The multiple appropriations of the Nicaraguan marimba dance

Abstract

This article approaches the history Of the Dance of the Marimba in
western Nicaragua as cultural capital that is used and manipulated by
various social actors. The dance and music complex involves a couple
flirtation dance accompanied by the unique diatonic marimba de
arco flanked by a steebstringed guitar and foupstringed guitarilla, This tradition was originally based in the Masaya region in communities considered and self-identified as indio, or Indiana Centered around the indigenous enclave of Monimbó, the tradition bearers' previous acculturation of mestizo dress and language heightened the emblematic importance of forms of expressive culture dtsttnct to them, most saliently the performance of marimba accompanied folk dances. The article examines how elements of the dance and costuming were appropriated at different levels of first regional and then national society. Claims of an unaltered continuity of the music are critically analyzed in relation to the effects of media and mestizo-controlled group and professional troupe meditation. The study further demonstrates how mestizo claims of musical "timelessness" are bound up with a broader supposition of the social immutability of indigenous People and poor campesinos.