Defining the Indian: State definitions, perception of the other and community organization in southwestern Tlaxcala and Mexico

The way the inhabitants of two communities of Nahua origin in southwestern Tlaxcala in Central Mexico perceive their own and each other’s identities defy categorizing these towns as “indigenous” or “Mestizo”. In the Mesoamerican culture area at large, situations such as these far outnumber those of...

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Autor principal:	David Robichaux
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR PT
Publicado:	Centre de Recherches sur les Mondes Américains 2009
Materias:	cargo system ethnicity indigenous mestizo Tlaxcala Anthropology GN1-890 Latin America. Spanish America F1201-3799
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c610b18bde954bd98ead4749117c4eed
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c610b18bde954bd98ead4749117c4eed2021-12-02T10:29:47ZDefining the Indian: State definitions, perception of the other and community organization in southwestern Tlaxcala and Mexico1626-025210.4000/nuevomundo.56599https://doaj.org/article/c610b18bde954bd98ead4749117c4eed2009-07-01T00:00:00Zhttp://journals.openedition.org/nuevomundo/56599https://doaj.org/toc/1626-0252The way the inhabitants of two communities of Nahua origin in southwestern Tlaxcala in Central Mexico perceive their own and each other’s identities defy categorizing these towns as “indigenous” or “Mestizo”. In the Mesoamerican culture area at large, situations such as these far outnumber those of regions such as the Chiapas highlands with a clear caste-like ethnic divide. This is so in part because of the massive and rapid language shift in the twentieth century that took place in tens of thousands of Mesoamerican communities that were repúblicas de indios during the colonial period, consequent to a nation-state building project based on Spanish monolinguism. In this paper I criticize how anthropologists have used the “indigenous” and “mestizo”. Instead of centering on how that policy has caused massive re-identification, ethnicity and identity studies are equated with identity politics. By paying more attention to state than to local categories, anthropologists have ignored important social processes and have contributed to the Mexico´s twentieth century state building and forced identity change project. Emphasis is placed on the role of the cargo systems in defining membership in communities that in the colonial period were “repúblicas de indios” or “pueblos de indios”.David RobichauxCentre de Recherches sur les Mondes Américainsarticlecargo systemethnicityindigenousmestizoTlaxcalaAnthropologyGN1-890Latin America. Spanish AmericaF1201-3799ENFRPTNuevo mundo - Mundos Nuevos (2009)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR PT
topic	cargo system ethnicity indigenous mestizo Tlaxcala Anthropology GN1-890 Latin America. Spanish America F1201-3799
spellingShingle	cargo system ethnicity indigenous mestizo Tlaxcala Anthropology GN1-890 Latin America. Spanish America F1201-3799 David Robichaux Defining the Indian: State definitions, perception of the other and community organization in southwestern Tlaxcala and Mexico
description	The way the inhabitants of two communities of Nahua origin in southwestern Tlaxcala in Central Mexico perceive their own and each other’s identities defy categorizing these towns as “indigenous” or “Mestizo”. In the Mesoamerican culture area at large, situations such as these far outnumber those of regions such as the Chiapas highlands with a clear caste-like ethnic divide. This is so in part because of the massive and rapid language shift in the twentieth century that took place in tens of thousands of Mesoamerican communities that were repúblicas de indios during the colonial period, consequent to a nation-state building project based on Spanish monolinguism. In this paper I criticize how anthropologists have used the “indigenous” and “mestizo”. Instead of centering on how that policy has caused massive re-identification, ethnicity and identity studies are equated with identity politics. By paying more attention to state than to local categories, anthropologists have ignored important social processes and have contributed to the Mexico´s twentieth century state building and forced identity change project. Emphasis is placed on the role of the cargo systems in defining membership in communities that in the colonial period were “repúblicas de indios” or “pueblos de indios”.
format	article
author	David Robichaux
author_facet	David Robichaux
author_sort	David Robichaux
title	Defining the Indian: State definitions, perception of the other and community organization in southwestern Tlaxcala and Mexico
title_short	Defining the Indian: State definitions, perception of the other and community organization in southwestern Tlaxcala and Mexico
title_full	Defining the Indian: State definitions, perception of the other and community organization in southwestern Tlaxcala and Mexico
title_fullStr	Defining the Indian: State definitions, perception of the other and community organization in southwestern Tlaxcala and Mexico
title_full_unstemmed	Defining the Indian: State definitions, perception of the other and community organization in southwestern Tlaxcala and Mexico
title_sort	defining the indian: state definitions, perception of the other and community organization in southwestern tlaxcala and mexico
publisher	Centre de Recherches sur les Mondes Américains
publishDate	2009
url	https://doaj.org/article/c610b18bde954bd98ead4749117c4eed
work_keys_str_mv	AT davidrobichaux definingtheindianstatedefinitionsperceptionoftheotherandcommunityorganizationinsouthwesterntlaxcalaandmexico
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Defining the Indian: State definitions, perception of the other and community organization in southwestern Tlaxcala and Mexico

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