Book

Harmony ideology: justice and control in a Zapotec mountain village

Stanford University PressStanford, Calif.Published In 1990 • Pages:

By: Nader, Laura.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This monograph utilizing data collected primarily from the village of Talea de Castro, attempts to reveal how social organization in general and how the social organization of law in particular relate to control, to relative power, and to autonomy over an extended period of colonization. It is the story of justice and control through the uses of harmony (p. xvii). The document is divided into four parts. Part 1 introduces the village dispute setting in which harmony plays an important role. This section deals with the organizations of social control and summarizes the geographic, economic, historical, and political context in which law is found. Part 2 describes the Zapotec court, its officials, litigants, and styles of court encounters. Part 3 deals with the substance of cultural control surrounding complaints relating to gender, property, and governance. By means of comparison and history, Nader hypothsizes, in part 4, that harmony ideology has been an important part of social transformation through law under western political and religious colonization and a key to counter-hegemonic movements of autonomy (p. xxiii).
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Judicial authority
Trial procedure
Towns
Social relationships and groups
Ingroup antagonisms
Legal norms
Family relationships
Acculturation and culture contact
Offenses against the person
Offenses against the state
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Zapotec
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2009
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Middle America and the Caribbean
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Central Mexico
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
Book
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle; 2007
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1957-1968
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1900-1968
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Talea de Castro, Rincón Region, State of Oaxaca, Mexico
NotesAdditional notes
Laura Nader
Includes bibliographical references (p. [325]-336) and index
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
89078333
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Zapotec Indians--Legal status, laws, etc./Zapotec Indians--Social conditions/Criminal justice, Administration of--Mexico--Oaxaca/Oaxaca (Mexico)--Social conditions