In the Valley of Oaxaca in Mexico's Southern Highland region, three facets of sociocultural life have been interconnected and interactive from colonial times to the present: first, community land as a space to live and work; second, a civil-religious system managed by reciprocity and market activity wherein obligations of citizenship, office, and festive sponsorships are met by expenditures of labor-time and money; and third, livelihood. In this book, ted Oaxacan scholar Scott Cook draws on thirty-five years of fieldwork (1965-1990) in the region to present a masterful ethgraphic historical account of how nine communities in the Oaxaca Valley have striven to maintain land, livelihood, and civility in the face of transformational and cumulative change across five centuries. Drawing on an extensive database that he accumulated through participant observation, household surveys, interviews, case studies, and archival work in more than twenty Oaxacan communities, Cook documents and explains how peasant-artisan villagers in the Oaxaca Valley have endeavored over centuries to secure and/or defend land, worked and negotiated to subsist and earn a living, and striven to meet expectations and obligations of local citizenship. His findings identify elements and processes that operate across communities or distinguish some from others. They also underscore the fact that landholding is crucial for the sociocultural life of the valley. Without land for agriculture and resource extraction, occupational options are restricted, livelihood is precarious and contingent, and civility is jeopardized.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
University of Texas Press
ISBN-10
0292772521
ISBN-13
9780292772526
eBay Product ID (ePID)
209204433
Product Key Features
Author
Scott Cook
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Subject
Sociology & Anthropology: Professional
Dimensions
Weight
726g
Height
229mm
Width
152mm
Additional Product Features
Place of Publication
Austin, Tx
Spine
31mm
Series Title
Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American & Latino Art & Culture
Content Note
62 B&W Photos, 7 Maps, 3 Tables
Author Biography
Scott Cook Is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology AT the University of Connecticut, Storrs.