Danza de los Voladores - Mexico

The Danza de los Voladores – the Dance of the Flyers – is an ancient Mesoamerican ritual or ceremony which is still performed today. The exact origin and true meaning of this Pre-Columbian religious practice is no longer known for sure, although there are various myths and explanations rooted in the native folklore of the peoples of central Mexico as to why it is performed and what it means. It’s strongly connected to rites of fertility which are thought to have begun amongst the Nahua, Huastec, and Otomi peoples; the ritual is now most closely associated with the Totonac people of Papantla in Veracruz. According to Totonac myth it was first performed during a period of severe drought, through this ritual dance ceremony the people hoped to appease the gods and invoke their pity, asking them to bring back the rains needed to reawaken the land and bring back to life the withered crops in their fields. The dance was said to have pleased the rain god, Xipe Totec, such that it became an established ritual. At the time of the Spanish Conquest in the 15^th century it had spread across many Mesoamerican cultures, but subsequently it was almost lost as a result of the suppression of native religious rites by the invading Conquistadors.

The full ritual requires elaborate preparations. First a suitable tree must be found, then permission must be asked of the mountain god, Quihuicolo, to permit the cutting down of the selected tree and its removal from the forest. Once this has been done the tree must be prepared, stripped of its branches, and then dragged to the ceremonial site. Here a hole is dug and offerings must be placed into the earth – the offerings are usually of flowers, copal, alcohol, candles, and live chickens, or a live turkey – which are then crushed as the tall pole is erected; these sacrifices are thought to contribute to the fertility of the earth, reinforcing the potency of the ritual. Once it is fixed standing upright the pole thus becomes a nexus point, joining the sky, earth, and underworld. The pole therefore seems to have symbolic echoes in the Mayan creation myth of the sacred tree rooted at the centre of the world, and which is also associated with the bird deity, Itzamna; hence, perhaps, in the original version of the rite the five “birdmen” who must ascend the pole once it has been ritually purified. The birdmen represent invocations to the sky and the four cardinal directions. Once seated atop the pole the four men begin to rotate themselves upon a small wooden frame or platform, whilst the fifth seated in the centre begins to play on a flute and a drum. The four men attach themselves to the pole by ropes tied about their waists which have been wound around the pole. At a given signal the four men launch themselves off the platform backwards. They then begin to sail out as the platform continues to rotate, gently descending in a graceful spiral, all the while hanging head downwards with their arms outstretched. They make a total of 13 revolutions each, symbolising the 52-year cycle of the Aztec calendar; righting themselves only moments prior to landing.

Nowadays, the poles tend to be permanent metal fixtures in certain Mexican and Guatemalan towns renowned for the ritual, and their costumes no longer represent birds. The modern day traditional Totonac dress consists of red trousers and a white shirt, with a red sash – symbolising blood – worn across the chest, and a hat adorned with flowers, mirrors and coloured ribbons or streamers, each representing fertility, the sun, and the rainbow respectively. These costumes are often also elaborately embroidered.

I took these pictures and made this short film of the Totonac Voladores performing their ritual in Chapultepec Park on my first visit to Mexico City last year.

Robert Drury - Madagascar

The Monday night lecture at the Royal Geographical Society this week was given by Thomas Elmquist, Professor of Natural Resource Management at Stockholm University. Dr Elmquist spoke on the subject of the spiny forests of southern Madagascar. It was a fascinating lecture about a unique ecosystem of many endemic species which showed how the presence of human societies actually contributes to regeneration in this unique natural environment. 

Whilst examining the historical continuities and changes within this particular region, Dr Elmquist mentioned an interesting source, a little known text which was first published in 1729, entitled Madagascar: or Robert Drury’s Journal During Fifteen Years Captivity on that Island.

My interest was piqued and the following day I tried to find out more about this book and its author. Robert Drury (born 1687, died between 1743 and 1750) was a Midshipman aboard the Degrave, an East Indiaman which was wrecked off the southern coast of Madagascar in 1703. Aged just fifteen at the time, he and his fellow survivors were held captive by the people of Antandroy. Managing to escape they were pursued by some two thousand warriors. Eventually they succumbed and the majority of the unfortunate crew were massacred. Drury’s life, however, was one of only four, all of them young Midshipmen, who were spared. He was made a slave serving in the Antandroy royal household, eventually rising to a trusted position in which capacity he was later allowed to herd cattle and fight in battle. After many years he made a bid for freedom, journeying north-west towards another kingdom which was known to be more tolerant and accepting of Europeans, and where English ships occasionally called to trade and replenish provisions. He was hoping to be rescued by one of these ships but was again captured, this time by the Sakalava people, whose kingdom controlled much of the western half of Madagascar. Here his life was less harsh than before, and again he became a cattle herder, until he was eventually rescued by an English ship. He returned to London, but within a year he boarded a ship bound for Madagascar – ironically this time returning as a slave trader.

In the three hundred years since Drury’s ‘Journal’ was first published scholars have debated the authenticity of the book. It had been published just ten years after Daniel Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe, and some have seen the famous writer’s influence, if not his actual hand, in the work. Indeed, some maintain that Defoe may have helped to bring the book to publication as its editor. The case for the book’s authenticity has recently been strengthened by the researches of the British archaeologist, Mike Parker Pearson. Pearson has managed to show how the author of the book, despite all its embellishments and exaggerations, did indeed have a genuine and intimate knowledge of life, language, and local geography in these arid southern regions of Madagascar, and as such he believes the book can, on the whole, be trusted as a historical document.

By a curious coincidence, my interest in far off Madagascar which had prompted me to attend the lecture, lead me to seek out the story of Robert Drury for myself – only to find the man much closer to home. For I discovered that each day on my way to work I walk past the church in which he is buried, St Clement Danes in the Strand. But, yet even more curiously, the day after the lecture I found myself walking to another RGS event, this time near Fenchurch Street, whereupon I turned a corner into Crutched Friars – the place where Robert Drury was born.

Mike Parker Pearson has published a book (co-authored with Karen Godden) entitled, In Search of the Red Slave (Sutton, 2002), plus several articles on his research into the life of Robert Drury and the corresponding archaeology of this part of Madagascar. Shipwreck into Slavery is a short article which appeared in the magazine, British Archaeology (Issue 67, October 2002). He also published a more in-depth article, Reassessing “Robert Drury’s Journal” as a Historical Source for Southern Madagascar, in the academic journal, History in Africa, Vol. 23 (1996), which is available on JSTOR .

_ _ _ 

AFTERWORD (September 15, 2012): I'm now part way through reading Robert Drury's "Journal" and I thought I'd add my initial impressions of the book as a postscript (especially as it's not at present widely available). It's quite a dense and heavy tome, not helped by the fact that it is a single unbroken text. There are no chapters, it is presented as a continuous stream of direct reportage which goes into minute detail of the events it describes, almost as if it's reporting in real time! Consequently, I can see why some readers have questioned the authencity of the piece or speculated that it has been finessed by an experienced editor or co-writer. However, whilst it's not an inaccessible book, it flows well even for the modern reader, it does demand some concentration and sustained effort - it's not a book to be dipped into lightly, but rather it requires some stamina and time in order to derive the best effect from reading it.

The edition I am reading (borrowed from the Library at SOAS) was published in 1890 and consists of 398 pages of quite small tightly packed type. Appropriately enough the book has stamps showing that it was once owned by Stoke Newington Library. I used to live in Stoke Newington, and I used to use the old Library on Church Street regularly. One of Stoke Newington's most famous former residents was Daniel Defoe. And his tombstone (salvaged from some oddly obscure place) used to be on display in the Library's entrance hall, set in a glazed mahogany showcase it was the first thing you'd see as you entered the building. I've not been to Stoke Newington in quite a while, so I'm not entirely sure if it is still there, but if it is - it's well worth a look to the curious passerby.