Stanley H. Brandes

Power and Persuasion: Fiestas and Social Control in Rural Mexico

Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.

GT4814.T95.B71 1998 Anthropology Library

"Brandes's treatment of the pyrotechnics of the fiesta is a perceptive interpretation of the relationship of fireworks to the social and political organization of Tzintzuntzan and its outlying communities, which have retained more of their Tarascan culture and identity. Social controls are engendered by fiestas dances in which costumed male and female dancers form parallel lines and dance in symmetrical and controlled patterns that reflect and promote the potent principle of balance of equilibrium which guides human affairs in Tzintzuntzan."

From:Evon Z. Vogt 1989 review of "Power and Persuasion: Fiestas and Social Control in Rural Mexico."
American Anthropologist, vol. 91, no. 1, p. 210-211.