Towards a Cosmohistory of the Cristero Wars Morris, Nathaniel. Soldiers, Saints, and Shamans: Indigenous Communities and the Revolutionary State in Mexico’s Gran Nayar, 1910-1940. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2020, 371 pages

The Indigenous people of the Gran Nayar region—the Wixaritari, Náayeri, O’dam, Audam, and Meshikan—are among anthropologists’ favourites, for purportedly being “traditional” and little influenced by Christianity. As a result, the region’s rituals, mythology and traditional arts are well documented. The study of its history has not been a priority, but now Morris shows us that the history of the region can be as interesting as its cultural anthropology. Given popular images of the region as dominated by unspoiled, shamanic communities, the amount and intensity of the fighting there during the early twentieth century may be surprising, but even more so are the changing and often paradoxical alliances, for and against the post-revolutionary governments of Mexico. The Mexican Revolution was motivated by the fight against oppression, ignorance, and poverty. The Gran Nayar was and is one of the most marginalized regions in Mexico. So one might think that everybody there was happy when the post-revolutionary governments sent teachers and started to show some interest in the progress of the Native population. But local hatred of the teachers turned many Indigenous people against the revolution. The teachers were racists and saw themselves as missionaries of science and rationality. They believed that in order to build a modern nation-state, it was necessary to overcome the backwardness of the people, who were seen as ignorant and primitive. In other words, the revolutionary task required the destruction of local political structures, languages and supposed superstitions. Teachers sometimes took children away, kept them in prison-like boarding schools and punished them for using their native languages. Some teachers also colluded with local mestizo elites to steal or divide communal Indigenous lands. Disappointed with post-revolutionary governments, many local people joined the Cristero counter-revolutionaries. The Cristeros have often been depicted as Catholic fundamentalists, opposed to the social and anti-clerical reforms promoted by the progressive post-revolutionary governments. But in the Gran Nayar, many Cristeros were actually animists who practised shamanism and were motivated to defend not the church but the traditional systems of education and government. Above all, they defended what is known as costumbre: ritual relations to corn, ancestor deities, sacred places, and territories in general. Ironically, the communities that sided with the federal government against the Cristeros had very similar motivations: defending communal territories and traditional forms of government. It is important to note that although Morris is a historian, he conducted ethnographic fieldwork among all four peoples of the Gran Nayar. Participant observation was key to his learning about costumbre, which was necessary to understand how the Gran Nayar practise history and construct memory. In Indigenous history, events, and legends are always interwoven, while historical figures are often identified with gods or saints. It is amazing to see how much precise historical information Morris extracts from such oral traditions. Only by getting to know the people of the Gran Nayar so well was Morris able to fully understand the importance of autonomy for members of Indigenous communities. As is the case today, the practice of costumbre was never separate from the defence of autonomy and should therefore be understood as an actively pursued political project, not as a remnant of ancient folklore or whatever classical anthropology used to say. Whenever costumbre and/or autonomy is in danger, Indigenous communities develop strategies to defend this project. In this sense, Morris has many arguments to prove that the warriors of the first half of the twentieth century had good motives for taking up arms. But this is only one of several strategies of resistance that can be observed in the region. It seems impossible not to like Morris’s book, …