An Anthropology of Geographic Orders and Imaginations in the Sierra Mixe
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Territorial Practices: An Anthropology of Geographic Orders and Imaginations in the Sierra Mixe Emiliano Zolla Márquez University College London Territorial Practices: an Anthropology of Geographic Orders and Imaginations in the Sierra Mixe Declaration of Originality I, Emiliano Zolla Márquez, confirm that the work presented in my thesis is my own work. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated. 2 Territorial Practices: an Anthropology of Geographic Orders and Imaginations in the Sierra Mixe 3 Territorial Practices: an Anthropology of Geographic Orders and Imaginations in the Sierra Mixe Acknowledgments This thesis would not have been possible without the help and generosity of a large number of people in Oaxaca, Mexico City and London. In London I benefited from the kind and attentive help of Dr. Nanneke Redclift, my thesis supervisor. She not only advice me before and after returning from the field, but provided me with a wonderful space of intellectual liberty. I thank her thorough reading of countless versions of the thesis and for all the support received during my stay at UCL. I would also like to express my gratitude to my friends and fellow PhD students at the Department of Anthropology for their comments, intellectual encouragement and especially, for sharing the joys and miseries of writing a doctoral thesis. Piero di Giminiani, Inge Mascher, Sergio González Varela, Juan Rojas, David Jobanputra, Natalie Pilato, Tom Rodgers, Sophie Haines, Nico Tassi, Natasha Beranek and David Orr made my days much easier and constantly reminded me that there was more in life than my laptop. I would especially like to thank Alanna Cant for her friendship, intellectual advice and for keeping me sane both in London and Oaxaca. Thanks to the wonders of fictitious kinship, Alejandra del Río, Alfonso Vega, Natalia Best and Alex Stallman became my extended family in this island and made of London a great place to live. In Oaxaca, I was fortunate enough to receive the advice and friendship of Dr. Nemesio Rodríguez who shared his endless knowledge of Mexican indigenous peoples. I also benefited from the advice of Dr. María Luisa Acevedo who guided me through the early stages of the research and gave me enough advice to find my way through the Sierra Mixe. I also would like to express my recognition to CONACYT in Mexico for funding my doctoral studies and to the Central Research Fund of the University of London for the financial support for my first trip to Oaxaca. I would like to thank to Eleazar Martínez Pérez and his family in Tlahuitoltepec who, without knowing me, opened the doors of their home and allowed me to enter into the world of the musicians of the Sierra Mixe. 4 Territorial Practices: an Anthropology of Geographic Orders and Imaginations in the Sierra Mixe Don Mauro Delgado, César Delgado, Damián “El Capi”, Leovigildo and Rubén Martínez allowed me to take part in many of the activities of the CECAM, a privileged viewpoint to understand the life of the peoples of the Sierra. Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my parents, Carlos and Susana, to my sister Cecilia and to my dear cuñado Rafael for their endless love and support. 5 Territorial Practices: an Anthropology of Geographic Orders and Imaginations in the Sierra Mixe 6 Territorial Practices: an Anthropology of Geographic Orders and Imaginations in the Sierra Mixe Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 9 Looking beyond the State: the ethnography of Mixe space .............................................................. 23 CHAPTER I. SPATIAL COSMOLOGIES AND TERRITORIAL PRACTICES IN THE SIERRA MIXE ............ 33 Isolation, remoteness and popular images of the Sierra Mixe ...................................................... 33 Isolation in the ethnography of the Mixe .......................................................................................... 35 Cosmology and political process ...................................................................................................... 38 Place and Space in Santa María Tlahuitoltepec ................................................................................ 43 The vertical archipelago .................................................................................................................... 48 Atmospheric phenomena .................................................................................................................. 50 The Market: diversity and exchange ................................................................................................. 56 Maize varieties .................................................................................................................................. 59 Milpa rituals ...................................................................................................................................... 61 Milpas and the link between worlds ................................................................................................. 67 Milpa rituals as cartographic actions ................................................................................................ 70 Land without fences .......................................................................................................................... 71 Communitarian space and ritual: the cult to the Kigaapj .................................................................. 75 The keeper´s pilgrimage ................................................................................................................... 79 The relocation of the Kigaapj............................................................................................................ 81 The Kigaapj at their new home ......................................................................................................... 84 Tuuwabjp, Mëëkum, Tsejkaats and the influence on climate ........................................................... 87 Women’s rituality and communitarian landscape ............................................................................. 92 Maps, mapping and place-making in the Sierra Mixe ...................................................................... 95 Rituals and place-making ................................................................................................................ 103 Transitions between spaces ............................................................................................................. 108 Ritual experts as geographic specialists .......................................................................................... 110 Chapter II. Centripetal and centrifugal forces in the Sierra Mixe ....................................................... 116 Indigenous communities and the omnipresence of the State .......................................................... 116 Statelessness and decentralization among the Mixe ....................................................................... 123 Indigenous politics: from systems to space ..................................................................................... 125 Rancherias and Centro .................................................................................................................... 129 Space, morality and social order ..................................................................................................... 130 7 Territorial Practices: an Anthropology of Geographic Orders and Imaginations in the Sierra Mixe Centralisation, leadership and fiesta ............................................................................................... 142 The creation of leadership ............................................................................................................... 144 Fiesta and leadership ....................................................................................................................... 145 Tequio and leadership ..................................................................................................................... 151 Chapter III. Centralising the Sierra: State, Caciques and the origins of a nationalist spatial imagination ............................................................................................................................................................ 162 First centralization: the colonial order ............................................................................................ 165 An ethnographic exploration of the post-revolutionary state in the Sierra Mixe ............................ 170 The Caciques of the Sierra .............................................................................................................. 171 Nationalist chronotope and the Myths of Kong’oy ......................................................................... 190 Chapter IV. Teachers, schooling and the making of the communitarian geographic order ................ 197 The Church´s background ............................................................................................................... 199 The Cardenista School in the Sierra Mixe ...................................................................................... 203 Teachers and caciques ..................................................................................................................... 210 The