The Rise And Fall Of Amate Art In Upper Balsas River Region,Mexico

Culture will never be static, as long as it has not died out it would have been in the process of dynamic change; growth, decline, and rebirth were various "life states" of culture as an organism. But when people think of ethnic culture they often forget about this feature from culture itself, and always believe that ethnic culture should be immutable as if only this could make it pure and authentic. Today, as market economy sweeping across the globe, ethnic culture already has nowhere to hide, the tragedy of cultures repeatedly staged. What kind of survival strategy should be applied to ethnic culture in order to make its sustainable development, or to avoid its destiny to perish? The solution for this problem relies greatly on a clear recognition and accurate understanding of how market influencing enthnic culture.The rise and fall of the amate art in a Nahua village in Upper Balsas River region, Mexico, has been chosen to study in the thesis; the reason for this is because the case has certain representativeness. Amate is a new art, with the help of the market power, it was born on the historical basis of Nahua ethnic culture, the market played an important key role throughout the whole process of its rise and fall; moreover, the majority of this market was not concentrated on domestic Mexico, actually the Nahua folk artists obtained more supports from the international art market, especially from United States. The boom of amate art, greatly due to the market’s effect, did not damage the Nahua ethnic culture; instead, the village economy has been developed, the living standard of villagers been improved to a certain extent, their cultural confidence enhanced, even their political rights and expressions have been strengthened through this ethnic art. But at the same time, for amate art’s over-reliance on a few art agents, it did not build up an anonymous market base; when it encountered the cut-off with external markets, amate art gradually waned. Through the study of amate art we can see, in today’s era of accelerated deepening of globalization, ethnic culture can achieve its nirvana in the market economy environment, it could evolve out new contents; under certain conditions, the market force can stimulate the ethnic culture’s creativity, help it to obtain a chance to rebirth, and continue its cycle of sustainable development. This thesis is divided into eight parts:In the Introduction, I first, elaborate on the background of the topic, propose the theme of market’s influence on ethnic culture, explain the reason for choosing Mexican Nahua village’s amate art as the case study, and give a brief review on the research status; next, the main points, innovations, and difficulties of the thesis are described; then, the objects and scope of the study are defined; finally, the research methods and basic idea are clarified.Chapter 1 focuses on the living environment and state of Nahua people in Balsa River Basin, central Mexico, including the evolution of their settlement and trade patterns etc., in the timeline of before and after Spanish conquest, Mexican Independence, Post-revolution period and contemporary era. By combing the historical context of the region, I seek to explore some features of the Upper Balsas River Nahua culture.The first two sections of Chapter 2 discuss the history and diversity of the pottery and painting tradition in Balsas River basin, intending to show that Nahua art is not confined to an ongoing repetition of certain ethnic cultural themes, rather, it is a culture of innovation and change. The third section of this chapter discusses three concepts influencing the amate art; they are market-orientation, naivety and ethnicity.Starting from Chapter 3, the perspective of the study is narrowed, focusing mainly on Oapan, a village in Upper Balsa River region, to explore the evolution of amate painting and the influence and role of the market in a more specific scene. In this chapter, first the basic profile of the village is introduced, then the protagonists in the Oapan amate painting group led by Marcial debut, last comes the Oapan painters’ early exploration on the amate art and its market.Chapter 4 describes American market’s promotion and enhancing to amate art. In Oapan, the process is unfolding around Rabkin, the connecting to American market also marks the turning point of Oapan amate painting group’ art. During this period, Oapan’s amate art style developed quickly, with the promotion of another American man, Rodman, amate art embraced its peak. But at the same time, for various reasons, Oapan amate painting group began to have differences with Rabkin, and eventually broke.Chapter 5 first observes Oapan’s overall social economic change from 1960s when amate art began to rise and the time that Rabkin left; then compares the life experiences and art development of those who left and stayed in Oapan in post-Rabkin period; furthermore, the market segmentation of amate art has been analyzed.Chapter 6 discusses the influence of Oapan’s social and political life to amate painters and their art. First, we look at how the local politic system works in Oapan; next, two major events (the anti-dam struggle and the land dispute) happened in this region are discussed, we can see how amate painters’ lives and art career had been influenced by them, and also the role amate art played in the political protest.Chapter 7 is the conclusion part. First, by analyzing three external causes and the problems in amate market itself, the reasons for the decline of amate art is summarized. The final section analyzes the enlightenments that amate art could give us from three aspects, revealing the possibility that ethnic community could use its ethnic culture to achieve economic success.