Music is a divine creation, sonic evidence of the time of our ancestors. That is how the cultures manifest Mesoamerican tradition as mythology and their ritual universe, where music is far from being simply background. Rhythms, timing and cords are woven into dance, offerings and the landscape, creating a mnemonic shape and a cosmological language understood by humans and gods. This is knowledge passed down through the generations, destined to feel, evoke and recreate – or even destroy – the world.
In current Teenek and Nahua communities in the Huasteca Potosina, ritual music continues to have a close symbolic relationship to the birth and cultivation of maize. They still say that the spirit of maize and civilizing hero – Dhipak (Teenek) or Chicomexóchitl (Nahua) created its dances and its music, which were initiated the alternation of time and the Sun. The divine origin of the instruments requires they be treated in a special way during the rituals, since they are considered to be deities in charge of making people happy through music. Harps, guitars, flutes, drums and violins are adorned with fabric or paper and feasted with drink, food and the blood of birds “so they might play with pleasure.” Having human bodies and characteristics, the instruments get tired of working; therefore, they are given therapeutic rituals to bring their vitality back. A broken instrument is treated as someone who has died.
Currently, the instruments used in this region are product of exchange and convergence between European, African and Prehispanic cultures. However, the teponaztlis, the huéhetl, certain reed flutes and some scrapers are still used in agricultural, divinatory and therapeutic rituals. The close relationship between these ancient instruments, the Sun and the installation of the cosmic order is confirmed in Colonial sources and, above all, through their material existence (creation, material, position, decoration, and other aspects). There are different versions of a myth that tells how the teponaztlis and the huéhetl, which are solar musical instruments, commit an offense when they ignore the Sun’s orders and instead respond to the song of the Wind, who worships the god Tezcatlipoca. Both musicians are taken to the coast by the Wind god, where they are employed to play music for the dances. The union of song, dance and music is a cosmological process which gives birth to festivities and brings order to the cycles to honor the gods.
The scrapers made of human or animal bone serve a similar cosmological function, since it is believed that their sound helps the Sun to travel its path and to bring the rains. Archeological vestiges and current ceremonies held by some groups in the northeast and west of Mexico suggest a tie between the serrated instrument, the Sun and Xochipilli, the Prehispanic god of the flowers, fertility and the harvests. Therefore, the scrapers with notches are considered to be a microcosm or replica of the Sun’s tiered pathway, as are artefacts inherited from certain ancestors, such as deer.
The Yoreme (Yaquis) produce scrapers from hard wood, such as the Brazil wood tree or mesquite. However, instruments made of bone and deer antlers show the importance the cosmovision gives this solar animal, as seen in agricultural rituals, in hunting and, above all, in creating the World of Flowers—a domain of abundance, humidity, fertility and home to the first wild deer. This symbolism is reinforces through language, myths and rituals carried out by these northern cultures. This is why the scrapers used in the dance of the deer are called sewa kuta (“flowered stick”) and it is believed they imitate the breath of the animal or the sound of its antlers. Instruments, music and dance comprise an experience that weaves together worlds, both human and ancestral.
Instruments made of bone are found in several regions and are an exceptional archeological find which allows us to approach the processes of obtaining raw materials, the ritual symbolism and their use as sonic instruments. In Monte Albán, it is believed that the Zapotec culture used a whale’s rib (Balaenoptera sp.) as a musical instrument, which could be played with a bone or a piece of wood, thanks to the notches on its surface. It is valued for its physical and symbolic properties, and this piece was part of an offering associated with the deity that has a mask like a serpent’s mouth, which suggests it is a ritual instrument.