Traditional Papermaking and Paper Cult Figures of Mexico

PAPER hardly seems a promising subject for a work about Mexican Indian religion. Yet we hope to show that this unassuming substance plays an important role in the religious life of some of the most traditional Indians in Middle America. We will also show that paper has been an important part of religious rituals since pre-Hispanic times. But it is not the paper that interests us so much as what people do with it, and thus what it reveals about their culture. In one remote region in east-central Mexico, Indian shamans cut remarkable figures from pa per for use during sacred ceremonies. This region has been little studied by anthropologists, and few outsiders have witnessed the rituals in which the figures are used. The paper figures depict spirits that the shamans are able to summon and influence for the benefit (or harm) of humanity. The figures are the central features of rituals, and thus they provide a key for gaining insight into the religious beliefs and world view of the people who use them.