Book

Harmony ideology: justice and control in a Zapotec mountain village

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

By: Nader, Laura.

Abstract

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).

HRAF PubDate

2009

Region

Middle America and the Caribbean

Sub Region

Central Mexico

Document Type

Book

Evaluation

Creator Type

Ethnologist

Document Rating

5: Excellent Primary Data

Analyst

John Beierle; 2007

Field Date

1957-1968

Coverage Date

1900-1968

Coverage Place

Talea de Castro, Rincón Region, State of Oaxaca, Mexico

Notes

Laura Nader

Includes bibliographical references (p. [325]-336) and index

LCCN

89078333

LCSH

Zapotec Indians--Legal status, laws, etc./Zapotec Indians--Social conditions/Criminal justice, Administration of--Mexico--Oaxaca/Oaxaca (Mexico)--Social conditions