The Wax Cylinders engraved by Carl Lumholtz in 1898

Abstract

The collection of wax cylinders engraved with a graphophone by the Norwegian Carl Lumholtz in 1898 in a Huichol (or Wixárika) community is studied here based on the following: the intellectual context of the time that stimulated the recording of Native American oral materials, the conditions in which his fourth expedition to the Mexican Sierra Madre Occidental took place; and, the local conditions in which these recordings were made in the head community of Santa Catarina Cuexcomatitlán. For this, we have systematized and collated new documentary sources, and with the collaboration of translators and ritual specialists, we have selected, transcribed and translated extracts of the 31 cylinders, the contents and formal aspects of which have allowed preliminary guidelines to be drawn up reflecting on changes and continuities in the Wixárika ritual tradition.