Fiesta del Raton, June 2

A traditional agricultural ritual dance centered around the rat. In times past, the Tlapeneco captured rats and tamed them, keeping them well fed. At festival time the rats were fed dough mixed with mezcal and dumped in stupor in a pile in thecenter of the village square. Celebrants danced around the pile of rats, until they staggered away to freedom. The hope was that the rats would return to thewild spreading stories of being well treated by the villagers, and therefore sparing the village crops from being eaten or destroyed. In recent years the festival has changed and the captive rats are danced to death. These slides document the musicians, dance, ephemera, effigies, altars, a barter only market, the decorating and dressing of the rats, and other traditions associated with this ritual.

These slides are housed in LSF Container R.

A descriptive narrative of these slides is found on audiocassette #7 side B, which is housed in LSF Container RR.