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"They will come from the other side of the sea": Prophecy, Ethnogenesis, and Agency in Yaqui Narrative
- Journal of American Folklore
- University of Illinois Press
- Volume 116, Number 462, Fall 2003
- pp. 465-482
- 10.1353/jaf.2003.0056
- Article
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For Mexico's Yaqui Indians, ethnic identity is both represented and renegotiated in narrative moments. In this article, I examine the process of narrative self-fashioning through the lens of the "Talking Tree," a story that portrays Yaqui ethnogenesis as a reaction to a prophecy of Spanish conquest. I contend that this narrative accords the Yaquis a level of agency that ordinary histories do not, refiguring them as informed actors in the determination of their own destiny.