article
Corn is our blood: culture and ethnic identity in a contemporary Aztec Indian village
University of Oklahoma Press • 206 • Published In 1991 • Pages: xxvii, 420 , [16] of plates
By: Sandstrom, Alan R..
Abstract
This book discusses dynamics of culture and ethnic identity among Nahua Indians who claim a direct ethnic descent from the ancient Aztecs of Mexico. It shows that the Nahua exhibit linguistic and cultural features that distinguish them from many other ethnic groups of modern Mexico, despite many years of Spanish conquest and a series of government attempts to incorporate them into the dominant Mestizo culture. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the author identifies two broad local and national processes that accounted for this continuity. One of these concerns participation in traditional religious ceremonies which produced ancient Aztec ideas about nature and people. The other relates to the benefits villagers hoped to obtain in ethnicity (i.e., in being Indian) in the context of their desire to win land claims and access government provided social services.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2010
- Region
- Middle America and the Caribbean
- Sub Region
- Central Mexico
- Document Type
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Teferi Abate Adem; 2008
- Field Date
- 1970-1990
- Coverage Date
- 1970-1990
- Coverage Place
- Mexico
- Notes
- by Alan R. Sandstrom
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 389-401) and index
- LCCN
- 91050307
- LCSH
- Nahuas--Ethnic identity/Nahua mythology/Nahuas--Social life and customs/Villages--Mexico--Veracruz-Llave (State)--Case studies/Veracruz-Llave (Mexico : State)--Social life and customs