The ceremonial soup that sustains a culture

Abstract

Four fat pigs lounge in the dappled shade of Isidro Pérez Pérez’s backyard, each tethered to its own tree by a thin rope looped around a back foot. The pigs don't yet know it, but soon they’ll be the stars of the ceremonial soup at the center of San Mateo Yetla’s annual Cambio del Bastón de Mando, or what English speakers might think of as the changing of the guard.