Notes on the dances, music and songs of the ancient and modern Mexicans / by Auguste Génin.

  • Auguste Genin
Date:
1922
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the dances, music and songs of the ancient and modern Mexicans / by Auguste Génin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/48 (page 657)
    NOTES ON THE DANCES, MUSIC, AND SONGS OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN MEXICANS.1 By Auguste Genin. [With 10 plates.] INTRODUCTION. All authors who have written on ancient Mexico are agreed in telling us that music, song, and dance were in vogue among the earliest inhabitants of that which was later New Spain, and that not only did they have a kind of conservatory to perpetuate traditions, but also families of a certain standing engaged singing and dancing masters to educate their children. Among the modern Mexicans the situation is the same. There is a conservatory at Mexico City; the European masters are known and appreciated by the public; people dance a little everywhere as they dance in Paris, London, and New York; and the cakewalk, the maxixe, the (chaloupee) waltz, and other rhythmical contortions are practiced in the Mexican salons, with the same enthusiasm as in other countries, which proves that there are but few eccentricities which fashion does not cause to spread. But in these notes I do not wish to take up the modern dances, songs, or music, which, as stated in the preceding sentence, are the same everywhere; but only that which presents an ethnic character, traditional or peculiar to Mexico. Before reviewing the present situation among the Mexicans, it is not without interest to cast a glance into the past. As is well known, ancient Mexico was inhabited by several races, although certain ones among them, as the Toltecs, the Aztecs, and the Mayas are especially well known. If we look at the catalogue of Mexican languages, so carefully prepared by Orozco y Berra, we shall see that at the epoch of the conquest, more than 60 dialects, belonging to as many tribes, divided the country which extended from the Mississippi to the Isthmus of Panama. All these tribes did not belong to different races; many had a common head, and they can be divided into a dozen large 1 Translated by permission from the Revue d’Ethnographie et de sociologie, 1913. Ernest Leroux, editeur, Paris.