Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Artifact,
Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
Speaker 2: focusing in on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time.
Speaker 2: Chances are you've probably swung a broom handle at a
Speaker 2: pinata before you know how this works. A brightly colored
Speaker 2: paper mache, pottery, paper, cardboard, or cloth container is stuffed
Speaker 2: full of candy or other treats and raised and lowered
Speaker 2: by a rope as a blindfolded contestant takes wax at it.
Speaker 2: After a few hysterical misses and punishing hits, the container
Speaker 2: bursts and spills these treats on the ground to be
Speaker 2: snatched up by eager hands. It's an activity in craft
Speaker 2: strongly linked with Mexican customs, and all so so widely
Speaker 2: spread that it's easy to just take for granted. I know,
Speaker 2: I did till I visited the Pinata's exhibit at the
Speaker 2: Mengey International Museum in San Diego, California, running through April
Speaker 2: thirty of twenty twenty three. The exhibit celebrates pinatas as
Speaker 2: both a traditional craft and a form of contemporary art.
Speaker 2: Sometimes aimed at social and political commentary. It was really
Speaker 2: an eye opening exhibit for me into both the material
Speaker 2: culture and the cutting humor of pinatas, and artists are
Speaker 2: continuing to do a lot with this medium today. Another
Speaker 2: area I'd never personally explored is the origin of the pinata,
Speaker 2: a topic that the exhibit acknowledges is somewhat understudied. It
Speaker 2: cites a twenty eighteen paper by Young Chin published in
Speaker 2: the Fudain Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences titled From
Speaker 2: the Datchenu to the Pinata, Tracing the alleged Chinese origin
Speaker 2: of a Mexican tradition. In the paper, Chin explores the
Speaker 2: possible connections between the Chinese traditions surrounding the docunu, or
Speaker 2: beating or lashing of the spring cattle, and the Mexican
Speaker 2: pinata tradition. The datchunu is an old springtime ritual in
Speaker 2: which a large clay statue of an ox is filled
Speaker 2: with seeds and then shattered by the emperor or an
Speaker 2: imperial representative, scattering its contents on the ground. The ritual
Speaker 2: performance is still practiced in China today. The hypothesis then,
Speaker 2: is that this practice may have spread from China to
Speaker 2: Italy via the Silk Road and or the travels of
Speaker 2: Marco Polo during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The name
Speaker 2: pinata may be derived from pigna, a clay pot in
Speaker 2: the shape of a pine cone in Italian traditions. Around
Speaker 2: this time, Italian Linten customs sometimes entailed the shattering of small,
Speaker 2: simple clay vessels filled with fruits or sweets. So it
Speaker 2: is then proposed that this practice spread to the Americas
Speaker 2: in the sixteenth century via Catholic Spanish missionaries who use
Speaker 2: the practice as both a Catholic religious celebration and an
Speaker 2: indoctrination tool for indigenous peoples. Now, obviously this is the
Speaker 2: sort of practice that would just be inherently fun, as
Speaker 2: this sort of ritual transcends language and beliefs, at least
Speaker 2: in just the basic practice of shattering something, breaking something,
Speaker 2: and finding a reward within. But it may also have
Speaker 2: found a foothold in indigenous practices due to pre contact
Speaker 2: rituals of shattering clay pots in devotion to the Aztec
Speaker 2: solar deity with Cilo Potli. Now that's a long journey
Speaker 2: across multiple continents and cultures, so the question remains, is
Speaker 2: it possibly true? Well Chin contends that we might tentatively
Speaker 2: attribute the origins of the pinata to Chinese customs, but
Speaker 2: that there's insignificant evidence to make any definitive conclusions. So
Speaker 2: whatever the pinnata's origins Chinese, Italian, Spanish, az Tech, or
Speaker 2: some mixture of them, the pinata has become cemented as
Speaker 2: a distinctly Mexican and Latin American tradition with broad international appeal.
Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of The Artifact or The
Speaker 2: Monster Fact each week. As always, you can email us
Speaker 2: at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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