The farce of the peoples exhibited. Ethnographic theater and stage performance of the Other

Abstract

The central point of this essay is its evaluation of the validity of the assumption which holds that no such thing as ethnographic theater exists or, indeed, can exist, in the same sense as ethnographic films or documentaries, for example. The following pages present an approach to this problem that emphasizes the difficulties entailed in representing the Other in situ. In a first moment, they evoke salient cases of the stagings or self-representations of the indi- genous conducted in different stages of Mexican history. In a second moment, some paths of inquiry are explored: the problem of the Other, or the need to justify his or her existence, and the implications of this for stage performance; and the interaction and mutual influence among different forms of representation (painting, sculpture, film, photography). In light of its direct, living, incarnate character, to what degree can theater succeed in becoming more or less fictitious, more or less realistic or naturalistic, than these other forms of representation? To what extent does representing indigenous people in a theatrical scene entail, in every case, converting them into objects of spectacle, thus denigrating their presence; or, in contrast, lead to knowledge of what they are and what they do, how they live, and to what they aspire? In what conditions is ethnographic theater desirable and viable?