Chacarrá: festive ritual, reciprocity and commensality

Abstract

The objective of this article is to describe the role that traditional regionally-based foodways, collective agropastoral and fishery practices, and commensality has played within a traditional festive music and dance expression from far southern Spain – chacarrá or fandango tarifeño. It is a tradition that has been central to the dynamics of social cohesion and social reproduction of rural communities in La Janda and Campo de Gibraltar regions of the province of Cádiz. Employing the methodology of oral history, in situ audiovisual documentation, and documentary research, fieldwork was carried out in the interior of the province from 2019-2022. Interview subjects were primarily senior citizens possessing living memory of rural life and of migratory processes related with rural exodus in recent history.