The concha guitar and the armadillo

What is the historical connection between the armadillo shell and the traditional “Conchero” dancers whose name is derived from the shell-backed and guitar-like instrument called a “concha”? If you are unfamiliar with this group, they are a part of the greater “Danzas de Conquista” folkloric dance complex of Mexico whose dance, or “danza,” is better described as a religio-spiritual tradition. Concheros don’t simply dance for cultural reasons or public consumption, they do it out of a sense tradition, obligation, and a spiritual passion to continue celebrating the syncretic hybridization of Catholicism and indigenous spirituality. But to understand the connection between the dance tradition and the shell, it is necessary to briefly survey the sources that deal with the concha itself.

Pic 1: Daniel Rodriguez, Grupo de Danza Macuilxochtil, Azcapotzalco, Mexico City, Mexico, n.d., image courtesy of Evelio Chichilticoatl Flores

We begin with the way that dancers themselves recount how the concha guitar was introduced and adopted in the sixteenth-century. There are numerous variants, but the basic story is understood thusly: After the conquest of Mexico, Spanish priests were on a mission to convert indigenous people to Catholicism, and anything that was perceived or construed as demonic was destroyed and forbidden. Indigenous dance and music were prime targets in this cultural purge, but some priests opted to use Native American customs and beliefs to their advantage. Franciscan priests allowed dancing to continue if it was done in the service of the Church, and because the drum - the most basic and traditional indigenous instrument - was strictly forbidden, the dancers, or danzantes, were forced to adapt and find other musical sources to accompany to their dances. It is at this point that the concha was introduced and became the standard instrument for four centuries – roughly between the 1530s to the mid-1940s.

Pic 3: A ‘conchera’ dancer/player depicted in a mural by Diego Rivera on the history of Mexico, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City

Another source simply states that the instrument was handed down to the dancers by the Franciscans and encouraged to go out and spread the message of Christ to unconverted Indians. The idea being that exposing Christianity through indigenous dance was useful in advancing the missionizing project of empire. This explanation minimizes the ingenuity of indigenous peoples and places them in complete dependence on the priests, including for the very instrument that Concheros themselves believe was used to mask indigenous rituals under Catholicism. Although this hypothesis is possible, it’s not very probable. The counter argument here is that Indians made the concha guitar themselves to resemble Spanish instruments.

Pic 5: Mural ‘El pedimento o manda’, Santa Catarina Juquila, Oaxaca, by Arturo Estrada, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City; note the presence of imported European brass instruments, centre

The claim made is that the use of the armadillo shell is due to the animal’s sacredness and its ties to fertility. Moreover, a connection to sacred numbers, specifically the number four and its polysemic meanings (four directions, four winds, four elements, etc.) is also made in this explanation. What makes this account reasonable is the fact that the armadillo’s symbolic and metaphorical significance to Mesoamerican cultures is well documented, and indeed the nine-banded armadillo almost always gives birth to four identical quadruplets (see Mexicolore’s feature on armadillos - link below). Those facts notwithstanding, whether this explains why Concheros adopted the armadillo shell for the concha is inconclusive and merits further research.
Now let us turn to a selected bibliography of scholarship that has discussed the concha and have offered some useful analyses. The following is taken from a recent dissertation that cites a publication from 1999. The quoted author is not listed in the bibliography and is only identified as “Iñiguez” in the footnote:-

Pic 7: Four nine-banded armadillo pups, genetically identical

Author’s translation:-
’The Franciscan friars prohibited the use of percussion instruments (huéhuetl and teponaztle) because they considered them pagan. Under repression from the church and the new government, whoever touched one had their hands cut off. But the friars understood the congregational power that dances had and its value in evangelization. Around 1525, friars introduced string instruments into dances, but for the indigenous the dance was sacred. Playing their music with any other instrument was not possible so they created armadillo shell guitars. The armadillo is considered a sacred animal because it can only have four young. This was one of the most important syncretisms in the dance brought in in 1531. In this way, on that shell-guitar or mandolin they could count the ancient scores. This new instrument was called Concha, Mecalhuehetl, Zin-zin or Ayoyote, all done under the supervision of the friars, and the dancers have been called Concheros ever since.’
You will notice that part of the previous quote cited previously is included in Iñiguez’s quote. It’s obvious that he is the original source of this idea, unfortunately a search for the author and the publication this quote is found in has not yielded any results. The important thing here is that it appears that Iñiguez was the first person to note the connection between danza, the sacredness of the armadillo’s four offspring, and its numerological significance to indigenous cosmology.

Pic 9: A stuffed 9-banded armadillo on display, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City

This is a good point to remind the reader that gourds were also used in the making of the mecahuehuetl. In one of the earliest doctoral dissertations about danza, Portia Mansfield states:-
’The concha is named for, and usually made from, the shell of the armadillo. However some, sweeter but less resonant, are made of half gourds, sometimes beautifully inlaid with shell. Sometimes the player has an inexpensive stringed instrument of some sort, which he has altered and strung and tuned like a concha. The system used in Mexico City is explained as using five double strings, tuned similarly to those of the guitar sexta, to the fifth string of the latter; with the string corresponding to the highest of the guitar sexta dropped an octave.’ (Portia Mansfield, “The Conchero Dancers of Mexico” [Doctoral dissertation, New York, New York University, 1953], 212).
Later she adds this: “Their first stringed instrument was fashioned crudely from a gourd. They were not known before the Conquest” (Mansfield, 274). Mansfield did fieldwork in Mexico and this idea that the original mecahuehuetl was made from a gourd must have been told to her by a danzante informant.

Pic 11: A Conchera dancer playing a ‘concha’; insert - entry for ‘mecahuehuetl’ in Biondelli 1869

Nawatl – Tlacuilolquavitl: cuicuiltic cuecueioca, tomatic, xipetztic tlatztic, cuicuilivi, mocuicuiloa motlitlilania, motlatlamachia: teponaztli mochioa, vevetl, mecavevetl mochioa, velnaoatl coioltic, initzqui ia manqui initlatol, qualneci, teiculti, tetlanezti, eleviliztli, nequiztli, naoati, caquizti, tzilini, qualneci, tetlaneztia, teicultia.
English – ‘There are some wild trees, which are called tlacuilolcuahuitl: meaning painted wood, they are red and have black veins, which look like paintings over the red: it is a very precious tree, because teponaztles, and tamburiles, and vihuelas, when they are made of this wood, are very loud: and because they are painted well, and look good, they are very precious.’

Pic 13: Entry on ‘tlacuilolcuahuitl’ in the Florentine Codex Book XI

This fact is further supported in the final source we will look at here. Music archaeologist, Arnd Adje Both, noted that:-
’To help in the process of conversion, some friars also employed pre-Columbian musical instruments in the church service. One source indicates that Pedro de Gante played the Aztec hand-rattle, ayacachtli, while the use of the popular slit-drum (teponaztli) could never be entirely prohibited. Indeed, in some rural towns, specimens from Colonial and even pre-Columbian times are still guarded and played today. Nevertheless, by a strange twist, the large tripod skin-drum (huehuetl) was soon replaced by the European lute, although the Aztecs literally called it by their own name mecahuehuetl (“string drum”). It is possible that the tradition of the Danzantes, a syncretistic religious group based in and around the Valley of Mexico, in which lute ensembles play a prominent role in processions and circle dances, can be traced back to transformations of this kind’ (Arnd Adje Both, “Musical Conquests: Encounters in Music Cultures of Aztec and Early Colonial Times,” in Music and Politics in the Ancient World Exploring Identity, Agency, Stability and Change through the Records of Music Archaeology, ed. Ricardo Eichmann, Mark Howell, and Graeme Lawson [Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2019], 153–54, DOI 10.17171/3-65).

Pic 15: Folding Screen with Indian Wedding and Flying Pole (Biombo con desposorio indígena y palo volador), Mexico, circa 1690; note the musician centre stage...

The research also led to the finding of a little-known term, mecahuehuetl, which was used in the early colonial period to label the original stringed instruments constructed by danzantes. These stringed instruments were originally made from gourds before the armadillo shells were introduced. This might explain why the Nawatl name for the “stringed drum” fell out of use and the Spanish term “concha” gained favor. While it’s interesting to imagine that this is what occurred, the change in the naming convention can only be explained with further research.

Pic 17: A large Concheros troupe in performance