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cofradías and cargos: an historical perspective on the Mesoamerican civil‐religious hierarchy
Author(s) -
CHANCE JOHN K.,
TAYLOR WILLIAM B.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1985.12.1.02a00010
Subject(s) - hierarchy , colonialism , ethnohistory , peasant , articulation (sociology) , independence (probability theory) , politics , civil society , history , colonial period , ethnology , sociology , political science , geography , anthropology , archaeology , law , statistics , mathematics
Most accounts of the Mesoamerican civil‐religious hierarchy assume either a pre‐Hispanic or colonial formation of the system, despite the lack of convincing evidence. This paper presents unpublished archival data on colonial cofradias and civil cargos from four regions of Mexico: Jalisco, central Mexico, the Valley of Oaxaca, and the Sierra Zapoteca of Oaxaca. It is argued that while a civil hierarchy was well developed in colonial times, the civil‐religious hierarchy was mainly a post‐independence development. Changes in the functions of the hierarchy and its mode of articulation with the larger society are also discussed. [Mesoamerica, peasant society, ethnohistory, religion, political organization]