Sugar, Colonialism, and Death
On the Origins of Mexico's Day of the Dead
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2108098 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Brande (0000-0002-2573-9421, University of California, Berkeley, corresponding author), Stanley Brande, Stanley Brandes |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 270-299 |
| Publication date | 1997-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0010417500020624 |
| OpenAlex | W2130962156 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 16 |
| References cited | 51 |
Mexico's most famous holiday is, without doubt, the Day of the Dead. At the end of October, large numbers of foreign visitors descend upon Mexico to witness colorful-some would say carnivalesque-ritual performances and artistic displays. Decorated breads, paper cutouts, and plastic toys, most of them humorously playing on the theme of death, are evident everywhere. Sculpted sugar candies in the form of skulls, skeletons, and caskets suggest an almost irreverent, macabre confrontation with mortality. During November 1 and November 2, Mexicans clean, decorate, and maintain vigil over the graves of relatives. Tombstones and burial sites are adorned with flowers, candles, and food, all aesthetically arranged in honor of the deceased. Some Mexicans claim that the souls of the departed watch over their living relatives during these few days. Negligent family members await punishment, whether on earth or in the afterlife. This belief is invoked throughout Mexico to explain the substantial time, money, and energy invested in the two-day ceremony
Afterlife · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Ceremony · Colonialism · Honor · Literature · Macabre · Political science · Theme (computing) · Vigil · Witness · Cuban History and Society · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Literature, Magical Realism, García Márquez
Cooking and dining as forms of public art
Día de los Muertos at Rockefeller Center, shopping malls and street fairs
Social Practice and Theoretical Integration of Everyday Life
Religion and the Individual
Is There a Mexican View of Death
Iconography in Mexico's Day of the Dead
Beyond the Grave
De cuerpos y contiendas
Leisure, Loss, and Death
Mothers and Spirits
Buwas Kuning (Yellow Rice) and its Symbolic Functions Among the Sama-Bajau of Malaysia
Hybridity and Authenticity in US Day of the Dead Celebrations
Late' Capital
Food and Memory
The Anthropology of Food and Eating
The annual Day of the Dead song contest
The labyrinth of solitude
The slippery earth
Plantation Agriculture and Social Control in Northern Peru, 1875–1933
Culture and Conquest
Death Without Weeping
Sweetness and power
Handbook of Middle American Indians
The Mexican Cult of Death in Myth and Literature
The Skeleton at the Feast
Sugar and slaves
Power and Persuasion
Rural Society in Colonial Morelos
Provinces of Early Mexico
Todos Santos in Rural Tlaxcala A Syncretic, Expressive, and Symbolic Analysis of the Cult of the Dead
The Skeleton at the Feast
Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic
Vocabulario mexicano relativo a la muerte
The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition
Mexico South, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
Vive tu Recuerdo
The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule
Mexico South
Essays in Population History
Traditional Papermaking and Paper Cult Figures of Mexico
Haciendas, latifundios y plantaciones en América Latina
Food, Conquest and Colonization in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America
Food, Conquest and Colonization in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America
Haciendas, latifundios y plantaciones en América Latina
Haciendas and Plantations in Latin American History
Rural Society in Colonial Morelos
Petty Capitalism in Spanish America
All-Souls Day at Zuni, Acoma, and Laguna
Fiesta in Mexico
All-Souls Day at Zuni, Acoma, and Laguna
"Mexicans in Search of the "Mexican
The Mixe of Oaxaca
The American as Anarchist
Death in Mexican Folk Culture
The Mirrored Self
Todos Santos in Rural Tlaxcala
Placing the Dead
The Mixe of Oaxaca
| Unique citing works | 16 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,57 |
| Citation span | 1998 - 2024 (27) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 16 |