Dios [God]." The re
here, is to the customaryYaqui greeting, "Dios em chdniabu," a phrase that begi
Dios (also pronounced "Lios" by Yaqui speakers), a word directly adopted f
Spanish, meaning God. Dios em chdniabu may be loosely translated, "May God
you." Hernindez's declaration differentiates "before" the (Christian) God was k
from "after," a distinction also embedded in his assertion: "They already had th
customs, but very ancient, hmm? And later, a Yaqui poetess said that with the p
time, there would come another generation, another generation in another for
new generation of Yaquis would be taller, would continue to live on the la
occupied by the Surem, and would embrace Christianity as their religion.
The Talking Tree story is about radical transformation, but change is not pre
as unilaterally good or evil. As Jerome Bruner argues, the work of narrative is
bring a problem to its seamless resolution, but rather to facilitate "the compr
sion of plight that, by being made interpretable, becomes bearable" (1991:
story of the Talking Tree demonstrates a capacity to register the deep ambivalen
which impending change is received. On the one hand, the prediction of the a
of the Whites is a prophecy of invasion: Maapol instructs the Surem to mark
der around their territory. The arrival of the foreigners precipitates division:
the Surem leave with portions of the Yaqui River tucked under their arms, and
type of Yaqui person emerges. On the other hand, the strangers from across
are to bring with them certain opportunities, including new seeds to pla
chance to know a savior sent to save the world.
This is a crucial point to remember when discussing the meaning of the Tal
Tree story: Yaqui people today exhibit a tremendous pride in being Catholic; C
tianity has become an integral part of their identity as a people. That certainty
dent in the following version of the Talking Tree, narrated by Javier Choqui of
pueblo, recorded by Maria Trinidad Ruiz Ruiz and Gerardo David Aguilar d
cultural encounter in Potam, in 1987. Mr. Choqui explained the attitude of th
to the prophecy:
The Surem refused the blessing, they did not accept it, they said that they did not want it, ... s
they were told that some [Jesuit] fathers would come in order to bless those who had accept
the fathers arrived, the Surem scattered, but they did not go just anywhere, they remained he
earth where they lived and continue living .... This is what remains for us of our ancestors,
ing was made [accepted] by our ancestors..,. those who refused went down into the earth
us have seen but nobody likes this animal that wanders about below us, ... he [who] comes from our
ancestors, and they became like that because they did not accept the blessing, and we come from those
who indeed did accept the blessing, it is for that reason that we believe in God and for that reason that
we believe and listen to Him with attention. (Ruiz Ruiz and Aguilar 1994:31)'9
Like Choqui, Hernindez also portrayed Christian conversion as a positive outcome

of the encounter between Yaquis and the Jesuits. Whereas most accounts of the Talk-
ing Tree prophecy distinguish the immortal Surem from the mortal Yaquis, Hernandez
inverted the myth's storyline, emphasizing that immortality became a possibility
through Christ: "They are going to bring a thing called religion. They shall bring an
upright pole, crossed with another. There is a person hanging there. And this is the way
it will be. Now there will be no deaths. Everyone shall continue living. Hmm. And there
is a person who died for all the people." For both Javier Choqui and Ram6n Hernaindez,
the final division of the modern Yaquis from the Surem was predicated on either the
acceptance or the rejection of a new religion.
The Talking Tree story neatly overlaps with other accounts of Yaqui ethnogenesis;
the theories of non-Yaqui anthropologists and historians offer a slightly different
perspective on this process of identity formation. Consider John and Jean Comaroff's
assertion that "ethnicity has its origins in the asymmetric incorporation of structur-
ally dissimilar groupings into a single political economy" (1992:54). Similarly, Spicer
hypothesized that Yaqui ethnicity was forged in a process of "opposition" (1971:796-
97), in a historic encounter with a dominant Other. Historians tell us that the people
living in hamlets along the Yaqui River, confronted in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries with the persistent threat of military-aided invasion of their land and the
prospect of becoming colonial subjects of New Spain, extended an invitation to Je-
suit priests, thus launching a chain of related events including the "reduction" of their
scattered communities into larger towns, religious conversion, and substantial changes
in their practice of agriculture. This was a process that not only affected the everyday
life of the individuals living in the Yaqui River Valley, but, as Spicer (1971, 1980) and
Hu-DeHart (1981, 1984) argue, also transformed their concept of the world around
them, their relations to it, and their perception of their own collective identity. Hu-
DeHart postulates that changes to identity occurred on the basis of the abrupt con-
centration of the inhabitants of the rancherias and the simultaneous presence of Eu-
ropeans: "When they reduced eighty widely scattered and loosely federated hamlets
into eight mission communities, Jesuits heightened the Yaquis' incipient conscious-
ness of being a nation-that is, a distinct cultural group with its own language, pueb-
los, and political boundaries. Their mission communities were coherent, well-defined,
well-structured, economically self-sufficient, and segregated from the Spanish soci-
ety outside" (1984:4).20 I have presented non-Yaqui academic interpretations of the
process of ethnic identification alongside Hernindez's narrative in order to expose
multiple understandings of a historical process. Viewing a moment in history from
different perspectives can only augment our understanding of a past that cannot be
known "'as it really happened' in a final sense" (Salomon 1986:3).
Nevertheless, it is clear that not all modes of historical representation are equally
valued. About an hour into our first interview, when I asked him to tell me about the
Surem, Hernindez paused and prefaced his narrative of the Talking Tree prophecy
with what I interpreted to be a disclaimer: "This is a dicho [saying], nothing m

a dicho that the Yaqui tribe, well, concerning the issue of history, they are very b
In the questions of archaeology, the tribe is lacking, no? In the question of histo
poor." Why would he start this way? Reluctant to interrupt him, I silently con
the possibilities as he began his story. Was Hernindez reticent to share this n
because I was a university student (someone who presumably had her own ide
"legitimate" accounts of history)? Was he weighing the differences between t
and the written, or were his remarks a performance of self-deprecation, a re
of the modesty so culturally valued among the Yaqui people? It is impossible t
what he was feeling at that moment.
At the same time, it was obvious to me that this narrative was extremely i
tant to Hernandez. He assured me that as a younger man, while walking about
lands ... [he had] found a little metate, physical evidence of the existence of the
Next, he said that the ancestors maintain that these people surely did exi
significant, I believe, is the fact that at the very beginning of our interview
asked HernAndez to tell me about the nineteenth-century wars between the Y
and the Mexicans, this was the story-the narrative about the "poetess," the d
and the prophecy of disastrous changes-that he offered.
Whatever its source, Hernindez's ambivalence may index the continuing heg
of certain forms of historical discourse in the present; no matter how far we c
have expanded our conceptual horizons, particular modes of historical acc
are still privileged. While maintaining that the distinction is useful for heurist
poses, I would argue, following Jonathan Hill (1988), for a dissolution of a val
myth/history comparison in discussions about identity constitution. Hill insist
distinction between mythic and historical modes of social consciousness is a r
contrast between complementary ways of interpreting social processes" (1988
As Hayden White points out, even "Western" modes of historical narration ar
sentially ways of telling a story, fashioning the past into a compelling plot s
expose its "moral" message (1987:21).
Conclusion: Ethnicity and the Narrative Production of Agency
Narratives of shared experience and history do not simply represent identities and emotions. The
tute them.
-Geoffrey White, Identity through History
Although often perceived and presented as a reified or objectifiable "thing,

nic identity is a relation, a negotiation of Self and Other.22 Although theirs
tory of intermarriage, of economic and cultural exchange with their non-Yaqui
bors, the Yaquis nevertheless strive to hold themselves apart geographi
linguistically, culturally, and religiously from non-Yaqui Mexicans, the Yoris.
distinction between Yaqui and non-Yaqui might appear to be straightforward, b
boundaries of culture and behavior that help shore up or exemplify such dist
are fluid and are defined according to the speaker, the audience, and the contex
claim that "authentic Yaquis" speak the Yaqui language with fluency. Others refer to
the Yaqui history of resistance (first to Spanish conquistadors, and then to Mexican
farmer-settlers) and the experience of suffering, or to a connection with their ances-
tral land, as the most significant factors. Many Yaquis draw ethnic boundaries by
emphasizing variations in practice, dress, and behavior. Still others identify Yaqui
ethnicity with the elaborate folk-Catholic ceremonialism that characterizes pueblo
fiestas and the Lenten season culminating in Semana Santa (Holy Week). In a multi-
tude of creative ways, and through the flourishing expressive culture of daily life, Yaqui
individuals strive to reidentify as such-and both everyday discourse and formal
narrative play a significant role in this process.
The present-day Yaqui social reality is one of constant mediation between inside
and outside, between Yaqui Self and Mexican (or Yori) Other, a relationship that is
immanent or implied in innumerable economic, communicative, and social interac-
tions. The Mexican nation and the non-Yaqui Other are ever-present realities for those
living on an impoverished and beleaguered Indian reserve: educational discourse, the
media, and trips to nearby urban centers produce compelling examples of "modern-
ization" and success-incentives to assimilate. From the perspective of mainstream
Mexican society, poverty is often equated with Indian identity, portrayed as a "choice,"
and pressure is placed upon Yaquis to forsake their ethnic identity and to "fit in" with
the national culture.
Discourses of history are not merely representations of past identities but also con-
struct identity in the present (White 1991:3). The story of the Talking Tree is impor-
tant because it is fundamentally about this relationship between Yaqui Self and Yori
Other. The genesis of the Yaqui people is portrayed as part of a process of coming-
into-relation with the outsider; the Other is a persistent force, unavoidably connected
to Yaqui selfhood. Through the description of a prophecy of impending change, the
marking of territorial boundaries, and the ensuing flight of ancestral Surem,
Hernandez's Talking Tree narrative gathers notions of differentiation and identity,
linking ethnogenesis to both the delineation of a cultural space and a definitive choice.
As opposed to other narratives that might gloss over Yaqui agency in colonial times,
the Talking Tree story depicts the acceptance of (and preparation for) change as a
conscious decision. Although Hernindez's narrative clearly overlaps with other ac-
counts that portray the emergence of Yaqui identity at the time of the coming of the
Yoris, the story differs significantly from histories produced within the academy: the
Talking Tree prophecy locates the moment of ethnogenesis at a time before the Whites
came-portraying ethnogenesis not as response, but rather as a preparation, an in-
formed anticipation. Yaquis are not presented as passive "victims" of transformation;
rather, they insist upon their own historical agency in the establishment of their home-
land, in the implementation of new modes of production, and in the acceptance of
Christianity. Stories about the prophecy of the Talking Tree and the exodus of the
Surem describe the emergence of a new consciousness of group belonging, formu-
lated by the impending presence of a qualitatively different Other. The narrative is
doubly relevant in the present, as the prophecy of the arrival of the Whites and the
ensuing decision to become Yaquis mirrors and validates the continuing decision (in
the face of tremendous pressures to change) to be Yaquis today.
Although it may indeed be one of several "complementary" modes of histor

terpretation, the greater significance of Hernandez's narrative lies in the way it
the process of identity formation-in the power for self-fashioning it accords t
themselves. Perhaps this is why the Talking Tree story survives, in the shape o
elaborated and well-practiced narratives such as Hernandez's and in the form
tered, oblique references made by Yaqui informants: from the use of arrows in
lishing territorial boundaries and the ancestral "little people" who live under th
to the magic that affects those who venture to climb Kawi Omteme, and the
woman's prediction that eventually came to pass. A compelling example of "or
erature" (Evers and Molina 1993 [1987]:11), the Talking Tree story illum
narrative's flexibility as a powerful "technology" of identity (Bruner 1991; de L
1987:19) and its immense potential as a discursive tool in the production of cr
agentive ethnic selves.
Notes
The research on which this article is based was conducted in Sonora, Mexico, from July throu
1995 and from September 1996 through December 1998. Preliminary research during the summer
was made possible by a Tinker/Nave Fund summer research grant for short-term investigation
Sonora, the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia in Hermosillo provided me with
support, institutional affiliation, and library access. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to
consultants and friends for their patience, their support, and their continued interest in this p
the consultant I call "Ram6n Hernandez," I owe my thanks for many hours of storytelling and
tion. I thank Potam's Yaqui tribal authorities for research permission and encouragement. Ma
individuals helped shape this article with thought-provoking comments or close readings of ea
sions; I am grateful to Mark Anderson, Kevin Bohrer, Brad Erickson, Richard Flores, Calla Jacobso
Lepowsky, Rachel Meyer, Peter Nabokov, Ken Price, and Julie Walsh. Finally, I would like to t
anonymous reviewers of this article for their insightful comments.
1. All personal names in this article have been replaced with pseudonyms in order to protect
vacy and identities of my consultants.
2. The indigenous term for a Yaqui individual is Yoeme (or Yoreme): a "human being." The plu
Yoemem, means "people." Yoeme is contrasted most strongly with Yori, the Yaqui term used to ide
non-Yaqui Mexican. Yori simultaneously signifies "foreigner," "stranger," "white person," even
son" (see Evers and Molina 1993 [1987]:42; Figueroa Valenzuela 1992:140). In this piece, I use
"Yaqui" rather than "Yoeme," following the practice of the majority of my consultants.
3. Although they are conventionally thought of as "stories," some narratives are held together b
rather than by chronological progression (Riessman 1993:17). Riessman argues that "narrative
not be defined exclusively as chronologically ordered stories, which are identifiable by framin
reminding us that stories told in the context of the ethnographic encounter are rarely package
(1993:17-8). She writes, "When we hear stories ... we expect protagonists, inciting conditions,
minating events. But not all narratives (or all lives) take this form. Some other genres include
narratives (when events happen over and over and consequently there is no peak in the action)
pothetical narratives (snapshots of past events that are linked thematically)" (1993:18). For di
perspectives on the definition of narrative, see Bruner (1991), Riessman (1993:1-23), Stewart
32), and White (1987).
4. Bruner argues that social realities are constituted not by the direct experience of natural phe
or by an internal logic of mental operations, but rather through narrative. Narrative "operates as
ment of mind in the construction of reality" (1991:6). Perceptions are mediated symbolically, and
are created by means of "culture's treasury of tool kits" (Bruner 1991:2), one of which is narrative
5. Although we cannot be certain as to what motivated the Yaquis to allow the establishment
suit mission on their land, Hu-DeHart speculates that the Yaquis may have been concerned for their own
security in the face of a rapidly growing presence of foreigners around them (1981:28). Also, Spicer
(1980:17-9) notes that, over the years, various groups of Yaquis had paid visits to nearby Sinaloa to ob-
serve the work of the missionaries there. He writes, "At least one Yaqui delegation to Sinaloa included
400 members, representing most of the 80 Yaqui rancherias. There was a great deal of talk and discus-
sion. The missionaries placed emphasis on demonstrating their intentions by showing the visitors not
only the well-furnished churches which their converts had set up in the vicinity, but also their schools
and the agricultural establishments with horses, cattle, sheep, and goats" (Spicer 1980:17). Spicer inter-
prets the Yaqui invitation to the Jesuits as being rooted in both religious and practical concerns. He claims
that while they were interested in new rites and teachings, they also desired "the practical advantages that
they had seen in the Sinaloa and Fuerte River country of cattle and goats and other domestic animals and
the new ways of planting and the new farm products like wheat and peaches" (1980:19).
6. Even though Hernandez did not entitle his narrative, I refer to it as the "Talking Tree" story, the
shorthand title assigned to it by Spicer. It is best known in the academic literature by this title, and refer-
ring to the story as such connotes its intertextual quality.
7. I have presented my interview with HernAndez, translated but in its original format, indicating
Hernindez's narrative with an "H" and the place where I interject to ask a question with an "E."
8. Jaisa wewu: Jaisa-how (Yaqui language); wewu-not translatable.
9. Macuchus: Yaqui tobacco. In Yaqui, it is commonly called Jiak vivam.
10. In other versions of the story, the "wooden pole" is described as a "talking stick" (kuta nokame in
the Yaqui language), a tree trunk, or a tree with branches that appears to sing or hum (see Evers and Molina
1993 [1987]; Giddings 1993 [1959]; Sands 1983).
11. In the Yaqui language, yo means ancient or enchanted, and mumu means bee. Literally, then,
Yomumuli is the Enchanted Bee. Evers and Molina suggest that, as the talking stick gives off a humming
or vibrating noise, "the young girl or her parent is named for another sound, perhaps also metaphorical
of [the] sound she translates" (1993 [1987]:37).
12. Sea Hamut is literally translated as "Flower Woman." The Yaqui word "sea" has numerous asso-
ciations-the most significant of which is sea ania-the beautiful "flower world," a place rooted in an-
cient times and still considered by some to exist in a present, parallel dimension. The sea ania is a world
permeated with the supernatural; it is thought to be both the home of sacred brother deer as well as a
source of power for those who establish a connection with it. Closely linked are sea hiki-the "embroi-
dered flowers" or "fantasy flowers" embossed on fabrics for special occasions, and sea taka, which means
"flower body," the ability possessed by healers (and others) to perceive another level of reality through
their dreams and visions.
13. One dark, clear evening, I expressed pleasure at seeing a falling star. My companion, a young Yaqui
schoolteacher, warned me to muffle my enthusiasm, explaining that the sea "monsters" who are always
peaking their heads out of the water might become aware that there are falling stars and would hide them-
selves beneath the cover of the sea. Falling stars protect human beings by killing the sea monsters.
14. In the past, traveling through the bush alone, even traveling outside of the pueblo on foot, were
typically male practices.
15. Evers and Molina write, "In a significant way, all beginnings in Yaqui oral history involve such rec-
ognitions [of "sound as language"]. The sounds that need to be understood may come from fishes, caves,
or invading Spaniards. They may be a part of what we call myth, history, vision, or dream, but time and
again in Yaqui stories the people must understand sound from beyond the limits of the everyday language
of their communities in order to continue. In this sense there are no creators in Yaqui tradition, only trans-
lators. All beginnings are translations" (1993 [1987]:36).
16. This segment of Hernindez's narrative may be an imported motif-it alludes to a story Spicer
recorded during his research in Sonora in the 1940s "of a contest between a Yaqui bowman and the King
of Spain. It was arranged that the Yaqui hero should shoot as far as he could in several directions and thus
mark the extent of the Yaqui territory. If he shot farther than the King, then the King would recognize
the Yaqui possession of the land so marked out. The Yaqui bowman did shoot better than the King. A
document was made out giving the bounds of the land; the King of Spain signed it, thus giving his sanc-
tions to the Yaqui rights in a tribal territory" (Spicer 1980:170).
17. Muriel Thayer Painter's Tucsonan Yaqui informants explicitly told her that the Surem ex
yo ania (ancient/enchanted world), which can be accessed through dreams or in visions experi
mountain caves or in the desert (Painter 1986:5). Through his work in both Arizona and Sonor
learned that the Surem are immortal and that they continue to occupy the realm of the yo ania, t
tual' dimension" of the visible huya ania, or wilderness world (1980:64-67, 172). The power an
ration of the Pascola clowns and deer dancers are associated with the Surem (1980:67).
18. Velasquez's version was recorded in Kompwertam, Sonora.
19. This translation (from a Spanish translation of the Yaqui) is my own; except for the ellip
text preserves the punctuation of the original written version.
20. I do not believe that Hu-DeHart, Spicer, and others are arguing that the Yaquis lacked a
group identity prior to the European presence. In fact, it is clear from the observations of new
the colonial era that Yaqui group identity did exist before their sixteenth-century encounter w
ish explorers and missionaries: the members of the rancherias along the Yaqui River could generate
of more than 8,000 warriors when necessary, and they clearly differentiated themselves from
people, who lived in the river valley fifty miles to their south (Hu-DeHart 1981:11-4). But th
relationship with their indigenous neighbors (in contrast to that which eventually emerged betwee
selves and the representatives of New Spain) was one that might more aptly be characterized
Comaroffs write, in terms of "symmetrical relations between structurally similar social grou
(Comaroff and Comaroff 1992:54). In other words, the groups were distinct, but their relatio
another was that of relatively equal powers. Both the Yaquis and the Mayos belonged to the Ci
guage group, differing only in dialect; they had contiguous traditional territories, similar relig
and material culture, a common mythology, and similar forms of marriage and kinship orga
(Figueroa Valenzuela 1992). It is significant that the Yaquis' name for themselves, the Yoeme/Y
most strongly counterposed not to other local Indian groups (who are often called "otros Yorem
People"), but to non-Yaqui "whites" labeled Yori (strangers, or foreigners). Hu-DeHart, Spicer,
ers, espousing academic theories of Yaqui cultural change, posit that the quality of Yaqui collec
tity was fundamentally altered as the presence of the Other brought with it a new and radical pow
balance, as the Yaquis were incorporated first into an empire and later into a nation-state-and t
ethnicity, distinctly different from other types of group identity.
21. I draw from other anthropologists who have done comparative work with historical na
(Chernela 1988; Hulme and Whitehead 1992; Price 1990; Reeve 1988; Rosaldo 1980; Spicer 19
22. Ethnicity is a historically constructed, highly situational aspect of identity, foregrounde
tain contexts and downplayed in others. Although ethnic identity frequently becomes associat
set of cultural values, symbols, practices, even geographic location, it is not a static entity. It is, r
relation--embedded in power and continually in process. The cultural "stuff" with which mem
an ethnic group are identified (or identify themselves) may, over time, undergo a dramatic tra
tion, while the boundaries of the ethnic group remain largely intact (Barth 1969). And althoug
derstand the constructed, historically emergent nature of ethnicity, we may at the same time
legitimate (and potent) the political and moral meanings attached to ethnicity (Sharp 1996), it
tional component, as well as its tangible effects (Wilmsen and McAllister 1996:2). See also Coma
Comaroff (1992), Hall (1980), and Knight (1990).
23. Anthropologist Thomas McGuire (1986) argues, quite correctly, that there is a strong as
component to Yaqui ethnic identification: one is a Yaqui because he or she is born a Yaqui. Wh
tioned directly about what makes them Yaqui, most will first answer that they have Yaqui par
they have Yaqui "blood" coursing through their veins. Yet, as soon became evident during the
my field experience, degrees of "Yaqui-ness," and what it means to be a Yaqui, are also signific
concerns. It seems that simple recognition of "belonging" to the ethnic group is merely a start
The cultural contents of Yaqui ethnic identity are negotiable, and most Yaqui individuals I kn
themselves deeply in the daily work of the production of ethnic identity, exhibiting a compe
cern with the contours of "acceptable" Yaqui behavior. As anthropologist Figueroa Valenzuela
"To be Yaqui means, among other things, to behave as Yaquis do, that is, to believe, feel, and ac
and above all, to be defined as Yaqui" (1994:349-50).
References Cited
Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1986. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley: University
of California Press.
Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich. 1986. The Problem of Speech Genres. In Speech Genres and Other Late
Essays, pp. 103-31. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Barth, Fredrik. 1969. Introduction. In Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture
Difference, ed. Fredrik Barth, pp. 9-38. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Basso, Keith. 1979. Portraits of "The Whiteman": Linguistic Play and Cultural Symbols among the Western
Apache. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bauman, Richard. 1977. Verbal Art as Performance. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press.
Bauman, Richard, and Charles Briggs. 1990. Poetics and Performance as Critical Perspectives on Language
and Social Life. Annual Review ofAnthropology 19:59-88.
Bauman, Richard, and Joel Sherzer, eds. 1974. Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Bruner, Jerome. 1991. The Narrative Construction of Reality. Critical Inquiry 18:1-21.
Chernela, Janet. 1988. Righting History in the Northwest Amazon: Myth, Structure, and History in an
Arapaco Narrative. In Rethinking History and Myth: Indigenous South American Perspectives on the Past,
ed. Jonathan D. Hill, pp. 35-49. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Comaroff, John, and Jean Comaroff. 1992. Of Totemism and Ethnicity. In Ethnography and the Historical
Imagination, pp. 49-67. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.
De Lauretis, Teresa. 1987. The Technology of Gender. In Technologies of Gender: Essays on Theory, Film,
and Fiction, pp. 1-30. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Evers, Larry, and Felipe S. Molina. 1993 [1987]. Yaqui Deer Songs/Maso Bwikam: A Native American Po-
etry. Tucson: Sun Tracks and the University of Arizona Press.
Figueroa Valenzuela, Alejandro. 1992. Organizaci6n de la Identidad Etnica y Persistencia Cultural Entre
los Yaquis y los Mayos. Estudios Sociol6gicos 10(28):127-48.
----. 1994. Por la Tierra y Por los Santos: Identidad y Persistencia Cultural entre Yaquis y Mayos. Mdx-
ico D.F.: Consejo Nacional Para la Cultura y las Artes.
Giddings, Ruth Warner. 1993 [1959]. Yaqui Myths and Legends, ed. Harry Behn. Tucson: University of
Arizona Press.
Hall, Stuart. 1980. Race, Articulation and Societies Structured in Dominance. In Sociological Theories: Race
and Colonialism, pp. 305-45. Paris: UNESCO.
Herzfeld, Michael. 1985. The Poetics of Manhood. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Hill, Jonathan D. 1988. Rethinking History and Myth: Indigenous South American Perspectives on the Past.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Hu-DeHart, Evelyn. 1981. Missionaries, Miners and Indians: Spanish Contact with the Yaqui Nation, 1533-
1820. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
. 1984. Yaqui Resistance and Survival: The Struggle for Land and Autonomy, 1821-1910. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press.
Hulme, Peter, and Neil L. Whitehead. 1992. Wild Majesty: Encounters with Caribs from Columbus to the
Present Day. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Knight, Alan. 1990. Racism, Revolution, and Indigenismo: Mexico, 1910-1940. In The Idea of Race in Lat-
in America, 1870-1940, ed. Richard Graham, pp. 71-113. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Martin, JoAnn. 1994. Antagonisms of Gender and Class in Morelos. In Women of the Mexican Country-
side, 1850-1990, ed. Heather Fowler-Salamini and Mary Kay Vaughan, pp. 225-42. Tucson: Universi-
ty of Arizona Press.
McGuire, Thomas. 1986. Politics and Ethnicity on the Rio Yaqui: Potam Revisited. Tucson: University of
Arizona Press.
Nabokov, Peter. 1996. Native Views of History. In The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the
Americas, ed. Bruce G. Trigger and Wilcomb E. Washburn, vol. 1, part 1, pp. 1-59. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Painter, Muriel Thayer. 1986. With Good Heart: Yaqui Beliefs and Ceremonies in Pascua Village
University of Arizona Press.
Parish, Steven. 1998. Narrative Subversions of Hierarchy. In Selves in Time and Place: Identities
ence, and History in Nepal, ed. Debra Skinner, Alfred Pach III, and Dorothy Holland, pp. 51
ham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.
PNrez de Ribas, Andres. 1944 [1645]. Historia de los Triunfos de Nuestra Sehiora de Fe entre Gentes
Bdrbaras y Fieras del Nuevo Orbe. Vol. 2. Mexico D.F.: Ed. Layac.
Price, Richard. 1990. Alabi's World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Reeve, Mary-Elizabeth. 1988. Cauchu-Uras: Lowland Quichua Histories of the Amazon Rubb
In Rethinking History and Myth: Indigenous South American Perspectives on the Past, ed. Jonat
Hill, pp. 19-34. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Riessman, Catherine Kohler. 1993. Narrative Analysis, Qualitative Research Methods. Vol. 30. Newbu
Calif.: Sage.
Rosaldo, Renato. 1980. Ilongot Headhunting, 1883-1974: A Study in Society and History. Stanfor
Stanford University Press.
Ruiz Ruiz, Maria Trinidad, and Gerardo David Aguilar Z. 1994. Tres Procesos de Lucha por la Sob
cia de la Tribu Yaqui: Testimonios. Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico: Universidad de Sonora.
Salomon, Frank. 1986. Introduction. In Native Lords of Quito in the Age of the Incas: The Politi
my of North Andean Chiefdoms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sands, Kathleen M. 1983. The Singing Tree: Dynamics of a Yaqui Myth. American Quarterly 35
75.
Savala, Refugio. 1980. The Autobiography of a Yaqui Poet, ed. Kathleen Sands. Tucson: University
zona Press.
Sharp, John. 1996. Ethnogenesis and Ethnic Mobilization: A Comparative Perspective on a South Afri-
can Dilemma. In The Politics ofDifference: Ethnic Premises in a World ofPower, ed. Edwin Wilmsen and
Patrick McAllister, pp. 85-103. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sherzer, Joel. 1987. A Discourse-Centered Approach to Language and Culture. American Anthropologist
89:295-309.
Spicer, Edward. 1954. Potam: A Yaqui Village in Sonora. Menasha, Wisc.: American Anthropological As
sociation.
- . 1969. Northwest Mexico: Introduction. In Ethnology, vol. ed. Evon Z. Vogt, pp. 777-91, Hand-
book of Middle American Indians, vol. 8, gen. ed. Robert Wauchope. Austin: University of Texas Press.
- . 1971. Persistent Cultural Systems: A Comparative Study of Identity Systems That Can Adapt to
Contrasting Environments. Science 174:795-800.
. 1980. The Yaquis: A Cultural History. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
. 1984 [1940]. Pascua: A Yaqui Village in Arizona. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Stewart, Kathleen. 1996. A Space on the Side of the Road: Cultural Poetics in an "Other" America. Prince-
ton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Valenzuela Kaczkurkin, Mini. 1977. Yoeme: Lore of the Arizona Yaqui People. Tucson: University of Arizo-
na Press.
White, Geoffrey. 1991. Identity through History: Living Stories in a Solomon Islands Society. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
White, Hayden. 1987. The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation. Balti-
more: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Wilmsen, Edwin, and Patrick McAllister, eds. 1996. The Politics of Difference: Ethnic Premises in a World
of Power. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

University of Illinois Press, American Folklore Society The Journal of American Folklore

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

University of Illinois Press, American Folklore Society The Journal of American Folklore

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

"They Will Come from the Other Side of the Sea": Prophecy, Ethnogenesis, and Agency in

"They will come from the other side of the sea"

--Geoffrey White, Identity through History

KIRSTIN C. ERICKSON is Assistant Professor of Anthropology,

Journal ofAmerican Folklore 116(462):465-82

participated in a symposium in the town of Ajo, on the Tohono O'odham Rese

Identity through Narrative

-Kathleen Stewart, A Space by the Side of the Road

narrators and are witnessed by an audience. Catherine Kohler Riessman main

Herndndez's Talking Tree History

On that afternoon in September 1997, Ram6n Hernandez performed his ve

federation" (1981:23) of Yaqui-speaking communities: "First of all, they had Indian

Before commenting on the significance of this story to issues of representation and

The Talking Tree's prophecy was a decisive moment in that it precipitated t

Like Choqui, Hernindez also portrayed Christian conversion as a positive outcome

with what I interpreted to be a disclaimer: "This is a dicho [saying], nothing m

Conclusion: Ethnicity and the Narrative Production of Agency

-Geoffrey White, Identity through History

Although often perceived and presented as a reified or objectifiable "thing,

Although it may indeed be one of several "complementary" modes of histor

You might also like