The Bear and His Sons: Masculinity in Spanish and Mexican Folktales (review)

The Bear and His Sons: Masculinity in Spanish and Mexican Folktales. By James M. Taggart. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. x + 344 pp., preface, introduction, photographs, illustrations, appendix, bibliography, index. $40.00 cloth, $17.95 paper.)

If there are any ethnohistorians out there who still doubt the value of reading ethnographies to gain insight into the social and cultural systems of peoples from the past, they should take the time to read James Taggart’s latest book. It clearly shows that culture is far from ephemeral and that elements of it can survive long periods of traumatic history. Likewise, ethnohistorians who have succumbed to postmodern despair and reject the possibility of studying the poetic imagination (or anything else) in a systematic and empirical way also would benefit from reading this book. Taggart demonstrates that cultural traditions shape creativity and, more importantly, that analysis of cultural products can be accomplished by assembling evidence without distorting the social traditions and worldview of the people being studied. The book is so honest and well crafted that readers are given enough information to disagree with some of the author’s conclusions, though I doubt many will.

Taggart analyzes cultural constructions of masculinity by comparing oral narrations that he recorded among Nahuat speakers in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico, with cognates of their narrations he recorded in Spain. The idea is that tales told in Spain were brought over to Mexico and later picked up and modified by the Nahuas to bring the stories into accord with their own cultural understandings. In order to reduce extraneous variables, Taggart collected stories from those parts of Spain that were origination points of people who settled the Sierra Norte de Puebla region. By comparing the tales told by contemporary Spaniards and Nahuas, Taggart is able to document significant cultural differences in the ways that these two very different groups construct masculinity. This use of the comparative method is deceptively simple. In fact, Taggart had to conduct long-term ethnographic field research in Mexico, which involved learning Nahuat, and, also, extensive research in Spain. He had to account for historical changes in Mexico and Spain that might affect story construction, and he had to examine other versions of the stories that were recorded in the past or in other regions of both countries. Finally, he collected detailed biographical data about each storyteller in order to better understand idiosyncratic factors affecting how the stories were put together.

The result is a book that is convincing, well written, and very entertaining. The lead narration from which the volume is titled is called “The Bear and His Son.” This popular tale is about a boy, part animal, who grows to be strong and injurious to his classmates. The boy is banished from the town and, along with companions he meets, vanquishes the devil and rescues maidens from the underworld. According to Taggart, this story exemplifies conceptions of masculinity. In addition to “The Bear,” Taggart analyzes trickster tales; three popular stories called “Blood Brother,” “The Two Travelers,” and “Blancaflor”; and Orpheus tales told in Mexico but not Spain.

The Spanish narrator, Florencio, reveals in his stories that men are autonomous and disconnected from other men. In this view, no man should be beholden to another man, not even to God. Men relate to each other through transactions based on the model supplied by “entrepreneurial capitalism” and always seek advantage over other men. Ironically, this perspective results in male dependence on members of the opposite sex, leading men to view women with ambivalence.

Nacho, the Nahua narrator, reveals a very different take on masculinity. The stories he told reveal men who are connected to each other with a minimum of sexual competition. Typical of other Nahuas, Nacho told his tales “according to his conception of masculinity in which a man should act carefully lest he disrupt the fragile order of his body, his family, and...