Sociopolitical organization of rural communities

1
Socio-political organization of rural communities

• (Continued)

2
Community in the Sierra Juárez

• Community as a harmonious whole
• Community as a battleground of interests
• usos y costumbres
• Cargo system
• Communal assembly
• Tequio and guelaguetza

3
Cargo system (I)

• Two aspects
• a civil hierarchy of ranked offices
• a fiesta system based on ceremonial sponsorship.
• double structure of civil authorities
• municipal and communal authorities
• Ciudadanos and comuneros
• Committee of Elders (Consejo de Ancianos or
  Caracterizados)

4
Cargo system (II)

• efficiently secures the corporate character of
  the communities
• integrates the community by uniting its members
• in Capulálpam where the population is just about
  1,400, around one hundred of its inhabitants,
  mostly men, were serving a cargo
• A cargo is the basis on which the symbolic
  belongingness to the community is constructed.
• principles of ranking and rotation of cargos -
  diminish the concentration of power
• constant movement of persons and generations
  through the system, avoids it being blocked

5
Cargo system (III)

• Manning Nash - analysis of civil-religious cargo
  systems in Guatemala
• manifest and latent functions (Merton)
• both contribute to communal integration.
• maintains the administrative order in the
  community, securing political succession,
  application of justice and fulfilment of communal
  to supernatural powers.
• permits the individual to express his dedication
  to the community,
• helps to clearly define the limits and membership
  of the local community

6
Cargo system (IV)

• Reality vs ideal
• people often consider the system obsolete and
  cargo holders corrupt
• power struggles between factions and interest
  groups are constant

7
Cargo system (V)

• two general approaches to (civil-religious) cargo
  systems
• as a levelling mechanism of wealth differences
  (earlier approach)
• as a stratifying mechanism that actually creates
  and reinforces these differences (more recent
  approach)
• levelling mechanism
• Wolfs idea of institutionalised envy
• there is a constant social and moral pressure on
  richer community members that minimises economic
  mobility, accumulation of wealth and abuse of
  power
• creates an economically homogenous community

8
Cargo system (VI)

• stratification approach
• cargo system actually separates the population
  into a number of groups with different social
  statuses
• legitimises the uneven distribution of power
• cargos are non-remunerated and resource-consuming
  gt prestige and wealth synonymous.
• it is impossible for younger and poorer men to
  gain real power
• Power concentrates in the hands of a small number
  of relatively richer and generally middle-aged
  men gt oligarchy / gerontocracy
• Bourdieu - conversion of capital

9
Cargo system (VII)

• High cargos
• now frequently given to persons who have not
  passed all the stages of the system
• circulate between the same groups of persons and
  families.
• heterogenisation of the political field
• new types of political leadership
• Political parties
• Caciquismo - la gente con la lana
• Alatorre - traditional vs civilising power
• Women and immigrants excluded

10
Baston de mando
11
Cargo system (VIII)

• cargo system is totalitarian
• all men have to participate
• moral responsibility to serve ones community.
• Becomes a means of manipulation
• Nominating emigrants
• Force them to return
• Make them pay
• It is very costly to be Zapotec. (Yatzachi)

12
Communal prison
13
Cargo system (VIII)

• cargos are regarded as a burden
• Cargo is like a cross that you have to carry
• Reason for outmigration
• An ex-síndico of Capulálpam
• It was disastrous. I still have not recovered
  from my cargo. Everything ends, the clothes, the
  job, everything.

14
Communal assemblies (I)

• Communal assembly (asamblea, junta)
• of primordial importance in the indigenous
  calpulli
• central element of communal organisation today
• all decisions concerning the community as a
  corporate entity taken during assemblies.
• collective will - community acts and thinks
  as a corporate entity
• instrument of organisation, regulation and
  execution of social relations
• strategic means in the communal resistance
  against the outside world

15
Communal assemblies (II)

• cathartic significance
• Gluckman - rituals of rebellion
• the only legitimate moment and space for
  expressing overt criticism
• Turners communitas
• everybody has the right to talk, criticise and
  express his opinion
• everybodys voice has equal weight
• the hierarchy of the cargo system is forgotten.
• Arguments resolved within the temporal and
  spatial confines of the assembly

16
Communal assemblies (III)

• Totalitarian system
• fines and imprisonment
• But not imposed with the same rigour to everybody
• Segregation by gender
• women totally excluded (no está bien visto)
• Nomination for cargos as punishment
• Gossip as male vs female phenomenon
• Assemblies as male gossip
• Segregation by origin
• Not everybodys voice has the same wight (no
  communitas!)
• Informal leaders vs immigrants

17
Communal assemblies (IV)

• Only five or six persons participate in the
  discussions but you are still told that this is
  the community. Five or six persons manipulate
  the situation and thats almost it. Among
  themselves they make the decisions. (Yatzachi)
• the persons who decide are few and all others
  support them. Agree, agree, nothing else. There
  are very few who even talk. (Capulalpam)
• As I am not from here, during the assemblies I
  cannot talk because they immediately ask Why
  does this outsider talk? He is not from here, he
  does not know how we live. (Capulalpam)

18
Ethnicity and indigenous groups

• 8.10.03

19
Topics of discussion

• Ethnic identity, inter-ethnic relations, ethnic
  groups and boundaries
• 1) On terminology and theory
• 2) Multiple identities in Central America
• 3) Discussion of articles
• 4) Ethnography

20
On terminology - Identity

• Identity" concept psychoanalytical theorist
  Erik H. Erikson (1959)
• about personal identity in connection with
  individual sense of the "self"
• dependent on memory
• located deep in the unconscious as a durable and
  persistent sense of sameness of the self
• non-pathological individual never feels like
  becoming someone else.
• The anthropological concern with selfhood earlier
  
• Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict and the US culture
  and personality school (late 1930s)

21
On terminology - Ethnicity

• The intellectual history of the term "ethnicity"
  is relatively short
• prior to the 1970s seldom mentioned  
• late 1960s (in theories of modernity and
  modernization)
• ethnicity treated as a remnant of the
  pre-industrial social order, gradually declining
  in significance.
• assimiliationist ideology, melting pot"
• Since the mid-1970s - greater significance
• the changing post-colonial geopolitics
• the rise of ethnic minorities activism
• gt proliferation of theories of ethnicity

22
On terminology Ethnicity vs nationalism

• ethnicity vs nationalism (Hobsbawm 1992, 4)
• nationalism as a programmatic phenomenon
• ethnicity as something that is taken for granted
  and considered to be an inherent part of being an
  individual in a society.
• Ethnicity as the bases for nationalism gt ethnic
  nationalism (vs territorial nationalism)
• Nationalism - subject of political theory
• Ethnicity - subject of sociology and social
  anthropology.

23
On terminology Ethnic group

• Anthony D. Smith (1992, 50)
• "Ethnic group" is a unit of population with six
  characterising features
• common proper name,
• myths of common ancestry,
• historical memories,
• distinctive elements of culture,
• association with a given territory,
• a sense of social solidarity.
• Fredrik Barth

24
On theory

• three competing approaches to ethnicity 
• 1)      primordialist theories
• ethnic identification is based on deep,
  "primordial" attachments to a group or culture
• 2)      instrumentalist approaches
• ethnicity treated as a political instrument
  exploited by groups in pragmatic pursuit of their
  own interests
• 3)      constructivist approaches
• emphasis on the contingency and fluidity of
  ethnic identity
• treating it as something which is made in
  specific social and historical contexts, rather
  than as a given.

25
Primordialist views (I)

• objectivist theories
• assert the real, tangible foundation to ethnic
  identification
• Two subtrends
• ethnicity as a biological phenomenon
• ethnicity as a product of culture and history

26
Primordialist views (II)

• 1) Ethnicity as a biological phenomenon
• determined by genetic factors.
• Pierre van den Berghe (1981)
• ethnic phenomena rooted in a genetic
  predisposition for kin selection or "nepotism
• the group affiliation (ethnicity) is genetically
  encoded, being a product of early human
  evolution, when the ability to recognize the
  members of one's family group as necessary for
  survival.
• altruistic behaviour reduces individual fitness
  and increases one's kin group fitness  

27
Primordialist views (III)

• 2) Ethnicity as a product of culture and history
• ethnicity defined structurally, i.e. in terms of
  the cultural morphology of a given society
• linguistic, religious, and racial
  characteristics, treated as "primordial givens"
  or "bases" of ethnicity).
• objective and perceived differences between the
  various groups - serve as a basis for a
  distinctive group identity

28
Instrumentalist approaches

• 1) Utilitarian approach
• ethnicity as a product of political myths,
  created and manipulated by cultural elites in
  their pursuit of economic advantages and power
• 2) Psychological approach
• ethnicity as means of recovering ethnic pride,
  defeating alienation, and alleviating emotional
  stress

29
Constructivist theories

• Fredrik Barth - Ethnic Groups and Boundaries
  (1969)
• It is the ethnic boundary that defines the
  group, and not the cultural stuff that it
  encloses".
• ethnicity maintained by inter-group boundary
  mechanisms, based not on possession of a cultural
  inventory but on manipulation of identities and
  their situational character.
• Emphasis on the situational and contextual
  character of ethnicity, its political dimensions

30
Recent trends

• interpretive paradigm
• attention on the negotiable character of group
  boundaries and identity
• subjective aspects of ethic identity formation
  and maintenance
• "group", "category" and "boundary" as relative
  terms
• multiple identities

31
Multiple identities in Central America

• 1) Communal identity
• 2) (Regional identity)
• 3) Ethnic identity
• 4) National identity
• 5) Indigenous identity
•  

32
Communal identity (I)

• Community as the main basis of collective
  identity
• Pueblismo (Berg)
• Paisanazgo (Hirabayashi in case of migration)
• We are like elephants - we return to seek refuge
  and to die. (Yatzachi)

33
Communal identity (II)
34
Regional identity

• Regional identity in the Sierra Juarez
• Common ethnonym not enough
• Zapotecs and Chinantecs of the Sierra
• vs Zapotecs of the Valle
• common struggle against national politics, mining
  companies, and the local radio station The Voice
  of the Sierra (La Voz de la Sierra)

35
Ethnic identity

• To what ethnic group do you consider yourself to
  belong? (Capulalpam) 
• Zapotec 61
• Catholics 64
• Non-Catholics 53
• Mexican 35
• Catholics 30
• Non-Catholics 47
• Serrano 2
• Chatino 1

36
National identity

• Relatively strong in Central America despite the
  multi-ethnic composition
• No ethnic violence
• Religous symbols (eg. Virgin Guadalupe)

37
Indigenous identity

• Pan-ethnic
• Although common past, Indians a heterogenous
  group with no common identity
• Homogenised and consolidated by Europeans either
  directly (censuses etc) or inderectly
• "indio" vs "indígena"
• "indio" is often a synonym to "stupid".
• Vasoncelos gt Indians Europeans raza cosmica

38
Articles (I)

• Diskin, M. 2001. Ethnic Discourse and the
  Challenge to Anthropology The Nicaraguan Case.
  (In Urban and Sherzer)
• Medina, L. 2003. History, Culture, and
  Place-Making Native Status and Maya Identity
  in Belize. (In Gutmann, M. et al)

39
Articles (II)

• 1) What can be the possible strategic and
  tactical aspects of ethnic discourse? (Diskin)
• 2) Why does ethnic discourse pose a challenge to
  anthropology? (Diskin)
• 3) What are the essential features of
  nativeness? (Medina)
• 4) Why is linking place with identity
  problematic? (Medina)

40
Ethnographies

• Faust, B. 1999. Mexican Rural Development and the
  Plumed Serpent Technology and Maya Cosmology in
  the Tropical Forest of Campeche, Mexico.
  Westport Bergin Garvey.
• Friedlander, J. 1975. Being Indian in Hueyapan A
  Study of Forced Identity in Contemporary Mexico.
  New York St. Martins Press.
• Lipp, F. J. 1998. The Mixe of Oaxaca Religion,
  Ritual, and Healing. Austin University of Texas
  Press.
• Sandstrom, A. R. 1991. Corn is Our Blood Culture
  and Ethnic Identity in a Contemporary Aztec
  Indian Village. Oklahoma City University of
  Oklahoma Press.