Wolfgang Gabbert - Ethnicity and The State in Yucatan, Mexico

Social Categories, Ethnicity and the State in Yucatan, Mexico
Author(s): Wolfgang Gabbert

Source: Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Aug., 2001), pp. 459-484
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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J. Lat. Amer. Stud.33, 459-484 ? zoo2 CambridgeUniversity Press 459
DOI: 1o.1oI7/Soo22216Iooioo5983 Printed in the United Kingdom
Social Categories, Ethnicity and the

State in Yucatain,Mexico*
WOLFGANG GABBERT
Abstract. This article discusses the development of social categories and

ethnicity in the peninsula of Yucatain, Mexico, since the Conquest in the
sixteenth century. Based on the Yucatec case, it demonstrates that
ethnicity is not a ubiquitous form of social organisation, but rather a
historical process related to specific techniques of social distinction. It
argues that the starting point for the analysis of ethnicity should not be
ethnic collectives, but instead the ways in which individuals use ethnic
categories in social interaction. (Keywords: Yucatan, Maya, ethnicity,
social inequality, state).
Introduction
The modern nation-state has existed for no more than 200 years, not much
compared to the entire history of human society.1 Nonetheless, it has been
extremely successful in inculcating the idea that every human being
belongs to a cultural community separated from other such communities
by clear boundaries. Many scholars of ethnicity subscribe to this view and
therefore begin their analyses by looking for such communities (ethnic
communities or nations) considered to be the 'natural' form of social
organisation.2 Such ideas have clearly influenced discussion of the
development of ethnic categories in the peninsula of Yucatan, Mexico.
Wolfgang Gabbert is a Lecturer at the Lateinamerika-Institut, Freie Universitat, Berlin.
* Research for this article was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Fors-
chungsgemeinschaft.
1A nation-state is a centralised form of political organisation where legitimacy is based
on the notion of nation, that is, an 'imagined community' which is conceived as
bounded, sovereign and comradely. See B. Anderson, ImaginedCommunities:Reflections
on the Originand Spreadof Nationalism (London, I 99 I, revised and extended edition), pp.
5-7; E. Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford, 1983), pp. 1-7, 53-62; J. Rothschild,
Ethnopolitics: A ConceptualFramework (New York, I98i), pp. I -I6.
2 See for example H. Isaacs,' Basic Group Identity: " The Idols of the Tribe "', Ethnicity,
vol. I (I974), pp. 5-41; P. Worsley, The Three Worlds: Culture and World Development
(Chicago, 1984), p. 248; S. Grosby, 'The Verdict of History: The inexpungeable Tie
of Primordiality - A Response to Eller and Coughlan', Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol.
17, no. 2 (1994), pp. I64-I71; J. Hutchinson and A. Smith, 'Introduction', in John
460 WolfgangGabbert
The three states (Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo) which
constitute the peninsula of Yucatan3 in the extreme south-east of the
Federal Republic of Mexico are home to no less than 14 per cent of
Mexico's speakers of indigenous languages, as the national census shows.
Their tongue, Yucatec Maya, is the country's second most widely used
indigenous language and is spoken by more than 30 per cent of the
peninsula's population.4
It comes as no surprise that government institutions, the press and the
public in general, as well as many scholars, have no doubt that the regional
population consists of two groups- Spanish-speaking Yucatecs and
Indians. Generally, the census data on speakers of indigenous languages
are used as indicators of the size of the Yucatec 'Maya Indian people'.5
Many authors consider the Maya-speaking people of Yucatain to be an
Indian people or ethnic community with a 'millenarian history',
presupposing a continuum of this people since prehistory, resting on an
Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith (eds.), Ethnicity (Oxford and New York, I996), pp.
3-14; R. Jenkins, Rethinking
Ethnicity.ArgumentsandExplorations(London, Thousand
Oaks, New Delhi, 1997), pp. 46-7, 74, 77; F. Proschan, '"We are all Kmhmu, just the
same": Ethnonyms, Ethnic Identities, and Ethnic Groups', AmericanEthnologist,vol.
24, no. I (I997), p. Io6. For a recent critique of this mode of thought see A. Gupta and
J. Ferguson, 'Beyond "Culture": Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference',
Cultural Anthropology,vol. 7, no. I (I992), pp. 6-23.
3 Unless otherwiseindicated,'Yucatan' is used here to referto the peninsulain general.
'Campeche' and 'Quintana Roo', however, are used for the states.
4 Instituto Nacional de Estadistica,Geograffae Informatica,La poblacidnde Mexicoen
9o90(Aguascalientes, 1992), pp. 31, 33.
5 See, for instance, M. Bartolom6, La dindmicasocialde los mayasde Yucatdn.Pasadoy
presentede la situacidncolonial(Mexico, I988), pp. 276-7, 283, 32I-2; Instituto Nacional
Indigenista, 'Informe de las actividades realizadas de 1989 a 1994', unpubl. manuscript,
National Indigenist Institute (INI), Campeche, n.d., pp. i6-I8. The indigenous
language of Yucatanis maya't'an. It has given its name to the Mayanlanguage family
which consists of 3 relatedlanguages. Languagesbelonging to this family and their
speakers are generally referred to by a compound (e.g. Tzotzil-Maya) or by their
specific names (Tzotzil, Mam, Kekchi, etc.). Both indigenous and non-indigenous
cultural activists, especially in Guatemala, have recently begun to promote the
development of an ethnic consciousness among the speakersof each Mayanlanguage
and, at the same time, of an overarchingpan-Mayaidentity encompassingthe whole
languagefamily.Cojti Cuxil, for example,considersthe Mayato be a people consisting
of different nations. See D. Cojti Cuxil, 'The Politics of Maya Revindication', in
EdwardF. Fischerand R. McKennaBrown (eds.), MayaCulturalActivismin Guatemala
(Austin, I996), p. 21. For pan-Maya cultural activism in Guatemala see, for instance,
R. Wilson, Maya Resurgence
in Guatemala.
Q'eqchi'Experiences(Norman and London,
I995); J. Watanabe, 'Unimagining the Maya: Anthropologists, Others, and the
InescapableHubris of Authorship', Bulletinof Latin AmericanResearch,vol. 14, no. I
(1995), pp. 3I-3, 36-9; Fischer and Brown, Maya Resurgence;K. Warren, Indigenous
Movementsand their Critics: Pan-MayaActivism in Guatemala(Princeton, I998). A
discussionof these developmentsis, however, beyond the scope of this paper.Here the
term Maya refers only to the speakersof Yucatec Maya unless otherwise indicated.
Social categoriesin Yucatdn,Mexico 461
unspecified quality of 'being Maya'. Moreover, it is generally assumed

that an ethnic consciousness as Maya exists among the Yucatec Maya.6
That these views are misleading will become clear from the following two
episodes from the municipality of Hopelchen in the eastern part of
Campeche.
In 1994, a Brigade of Indian Development and Improvement (Brigada
de Desarrolloy MejoramientoIndigena)entered Chultun,7 a village of about
800 inhabitants, mostly peasants and their families. Almost all of them
speak Yucatec Maya. In the streets the government officials saw several
6 See, for instance, B. Alonso Caamal,'Los mayasen la conciencianacional', in Arturo
Warman and Arturo Argueta (eds.), Movimientos en Mexico
indigenascontempordneos
(Mexico, 1993), pp. 37, 43, 56; A. Barabas, 'Colonialismo y racismo en Yucatin: Una
aproximaci6n hist6rica y contemporanea', Revista Mexicanade CienciasPoliticasy
Sociales, vol. 25, no. 97 (1979), pp. 105-40; P. Bracamonte y Sosa, La memoria
enclaustrada.Historia indigenade Yucatdn, 17o0-19if (M6xico, I994), p. I5; T. Sanders,
'Education, Language, and Culture among the Contemporary Maya', American
Universities Field Staff Reports No. 5o, Hanover, NH, 1979; S. Varese, 'Una dialectica
negada: Notas sobre la multietnicidadmexicana', RevistaMexicanade CienciasPoliticas
y Sociales, vol. 32, no. 88 (1977), p. 49; P. Nesbitt, 'The Maya of Yucatan', in Edward
Moseley and Edward Terry (eds.), Yucatan. A World apart (Alabama, I980), p. 4I; D.
YearsontheShaman'sPath
Freidel,L. Scheleand J. Parker,MayaCosmos.ThreeThousand
(New York, I993); Bartolome, Dindmica social, pp. i6, I9-20, 26-7, 29, 34-6, 262, 281.
The language 'groups' shown in the census are merely cultural categories, that is,
aggregationsof individualssharingone or more culturaltraitswhose membersdo not
necessarilyhave an overarchingethnic consciousness(see below). As Barthhas already
shown, there is no direct relationshipbetween sharedculturaltraits (such as language)
and ethnicity,which he definesas a form of social organisation.Culturaldifferencesand
similaritiesare only importantin so far as they are taken into account by the actors
themselvesand function as emblemsof difference.F. Barth,'Introduction', in Frederic
Barth (ed.), Ethnic Groupsand Boundaries(Bergen, 1969), pp. I2- 4; see also M. Weber,
Wirtschaftund Gesellschaft(Tiibingen, I980), p. 237. In recent theoretical literature
severalauthorscontinue to suggest objective bases for ethnicity: sharedgenes, cultural
samenessor a sharedhabitus. See P. van den Berghe, 'Ethnicity and the Sociobiology
Debate', in John Rex and David Mason (eds.), Theoriesof Race and EthnicRelations
(Cambridge, 1986), pp. 246-63; Grosby, 'The Verdict of History'; G. Bentley,
'Ethnicity and Practice'. ComparativeStudies in Societyand History, vol. 29, no. I (1987),
pp. 24-55. Nadel, however, has already aptly characterisedthe theory of cultural
identity underlying ethnic communities. These exist 'not in virtue of any objective
unity or likeness, but in virtue of an ideological unity, and a likeness accepted as a
dogma,' S. Nadel, The Nuba (London, 1947), p. 3; see also F. Barth, 'Enduring and
Emerging Issues in the Analysis of Ethnicity', in Hans Vermeulenand Cora Govers
(eds.), TheAnthropologyof Ethnicity.Beyond'EthnicGroupsandBoundaries'
(Amsterdam,
1994), pp. I4-I5; H. Levine, 'Reconstructing Ethnicity', The Journal of the Royal
AnthropologicalInstitute, vol. 5, no. 2 (I999), p. 173. Cultural differences do not simply
preexist but are constructed within a historical process. See Gupta and Ferguson,
'Beyond Culture', pp. I6-17. A similar point has been made by M. Moerman,
'Accomplishing Ethnicity', in Roy Turner (ed.), Ethnomethodology
(Harmondsworth,
I974), p. 65. He suggests that ethnic labelling is motivated: 'Once a native decides
to give some person an ethnic label, he finds some traitswhich that person has that can
be used to demonstratethat the label has been applied correctly.'
7 This is a pseudonym.
462 WolfgangGabbert
women of different ages, dressed in the traditional female costume of rural
dwellers in the peninsula, the ipil, a white blouse with colourful
embroidery, and the reboZo,a special kind of shawl. Women dressed like
this are referred to as 'mestizas' in Yucatan. 'Mestizos', in the Yucatec
sense of the word, would mean men dressed in white cotton trousers, a
shirt of the same colour and material and sandals.8 Today this type of
dress is regarded as a symbol of'Maya Indian' identity by the Spanish-
speaking public and by many scholars as well.
The government officials established themselves in the village of
Chultun and began to carry out several community development projects,
including the opening of a joiner's workshop and a school for needlework
to help people save money for clothing and other household necessities.
The villagers willingly accepted the presence of the 'brigade', but only
after one problem was solved. They refused to be identified as Indians and
urged the development workers to strike this term from the project's
name.9
The second episode happened some two years later in the same region.
In March 1996, a meeting was held of delegates of peasant communities.
This event was part of the National Consultation on Indigenous Rights
and Participation, organised by the government as a reaction to the
Chiapas uprising of I994.10 At the meeting, delegates remarked that
'Indian professionals occupy only two per cent of the jobs in question'
and demanded 'that Indian professionals should be considered according
to their proportion of the total population', which they estimated at more
than 50 per cent. Furthermore, they complained that 'we, as Indians, are
discriminated against. Civil servants treat us badly when we visit
government agencies'.11
These two episodes may seem trivial at first glance but they hint at
several fundamental practical as well as theoretical problems in dealing
with ethnicity.12 First, they remind us that there is no simple one-to-one
8
Whereas the term mestizo in Latin America generally refers to the offspring of unions
between Spaniards or Whites and Indians, or designates the culturally hispanised part
of the population in contrast to the Indian part, in Yucatan it is used for people dressed
in the folk costume. I will indicate the Yucatecan usage by adding quotation marks, i.e.
'mestizo'. In Yucatin 'mestizo/a' is also used as self-identification.
9 FN-Chultun, 19099402. The number
gives the date and reference number of the entry
in my fieldnotes (FN) from the municipality of Hopelchen, Campeche, where I worked
some twenty-one months between 1993 and 1998 on the relationship between ethnicity
and social inequality.
10 The consultation of 1994 is not to be confused with the consulta referendum on 21
March 1999 organised by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in an
effort to build a broader political coalition. 1 FN-Hopelchen, 14039601.
12 Ethnicity is understood here as referring to a phenomenon of social differentiation in
which actors use cultural or phenotypical markers or symbols to distinguish themselves
from others. It is a method of classifying people into categories which include
relationship between ethnic categories and groupings of human

individuals.13 As the first episode illustrated, people use certain terms to
identify themselves, and they are designated by specific categories by
others. However, these perspectives (self-identification and ascription)
do not necessarily coincide. Second, the two stories strongly suggest
that the starting point for the analysis of ethnicity should not be ethnic
collectives per se, but rather the ways in which individuals use ethnic
categories in social interaction. The important question, then, is not what
a person is (German, Fulbe, Indian, etc.), but in which contexts and under
which circumstances he identifies himself or is identified by others with
reference to a certain category.14 Third, they remind us that social
categorisation (of which ethnic classification is only a part) is not simply
an intellectual game. To be classed as belonging to a certain social
category means to occupy a specific status position.15 Thus, social
categories are not neutral but instead are respected and valued
differentially. Who is allowed or obliged to occupy a given social position
denoted by a category is frequently as disputed as the evaluation of the
category as such. Bourdieu referred to this phenomenon as 'a forgotten
dimension of class struggles'.16 Fourth, the state, of course, plays a major
role in shaping ethnicity and inter-ethnic relations. The state is not merely
individuals of both sexes and all age groups using (socially constructed)origin as its
primary reference. This definition builds on T. Eriksen, Ethnicityand Nationalism.
Anthropological Perspectives(London and Boulder, 1993), p. 4 and Levine, 'Recon-
structing Ethnicity', p. I68. These boundaryprocesses may result in the development
of a system of ethnic categories (i.e. classificatoryunits) or of ethnic communities(i.e.
units of action). See W. Gabbert, Creoles- Afroamerikaner Tieflandvon
im karibischen
Nicaragua (Miinster, 1992), pp. 8, 33-7 for a more extended discussion of the term and
a typology of ethnic communities.
13 See, for instance, A. Southall, 'The Illusion of Tribe', Journalof Asian and African
Studies, vol. 5 (I970), pp. 28-50; Proschan, 'We are all Kmhmu', pp. 95, Ioo-o1.
14 This perspectivemakes it possible to treat ethnicity not as a pre-existingstructurebut
as something continuallyproducedand reproducedby individualactors in the context
of changing circumstances;that is, as a process.
15 Socialstatusis frequentlydefinedas the prestigeor social worth conferredupon a social
position by membersof a society. Thus, a generalconsensuson the evaluationof social
positions is presupposed. Here, in contrast, status is understood as the claim of the
occupant of a social position to a specifictype of behaviourfrom other persons - e.g.
respect, obedience, etc. - and the demandby others for a specific mode of conduct. It
is a complex of certainrights and duties. This definition makes it possible to link the
system of statuswith relationsof power within a society so as to determinea dominant
or hegemonic systemof statuswithout exludingdeviantevaluationsby membersof less
powerful groups.
16
p. Bourdieu, La distinction.Critiquesocialedujugement(Paris, 1979).
464 WolfgangGabbert
dealing with already existing social or ethnic categories but, frequently,

creating new ones by means of its own administrative regulations. So for
example, as widely observed, many 'tribes' of Africa and Asia are not
relics of some long-ago past, but rather results of the administrative action
of colonial states.17 What is more, the state tends to be a major distributor
of resources and the criteria applied for the allocation of resources
frequently are of the utmost importance for the expression of ethnicity:
Many categories and groups are not even recognized by the census authorities,
that is, groups are not even counted in the literal sense of the term and, in such
cases, do not 'count' politically in the figurative sense of the term. Some
categories and groups are singled out for special protection or privilege by the
state, given or denied citizenship, given or denied proportional or extra
representationin electoralconstituenciesor governmentbodies or in government
service. Some categories and groups are entitled to special protection of their
language or religion or personal laws, some are not.18
Government activities and programmes play a major part in shaping the
possibilities and constraints of individual actors. They may strengthen
existing relations of domination by backing local elites or weaken them by
directly or indirectly taking the side of subordinate groups at the local
level.19 In addition, the state has much influence on the prevailing
discourse on ethnicity in a society.
The following discussion will illustrate these points by analysing the
historical development of ethnic categories in the Yucatan peninsula.
Yucatdn in Colonial Times

When the Spaniards began the conquest of Yucatan ( 527-47), they
encountered a population which was, to a great extent, linguistically and
culturally homogeneous, but divided politically into more than 6
federations of states and petty states frequently waging war against one
another. This political fragmentation and the traditional enmities between
17
See, for instance, E. Ardener, 'Language, Ethnicity, and Population', in J. H. Beattie
Essaysin Memoryof E. E.
and R. G. Lienhardt (eds.), Studiesin SocialAnthropology.
Evans-Pritchard by his former Oxford Colleagues(Oxford, 1975), pp. 346-7; R. Fardon,
'African Ethnogenesis: Limits to the Comparability of Ethnic Phenomena', in
Ladislav Holy (ed.), Comparative Anthropology (Oxford, 1987), pp. 177-8, 181-2; T.
Ranger, 'The Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africa', in Eric Hobsbawm and
Terence Ranger (eds.), The Inventionof Tradition (Cambridge, I984), pp. 247-254; C.
Young, 'Ethnicity and the Colonial and Post-Colonial State in Africa', in Paul Brass
(ed.), Ethnic Groups and the State (London and Sidney, I985), pp. 73-82; Southall,
'Illusion'; Levine, 'Reconstructing Ethnicity', pp. 172-3
18 P. Brass, Ethnicity and Nationalism (New Delhi, Newbury and London, 1991), p. 271.
This differentiating role of the state has also been highlighted by M. Hechter, Internal
Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development,Is36-1966 (Lododon, 975);
Barth, 'Enduring and Emerging Issues', p. 19 and Jenkins, Rethinking Ethnicity, pp.
68-9. 19 See, for instance, Brass, Ethnicity and Nationalism, pp. 272-4.
Social categoriesin Yucatan, Mexico 465
indigenous political units played a major part in the success of the Spanish
enterprise.20
The imposition of Spanish colonial rule led to the disintegration of the
pre-Hispanic federations and states, for each indigenous community was
treated as an independent administrative unit. These Indian republics
(repiblicas de indios) became the most important focus of interaction
beyond the extended family for the indigenous population. In Yucatan
even the religious brotherhoods (cofradias)were organisations of these
communities.21
The colonial state established a social order which can be characterised
as an estate system.22 The fundamental social categories- Spaniards
(espanoles)and Indians (indios)- were legally defined. This is also true for
the castes (castas), persons of presumed mixed ancestry, such as mestizos
or mulattos. Each category held certain specific rights and was subject to
certain duties, which pertained not only to the economic sphere of
property, labour relations and production, but also included regulations
for the use of clothing and jewellery. Indians had to pay tribute and to
provide forced labour to Spaniards. They were regarded as minors and
wards of the crown, were forbidden to bear arms and ride horses.
Mestizos and other castes were freed from the tribute and labour
obligations of Indians, but had to pay other types of taxes and to render
military service. Only Spaniards were allowed to wear European clothing;
Indians and mestizos had to dress in white shirts and trousers, straw hats
and sandals. The women's dress was the ipil which was of lesser quality
in the case of Indians.23 There was residential segregation, too. In the few
20 See D. Landa, Relacionde las cosasde Yucatdn(Madrid, I985, written in I566), pp. 63-5;
F. D. Cogolludo, Los tres siglos de la dominacionespanolaen Yucatdno sea historia de esta
provincia, vol. i (Graz, 1971, original I688), pp. I77-80, book 3, ch. 6; R. Roys,
'Lowland Maya Native Society at Spanish Contact', in Handbook of Middle American
Indians,vol. 3 (Austin, I965), pp. 669, 67I; V. Bricker, The Indian Christ, the IndianKing:
The Historical Substrateof Maya Myth and Ritual (Austin, 198I), p. I 3; N. Farriss, Maya
Society under Colonial Rule (Princeton, 1984), pp. 2 -3; S. Quezada, Pueblosy caciques
yucatecos, isjo-I80o (M6xico, 1993), pp. 37-9.
21 See Farriss, Maya Society, pp. 147-5I, 167-8; M. Restall, The Maya World. Yucatec
Culture and Society, Ifjo-i8So (Stanford, 1997), pp. 3-19.
22 An estate refers to a legally defined segment of the population of a society which has
distinctive rights and duties established by law. See G. Lenski, Power and Privilege. A
Theoryof Social Stratification(Chapel Hill, I966), p. 77. Some authors call the system of
social inequality of colonial Yucatan a caste system. See, for instance, Farriss, Maya
Society, p. II 3. However, it is not to be confused with the system in India of rigid,
closed social stratification based on notions of ritual purity.
23 See C. Gibson, 'Indian Societies under Spanish Rule', in Leslie Bethell (ed.); Cambridge
History of Latin America, vol. II (Cambridge 1984), pp. 399-405; L. McAlister, 'Social
Structure and Social Change in New Spain', Hispanic American Historical Review, vol.
43 (i963), p. 358; Cogolludo, Los tres siglos, vol. I, p.403, book 5, ch. I9; B. Granado
Baeza, 'Los indios de Yucatin', Revista de la UniversidadAutonoma de Yucatdn,vol. 4, no.
466 WolfgangGabbert
cities (Merida, Campeche, and Valladolid), Indians had to live in special
quarters (barrios).In the towns and villages of some importance, the area
around the central plaza was reserved for the Spanish and mestizo
population.24
Within the three categories there were important differences in relation
to property, income, education and profession. In partial recognition of
precolonial social stratification, the Indian category was subdivided into
native noblemen who were called hidalgos or, in Maya, almeheno'b,and
commoners who were referred to as indios tributarios or masewalo'b.25
Indian hidalgos enjoyed privileges which identified them legally with the
lower Spanish nobility. They were exempt from tribute, forced labour and
the legal prohibitions imposed on Indian commoners.26
Affiliation to these basic social categories was held to be determined by
descent or biological criteria. Yet, in a number of cases, wealth and
cultural adaptation permitted mobility into categories of higher status, so
that, for example, a number of mestizos or Indians with sufficient property
and language skills in Spanish were legally accepted as Spaniards. As
Nancy Farriss put it:
We know that ethnic identities recorded in colonial censuses were merely legal
categoriesbased only in part on biological criteria,and highly flexiblecriteria,at
i68 (I989, written in 8I 3), p. 62; Farriss, Maya Society, p. I 4; R. Redfield, 'Race and
Class in Yucatan', in Cooperation in Research, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Publication No. 50o (Washington, I938), p. 5 17; Barabas, 'Colonialismo y racismo', p.
I25. It is not completely clear to what extent the regulations for the use of clothing,
arms and horses were actually enforced. Horses and shotguns appear quite frequently
in Indian wills. See, for instance, Restall, Maya World, pp. 103-04.
24 See M. Bartolome, 'La estratificaci6n etnica en Yucatan como antecedente de la
guerra
de castas', Boletin de la Escuela de CienciasAntropologicasde la Universidadde Yucatdn,vol.
I3, no. 76 (I986), p. 7; F. Fernandez Repetto and G. Negroe Sierra, 'Las relaciones
interetnicas en la provincia de Yucatan durante el perfodo colonial y su manifestaci6n
en la cofradia de Campeche', Revista de la UniversidadAutdnoma de Yucatdn,vol. 4, no.
171 (I989), pp. o0-II; J. Stephens, Incidentsof Travel in Yucatan, vol. I (New York,
I963, written in 1843), pp. 154-5.
25 Masewal is a term derived from the Nahuatl which
replaced winik (man) as self-
identification.
26 See Bracamonte y Sosa, La memoriaenclaustrada,pp. 26-7; Quezada, Pueblosy caciques,
pp. z28-9; Farriss, Maya Society,pp. 98, 174-7, I85, 238; R. Roys, The IndianBackground
of Colonial Yucatan (Norman, 1972), pp. I32, 148-60, 171; J. Rubio Mane, Archivo de
la Historia de Yucatacn,Campechey Tabasco (Mexico, 1942), p. 2I2. For a discussion of
social differentiation stressing the Indians' point of view see P. Thompson, 'Tekanto
in the Eighteenth Century', unpubl. Ph.D. diss., Tulane University, 1978, pp. I94-234;
Restall, Maya World, pp. 88-97. The Indian and Spanish views of social inequality,
however, did not completely coincide. Not all almeheno'bwere recognised as hidalgosby
the Spanish authorities and granted the privileges mentioned. The term hidalgowas also
used in Maya language texts. See, for instance, J. Martinez Hernandez, Cronica de
Yaxkukul (M6rida, 1926), pp. 5, Io, 33.
Social categoriesin Yucatan, Mexico 467
that. Mestizo could signify any genetic mix between pure Spaniardand pure
Indian, and in practicethe boundariesmarking off the supposedly pure groups
was far from fixed. The significant inequalities of privileges and obligations
attached to the various caste identities created a strong incentive for upward
percolation.Differencesin wealth, occupation, and way of life, the accidents of
legitimate or illegitimate birth, and a variety of other nongenetic criteriacould
determinethe differencein the opportunityfor light-skinnedmestizos andpardos
to become incorporatedinto the Spanish caste and for pure Indians and pure
Africans to pass into the mixed groups.27
Caste defined the Indians' place in colonial society but it provided no

basis for group identity and group cohesion.28 As colonial historian
Matthew Restall has pointed out, there is no evidence that Indians in
Yucatan perceived themselves as a cultural unit threatened by Spanish
culture. Indian self-identity in the colonial period was based on the
community (cah) and the patronym group (chibal). These groups excluded
Spaniards, but they also excluded most other Indians. Beyond community
and patronym group, indigenous perception of others was determined by
class. What differentiated a Spaniard from an ordinary Indian community
resident was 'his class - reflected in titles of address, in wealth, in cultural
accoutrements'.29 There were informal contacts between members of
different communities and there was also migration, as Farriss rightly
points out,30 but apparently there was no consciousness of a kind that
embraced the entire Indian population in Yucatan. The term indio,as well
as the indigenous word masewal, which Indian commoners used to
designate themselves, referred to a social category, not to a self-conscious
ethnic grouping.
The province of Yucatan played only a marginal role in colonial
Mexico. Lacking precious metals, its only source of wealth consisted of
the large indigenous population. Beeswax and cotton cloth remained the
most important products for export. These articles as well as most of
Yucatain's maize production - the staple crop - were obtained from
Indian tribute which remained the mainstay of the colonial economy up
to the end of the eighteenth century. State coercion ensured that the
tribute and repartimientoarrangements worked to the Spaniards' ad-
vantage. As Indians retained ownership of the principal means of
production, especially land, social stratification and economic inequality
27
Farriss, Maya Society, p. I08; see also p. 98; Barabas, 'Colonialismo y racismo', p. 126;
Bartolom6,'Estratifcaci6n etnica', p. 4.
28
See Farriss, Maya Society, pp. 167-8.
29 M. Restall, 'Yucatec Maya Responses to "Modernization": The Colonial Period', in
Ruth Gubler and Ueli Hostettler (eds.), TheFragmented
Present.MesoamericanSocieties
FacingModernization (M6ckmuihl,1995), p. 6i.
30 See Farriss, Maya Society, pp. 156-7.
468 WolfgangGabbert
were mainly the result of colonialism and less of property relations. The
Spaniards' status as the elite did not depend on the exercise of economic
power emanating from the ownership of the means of production. Rather,
colonists received the benefits of colonialism because the state imposed
the rules of economic exchange between Spaniards and Indians.31
In contrast to other regions of Mexico, the presence of Spanish officials
in the rural Indian communities was extremely limited up to the Bourbon
Reforms at the end of the eighteenth century. The most important agents
of Spanish rule in the rural areas were Catholic priests. Economic
weakness and the limited presence of colonial administrative represen-
tatives shaped a peculiar relationship which resulted in much less cultural
penetration of the indigenous population than occurred in Central
Mexico. There were few intermediate social positions between Indian
commoners and Spanish landowners or bureaucrats. Thus, even at the end
of the colonial period the majority of rural mestizos did not differ
significantly from Indian peasants in their mode of production, diet and
dress. Like them, they generally spoke only the Maya language.32
Consequently, Maya remained the language of widest use. A report to the
Spanish crown stated in 8 I 3:
The language generallyspoken in this province by Indians,mestizos and pardos

[people of at least partlyAfricanancestry]... is the Mayalanguage.... The Maya
language is the most common in all the villages even among the American
Spaniardsand much more among the inferiorcastes. What is more, in the city of
Merida and the town of Valladolid it is the most widely used language even
among the illustrious people...33
And Nancy Farriss notes:
More than a lingua franca, Maya was the primarylanguage of all the colony's
native-born inhabitants of every caste... Creole children spent their infancy,
literallyfrom birth, and theirearlychildhood in almostthe sole companyof Maya
women, suckled by Mayawet nurses commandeeredfrom the villages, rearedby
Maya nurses, and surroundedby Maya servants.
Mayawas in a very real sense, then, the creoles' mother tongue, the language
with which they continued to feel more comfortable as adults and used by
preference'not only among the Indiansbut also at home with their own children,
31 See R. Chamberlain, The Conquestand Colonigationof Yucatan, if/7-izfo (Washington,

1948), pp. 333-4; Farriss, Maya Society, pp. 32, 38-9, 5,, 53; R. Patch, Maya and
Spaniardin Yucatan, 1648-1812 (Stanford, 1993), pp. i6, 86-7, 92-3; S. Quezada, Lospies
de la reptiblica. Los mayas peninsulares, isjo-i7yo (Mexico, 1997), pp. I89-208. The
repartimientoconsisted in the forced sale of certain articles to the Indians.
32 See Farriss, Maya Society, pp. 88, 109, II2; Patch, Maya and Spaniard, pp. 24I-2.
33 Granado Baeza, 'Los indios de Yucatin',
pp. 54-5, translation mine.
giving as their reason that it is easier to pronounce'. They not only preferredto
speak Mayabut, accordingto more than one observer,they often acquireda less
than perfect command of Spanish.34
As late as 839, American traveller John L. Stephens noted in a village
in the interior of the peninsula: 'Many of the white people could not speak
Spanish, and the conversation was almost exclusively in the Maya
35
language.
To sum up, at least until the end of the nineteenth century (and possibly
well into the twentieth) the use of the Maya language was by no means
restricted to people classified as Indians but embraced the majority of
Yucatan's population including a part of the local elite. Language which
today is the preferred criterion for ethnic (or, to be more precise, cultural)
classification was of no use for defining the Indian part of the population
at least until the second half of the nineteenth century. The social
consciousness of the Indian peasantry was determined by kinship and
locality and largely confined to their communities and their surroundings.
Independenceand the Caste War

Even after 1821, when Mexico gained political independence from Spain,
Yucatan's population remained legally divided. The three-part division of
colonial times - Spaniards, castes and Indians - was reduced to a system
which differentiated people with complete civil rights, the so-called vecinos,
from Indians (indios or indigenas).36Indio and indzgenawere terms ascribed
34 Farriss,MayaSociety,p. I 2, citing Archivo del Arzobispado,Merida,Visitas pastorales
5, Parishreport, Espita 1784; see also J. Stephens,Incidents
of Travelin CentralAmerica,
Chiapas and Yucatan,vol. II (New York, 1969, written in 1841), p. 407; R. Redfield, The
Folk Culture of Yucatdn(Chicago, I94I), p. 377 note I5.
35 Stephens, Incidents of Travelin Yucatan, vol. I, p. 23 1; see also D. Brinton, TheMaya
Chronicles(Philadelphia, I 882), p. 19; J. Solis, 'Memoria del Partido de los Chenes', La
Nueva Era (Campeche, I Nov. 1878), pp. 1-4; A. Woeikof, 'Reise durch Yukatan und
die siid6stlichen Provinzen von Mexiko 1874', PetermannsMitteilungen,vol. 25 (i879),
p. 204.
36 See, for instance, 'Ley de 23 de noviembre de I833 que arregle el cobro de la
contribuci6npersonal', in M. Gonzalez Navarro, Razay tierra.La guerrade castasyel
henequen(Mexico, 1970), pp. 299-30I. The shift in social divisions is reflected in the
following quotation from i9th century historian Ancona, albeit with a racial
interpretation:'In Yucatanthe name White is generallygiven not only to those who
preservedpure their Europeanblood in their veins but also to those who mixed it with
Indianblood in any quantity.Therefore,... our populationis consideredto be divided
into two large sections: the Indiansand the Whites. The firstarethe descendantsof the
Mayawho did not mix their blood with any other, and the second are the individuals
of all the other races...' E. Ancona, Historiade Yucatdndesdela epocamdsremotahasta
nuestrosdias, vol. IV (Merida, 1879/80), p. 13 note 3, translation mine; see also p. 37
note 6; H. Cline, 'Related Studies in Early Nineteenth Century Yucatecan Social
History', Microfilm Collection of Manuscripts on Middle American Cultural
Anthropology, No. XXXII, University of Chicago Library.Part II: The War of the
Castes and its Consequences, 1950, p. 64.
470 WolfgangGabbert
by others and used as synonyms in official documents, newspapers,

novels, etc.37 The republics of Indians survived as special administrative
units at least until the end of the i86os.38
The expansion of sugar cultivation into the frontier regions in the
interior of the peninsula was an important factor contributing to the
outbreak of the so-called Caste War of Yucatan (1847-I90o), as
commercial sugar cultivation and the production of corn by peasants
entered into direct competition for fertile land.39 The Caste War was a
rebellion supported mainly by part of the Maya-speaking lower classes. It
claimed thousands of victims and was a traumatic event in the region's
history. After initial successes in 1847/48, the rebels had to retreat to the
isolated south-eastern part of the peninsula where they established
independent polities. For several decades a bloody frontier war followed.
The rebels made frequent incursions into the area controlled by the
government. For their part, they had to face periodic attacks by
government forces. Nevertheless, the descendants of the rebels preserved
de facto political autonomy up to the first decades of the twentieth
century.40 Since the middle of the nineteenth century, economic
development has been concentrated more and more in the north-western
and western portions of the peninsula. Especially the growth of the
henequen plantation economy in the area around Merida led to a massive
proletarianisation of Maya-speaking peasants.41
37 See, for instance, J. Baranda, 'Los indios', El Espiritu Piblico (Campeche, I8 Aug.
I867), p. i; J. Hernandez, 'El indio yucateco', Registro Yucateco,vol. 3 (I846), pp.
425-30.
38 The liberal constitution of 841 formally abolished the reptiblicasde indios but in actual
fact they continued to operate. In I847 they were re-established. See 'Ley de 27 de
agosto de 1847, restableciendo y reglamentando las antiguas leyes para el regimen de
los indios', in A. Aznar Perez and R. Pedrera (eds.), Coleccin de leyes, decretosy drdenes
o acuerdosde tendenciageneraldel poder legislativodel estado librey soberanode Yucatdn, vol.
III (Merida, I849-5 I), pp. 146-1 5I. In the state of Yucatan, they remained until i868.
See V. Suarez Molina, La evolucidnecondmicade Yucatdna traves del siglo XIX, vol. II
(Mexico, i977), p. 292. In Campeche, which had separated from Yucatan in I858, the
Indian republics were abolished around 869. Cf. 'Se prohibe exigir servicios gratuitos
a los indigenas', 9 April 1869, in F. Alvarez Suarez, Anales histdricosde Campeche,vol.
II (Campeche, 1991), pp. 93-5. For a discussion of the republicas de indios after
independence see T. Rugeley, Yucatdn'sMaya Peasantry & the Origins of the Caste War
(Austin, 1996), pp. 90-116.
39 The Spaniards were never able to control effectively the sparsely settled south-eastern
parts of the peninsula, which remained an area of refuge for Indians who had fled from
colonial oppression.
40 For the Caste War see, for instance, N. Reed, The Caste War of Yucatdn(Stanford, 1964);
G. Jones, 'Revolution and Continuity in Santa Cruz Maya Society', American
Ethnologist, vol. I (I974), pp. 659-83; Bricker, Indian Christ, pp. 87-1I8, I85-2I8;
Rugeley, Yucatdn'sMaya Peasantry; D. Dumond, The Macheteand the Cross. Campesino
Rebellion in Yucatan (Lincoln and London, 1997).
41 See, for instance, Gonzalez Navarro, Ra.ay tierra, pp. 140-225.
Social categories in Yucatan, Mexico 471
Today, the Caste War is looked upon as a symbol of Indian resistance

by many. Bartolome, for example, considers it as a 'war of ethnic
liberation', where 'this people [the Maya] ... reacted in such a unified form
against its rulers'.42 However, although Maya-speaking peasants did form
the social basis of the insurgents, a considerable part of the Indian
population in the north-west, the centre of colonial rule, remained passive
or even fought jointly with the government forces against the rebels.43
Indians who fought for the government were rewarded with the
honorific title of hidalgo, referring to the hierarchy of status in the
colonial period. Besides this elevation in status there were other important
material incentives to fight the rebels. The government gave no pay for
service except booty, but it promised to pay for the debts of those held in
debt bondage. The hidalgos would receive the same pensions as other
soldiers in case of disability or death. Additionally, 'loyal' Indians
fighting to the end of the campaign and the re-establishment of peace in the
peninsula would be exempted from the head tax (contribucion personal).44
What is more, as Reed states, '... the servants and workers of the old
haciendas in the north-western corner of the peninsula, were not involved
in the rebellion, they even looked down on their less civilized eastern
brothers'.45
It is easy to imagine that outside the area held by the rebels the
already negative connotations of the terms indioor masewalgrew due to the
Caste War. They became the quintessence of barbarism. Frequently, the
rebels were labelled as 'savages' and 'wild or barbarous Indians' (indios
42
Bartolome, Dindmica social, pp. 35, I79. For a critique of this interpretation, see W.
Gabbert, 'La etnizaci6n de un conflicto politico y econ6mico: La Guerra de Castas de
Yucatan, I847-185 5', in Francisco Fernandez, Maria Rovira and Luis Varguez (eds.),
Una guerra sin fin: Los cruroobante el umbral del milenio (Mexico, in press).
43 See, for instance, Julian Piste et al. to secretaria general de gobierno, Homun, 23 June
1848, Boletin Oficial del Gobierno de Yucatdn, 6 July 1848, box 8, file 588 and
Notificaciones del titulo de hidalgos de los indigenas de Seybaplaya, 31 March I850,
box 12, file 937, both in Archivo General del Estado de Campeche, Gobernaci6n,
Periodo Yucateco, 8zo20-857; N6mina de indigenas de este pueblo que se han
presentado voluntariamente a tomar las armas, Tekanto, 27 May 1848, Archivo
General del Estado de Yucatan, Poder Ejecutivo, Justicia, Juzgados de Paz, box 67.
44 See 'Decreto de
I4 de enero de i848, se declara hidalgo y exento de la contribuci6n
personal a Felipe Cauich'; 'Decreto de 26 de enero de 1848, premios y recompensas en
favor de los indigenas que contribuyan a reprimir la sublevacion'; 'Decreto de 3 de
abril de I848, concediendo el titulo de hidalgos a los indigenas que concurrieron a la
defensa de Tunkas'; 'Decreto de 27 de abril de i848, eximiendo a los que se expresan
de la contribuci6n personal'; 'Orden de 27 de mayo, aprobando la organizaci6n de
hidalgos para el servicio de campafia', all in Aznar Perez and Pedrera, Coleccidnde leyes,
vol. III, pp. 173, 181-, 203-4, 206-9. For a fuller discussion of the motivation of the
Indians fighting against the rebels see W. Gabbert, 'Ethnicity and Forms of Resistance:
The Caste War of Yucatan in Regional Perspective', in M. Cipolletti (ed.), Resistencia
y adaptacionnativas en las tierras bajas latinoamericanas(Quito, 1997), pp. 205-32.
45 Reed, Caste War, p. 64.
472 Wolfgang Gabbert
salvajes, indios bdrbaros).Sometimes they were referred to as 'cannibals'

(antropofagos).46 The following quotations from Spanish-speaking intel-
lectuals from the second half of the nineteenth century will illustrate these
attitudes:
Which is the cry of alarmwhich resounds everywhere?
The Indians!!! The Indians, and with this cry the frontier villages become
discouraged. The Indians, whose mere name exercises a dreadfuleffect on the
mind of all peninsulars, to whom it signifies: conflagration,carnage, desolation,
horrors of all kinds which it is neither suitable nor possible to describe.
The Indians.- It was twenty years ago ... when in my young ears this cry
resounded for the first time... Since then, even though the danger has passed,
thanks to the brave soldiers who contained this irruption of barbarianswhich
threatened to destroy our country, we have periodically heard: the Indiansattacked
and set fire to this or that place. Always the Indians as a cry of threat, always the
Indians with their machetes hangingover our heads like the sword of Damocles.
Twenty years! And the civilised race of Yucatin has not been able to finish off
this horde of barbarians...47
Who, observing the present-day Indian, abject, degraded and debased,
hypocriticaland mendacious,without surenessin his words, without fidelity in
his beliefs, without wants; ungratefuland content with a bread and one or two
changes of clothes, who, we repeat,will believe that from this racethere emerged
the buildersof Uxmal and Kabah [two famous archaeologicalsites of the Classic
Maya culture]?48
The terms indigena,indio and masewalcontinued to be ascribed by others.
But the Maya-speaking lower classes tried to evade such categorisation
and adopted their negative connotations (see below).49 After the Caste
War, the traditional folk costume which characterised Indians and
mestizos in colonial times as well as the Maya language have become
symbols of the lower class. The earlier differentiation between Indians and
mestizos has fallen into disuse.50
During the colonial period the tribute and forced labour of one
segment of Yucatan's population categorised as Indians had been the
mainstay of the local economy. The colonial state guaranteed the relations
46 See, for instance, 'Exposici6n de los indigenas de los pueblos de Uci, Muxupip y Kini
del partido de Motul, pidiendo marchar a la campafa', Motul, 26 June 1848, in S.
Baqueiro, Ensayo historicosobre las revolucionesde Yucatdndesdeel ano de i840 hasta s864,
vol. III (Merida, 1990, ist ed. I878-I887), pp. 276-9; R. Pifia, 'Revista de los Chenes',
La Discusion(Campeche, 7 March 87 ), p. 3; Ancona, Historia de Yucatdn,vol. IV, pp.
47 Baranda, 'Los indios', italics in the
14, 70. original, translation mine.
48 Solis, 'Memoria del Partido', pp. 3-4, translation mine.
49 The descendants of the rebels, however, refer to themselves with some pride as
masewalo'b,whilst rejecting the Spanish equivalent, indio. See A. Villa Rojas, The Maya
of East Central Quintana Roo (Washington, 1945), p. 95; P. Sullivan, 'Contemporary
Yucatec Maya Apocalyptic Prophecy: The Ethnographic and Historical Context',
unpubl. Ph.D. diss. John Hopkins University, 1984, p. 91.
50 See Bracamonte y Sosa, La memoriaenclaustrada,pp. 5 2- ; A. Hansen, 'Change in the
Class System of Merida, Yucatan 1875-935 ', in Moseley and Terry, Yucatrn, p. 123.
Socialcategories
in Yucatdn,Mexico 473
of production by enforcing social differentiation on a legal basis, creating
an estate system. After independence, this system remained important for
almost half a century, mainly as a result of the Caste War. But as henequen
plantations consolidated as the new cornerstone of the regional economy
and the threat of a coalition between the Maya-speaking lower classes and
the rebels of the south-eastern parts of the peninsula declined, the need for
legal and administrative segregation ended. In the colonial period the
Maya-speaking peasants retained control of the principal means of
production and were to some degree protected against encroachments
from Spaniards in order to maintain the tribute economy. During the
nineteenth century many peasant communities lost their land to the
expanding haciendas. Thus, their labour force came to be appropriated
not through governmental force but through the ever-expanding system
of debt-peonage.51 Redfield summarises the historical process as follows:
[At the end of the colonial period] ... differencesin costume between Indian and
mestizo... gradually disappeared....The legal restrictions on the Indians were
revoked or fell into disuse after independencefrom Spain. By the middle of the
nineteenthcenturythe mixed-bloodswith Spanishnamesand the Indians... with
Indian surnameslooked alike, dressedalike, and were treatedsubstantiallyalike.
... A word for a biological hybrid [mestizo] had come to designate the lower of
two social classes.52
During the Caste War the development of a socially and culturally

homogeneous lower class of Maya-speakers with a localised sense of
loyalty increased in the north and west of the peninsula. In the east,
however, due to decades of bloody confrontation, the descendants of the
rebels developed a social consciousness encompassing different local
groups, which set them apart from Spanish and Maya-speakers throughout
the rest of the peninsula.53
The Mexican Revolutionin Yucatdnand the 'IndianQuestion'

The Mexican Revolution (I 9o-I7) brought important ideological
changes affecting inter-ethnic relations. Whereas most politicians in the
nineteenth century considered the white, creole race to be the centre of
Mexican nationality, revolutionary ideology saw Mexican nationality as
residing in the biologically and culturally mixed population-the
mestizos. Indian customs, music, dances and traditions were not regarded
outright as relics from barbarism but, at least in part, considered to be
51 See, for instance, F. Katz, 'Plantagenwirtschaftund Sklaverei.Der Sisalanbauauf der
Halbinsel Yucatan bis 9 o', Zeitschriftfir Geschichtswissenschaft,
vol. 7, no. 5 (i 959), pp.
1002-27. 52 Redfield, 'Race and Class', p. 5 8.
53 See, for instance, Villa Rojas, The Maya,
pp. 20-35, 9I-6; M. Bartolome and A.
Barabas,La resistencia
maya.Relaciones en el orientede la peninsulade Yucatan
interetnicas
(Mexico, 1977).
474 WolfgangGabbert
elements of national folklore worth maintaining.54 The central aim of the
official indigenist policies was to integrate and assimilate Indians into the
national population. As President Cairdenas(1934-40) put it: 'Our Indian
problem does not consist in preserving the "Indian" as an Indian or to
indianise Mexico but to mexicanise the Indians.' The regime sought to
subsume the Indian to the mass of workers and peasants, stressing class
over ethnicity.55
After the Mexican Revolution entered the Yucatan peninsula in 191 5,
the land-owning oligarchy lost some of their holdings but retained much
of their wealth and power. Their day-labourers benefited from agrarian
reform but became dependent on governmental administration and
credits. Opportunities for social mobility increased significantly due to the
economic boom of the 194os, the establishment of home industries and
the expansion of the state bureaucracy. In particular, the development of
the public education system and its extension into the rural areas created
new mechanisms for social advancement for the children of peasants and
peons (day-labourers).56At the same time the Maya language - slowly but
steadily - lost much of its importance as primary education in Spanish
proliferated.
At the end of the I96os, US anthropologist Richard Thompson
believed that Yucatain was well on the way to becoming an 'open society'
where social status would be exclusively determined by education and
economic success and not by descent or cultural criteria, such as language.
Like Robert Redfield in the 193os, he was impressed by the extent of social
mobility and cultural change, i.e. the proliferation of the Spanish language
and modern ways of life, which characterised Yucatan after the
Revolution.57 But there are some factors that have prevented the
completion of acculturation and assimilation.
Firstly, cultural differences still continue to function as important status
markers in Yucatan. Although social conflicts and racism are nowhere
near as acute as in Chiapas, cultural markers like language or dress and
descent (which is hinted at by the surname) are still important factors in
54 See C. Hale, MexicanLiberalismin the Age of Mora, I82I--853 (New Haven and
London, I968), p. 223; A. Knight, 'Racism, Revolution, and Indigenismo:Mexico,
1910-1940', in Thomas E. Skidmore, Aline Helg and Alan Knight (eds.), The Idea of
Race in Latin America, 87o0-I940 (Austin, 1990), pp. 71-I 3. Gonzalez Navarro, RaZa
y tierra,pp. 148-9 mentions some of the Igth century precursorsof Mexican indo-
hispanism,as the mestizo-centredideology has been called.
55 The quote is from T. Medin, Ideologiay
praxispoliticadeLdaaroCdrdenas (Mexico, 1975),
p. 176, translationmine. For a discussion of the official indigenismo
see, for example,
Knight, 'Racism, Revolution'.
56 See, for instance, R. Thompson, Aires de Progreso.CambioSocialen un PuebloMayade
Yucatan (Mexico, 1974), pp. I62-5.
57 See Thompson, Aires, pp. 189-90; Redfield, Folk Culture, pp. 58-9, 83.
the system of social inequality.58 Stereotypes linked to these status
markers frequently continue to determine interpersonal relations. Dis-
crimination has changed to more subtle forms. It ranges from scoffing at
a limited knowledge of Spanish and the informal segregation in churches
or cinemas to the exclusion from certain social circles of the elite and the
disapproval of mixed unions by the upper class.59 Light skin colour,
bright eyes and Caucasian features still enjoy higher prestige than an
Amerindian phenotype.60 Even many members of the Maya-speaking
lower classes prefer persons of lighter skin or with Spanish surnames as
spouses.61 Often they consider a Spanish surname as 'pretty' and as 'a
name of importance' and sometimes despise people with a Maya surname
as indios or masewales.62Spanish continues to be regarded as the prestige
language, symbolising progress and modernity, whereas Maya is
frequently considered to be the language of the poor. As several
informants have said: 'They think you are of a poor race if you speak
Maya.'63 'If you speak Maya you are an Indian [indio], you are not
civilised.'64 Whereas the booming tourist industry praises the extra-
ordinary achievements of the ancient Maya in astronomy, architecture,
etc., the Yucatec Maya language is still associated with misery,
backwardness and the poor life of the peasantry by the Spanish-speaking
public. To wear sandals (alpargatas)or the ipil is still a sign of low social
status.65
The association between the Maya language, the terms indioor indigena,
and low social status is strengthened by several of the government's
58 For a fuller discussion of this relationshipsee W. Gabbert, 'Etnicidad y desigualdad
social en la peninsulade Yucatan', in MemoriasdelIV Congreso Internacional
deMayistas,
Antigua, 2-8 August 1998, in press.
59 See interview with director of the INI,
Hopelch6n, 24 May 1994; FN-Xcupil,
24099403; FN-Xcupil, 07049501; interview with Alfredo Barcel6 Mendez, INI-
Campeche, 9 May 994; interview with Arturo Solis Lara, Hopelchen, 8 March 996;
B. Holmes, 'Women and Yucatec Kinship', unpubl. PhD diss., Tulane University,
1978, p. 44; Sanders, 'Education', p. 6; Thompson, Aires, pp. 35, 40, 83, 99, o12-10,
139, i66-7.
60 See FN-Hopelchen, 24039502; FN-Chultun, 19099402;Redfield, Folk Culture,p. 75;
R. Redfield, A Village that ChoseProgress. Chan Kom Revisited (Chicago, 1950), p. 133;
Thompson, Aires, p. 39.
61 See FN-Xcupil, 24099403; I. Press, TraditionandAdaptation.Life in a ModernYucatan
Maya Village (Westport, I975), pp. 73, 75-7; N. Trujillo, 'Los "mestizos" de
Yucatan', in Encyclopedia
Yucatense,vol. VI (M6rida, 1946), p. 331.
62 See FN-Xcupil, 24099403; FN-Hopelch6n, IO119503; interview with clerk, Juzgado
Familiar, Campeche, 3 April 1995. 63 FN-Xcupil, 02029501.
64
Interview with Jose Chan Chi, PresidenciaMunicipal,Hopelchen, I3 Dec. 1994.
65 See Redfield,'Race and Class', p. 513; Redfield,Folk Culture,p. 74; Hansen, 'Change',
pp. 123-4; Thompson, Aires de Progreso, pp. 27, 144; Press, Tradition, pp. 78-80;
Holmes, 'Women', p. 39; Bartolom6,Dindmicasocial,p. 3I 3; P. Hervik, 'The Position
of Language and Cultures in the Yucatecan Landscape', unpubl. Ph.D. diss.,
University of Copenhagen, Institute of Anthropology, 199I, p. 76.
476 WolfgangGabbert
policies. For example, the target group for the National Indigenist
Institute's (INI) department of Indian education is defined as the
population of the isolated and marginal villages, where roads, electricity
and a modern water supply system are lacking. Bilingual schools of the
Indian education system thus tend not to be approved in cabeceras(district
towns) in the state of Campeche, and such policies are justified on the basis
that these cabeceras are 'not marginal'.66
Secondly, the development of the educational system seemed to foster
acculturation and assimilation in the short run, but also induced changes
in the social structure that exacerbated the politicisation and accentuation
of cultural differences (at least at the symbolic level). It made social
mobility possible for a considerable number of children of Maya-speaking
peasants and labourers. These people now form an educated middle-class.
The results of these structural changes have tended to be contradictory.
Many of the social climbers have tried to deny their origins by
hispanicising their Maya surnames and denying any knowledge of
Yucatec Maya.67Another segment, growing in recent years, has developed
an affirmative, and frequently idealised, view of Maya language and
culture. Many of them are working in governmental institutions which
are directly or indirectly related to cultural questions. They are rural
teachers, development workers, employees of the INI, etc. It is among
these individuals that the term Maya is most frequently accepted as a self-
identification, whereas people belonging to the lower class prefer mestizo,
mayero,campesino,gente delpueblo or otsilmak (see below). Within this part
of the middle class the notion of pan-Mayan ethnicity is most developed
and a number of people are working to revive Maya language and
culture.68 This current was strengthened by the expansion of bilingual
66 Interview with Secundino
L6pez Varguez, Jefe de la Zona Escolar Indigena de la
Secretariade Educaci6nPublica,Hopelchen, 25 May 1994; interview with Te6filo Chi
Ord6oiez, Secretariade Cultura y Deportes, Departamentode Educaci6n Indigena,
Campeche, 4 April I995.
67 See FN-Hopelchen, 20039402; FN-Bolonchen, 02049402; FN-Xcupil, 2908940I; FN-
Hopelch6n, 04099402; FN-Chultun, 19099402; interview with Victor Contreras,
Instituto Nacional de Educaci6nde Adultos, Hopelchen, 7 April 994; interview with
Secundino L6pez Varguez, Jefe de la Zona Escolar Indigena de la Secretariade
Educaci6n Publica, Hopelchen, 25 May 1994; interview with Victor Narva6z Ku,
director of the primaryschool 'Josefa Hurtado Trujeque', Hopelchen, 12 May I994;
Thompson, Aires, p. Ioo; Holmes, 'Women', pp. 41-2; an example from Guatemala
can be found in Warren,Indigenous
Movements,
p. 176.
68 See, for instance, the articles of 25 Feb. and 12 March I996 in the Campeche newspaper
Tribuna.In this respect the results of my own fieldwork in Hopelchen are similarto
those obtained by Hervik in Oxcutzcab, a town in the state of Yucatan. See Hervik,
'Position', pp. 82-3 ; P. Hervik, 'Learningto be "Indian": Aspects of new Ethnic and
Cultural Identity of the Yucatec Maya', Folk, vol. 34 (1992), pp. 66, 75-7. The pan-
Maya movement in Guatemala also comprises mostly students and intellectuals,
community-basedprofessionals (teachers,agronomists, health workers), members of
Socialcategories
education, initiated in the 1970S when the official doctrine of Mexican

Indian policy changed from 'planned acculturation and integration' to
'participative indigenism'.69 Thus, the jobs of a growing number of
people became directly linked to the preservation and reaffirmation of
cultural differences, especially the Maya language.70 For them, the
knowledge of Maya is not always a marker of low social status but in
certain contexts an essential requirement for obtaining jobs. But the
interest in cultural revival is not simply a reflection of socioeconomic
interests. Many of these individuals have found that assimilation is not
always possible, that there are still limits to upward mobility and social
acceptance, and that contempt and discrimination persist even against
people who have tried to separate themselves from their humble origins.71
Thirdly, a change in development policies is currently fostering the
acceptance (or at least the use) of the term Indian as a self-identification
by more people than previously. During recent years, international and
national development institutions have increasingly channelled financial
resources into rural areas, especially targeted at Indian populations.72 This
change in discourse has triggered a process which could be called
ethnification or indianisation: peasant organisation A changes its name
and becomes Indian organisation B. Many people apply the term for self-
identification in a strategic way. In order to go to INI to ask for credit,
one dons an Indian identity and wears sandals; women who normally do
nongovernmentalorganisationsand cooperatives. See C. Smith, 'Maya Nationalism',

NACLA, vol. 25, no. 3 (1991), p. 30; Watanabe, 'Unimagining the Maya', pp. 3 -2;
Warren, Indigenous Movements,pp. II, 22, 36-8, 46, 134, 20I-2; B. Metz, 'Without
Nation, Without Community:The Growth of Maya Nationalism among Ch'orti's of
Eastern Guatemala', Journalof Anthropological Research,vol. 54 (I998), pp. 337-8,
342-3. As in the YucatanPeninsula,many Indian activists in Guatemalaare employed
by the National Programmeof Bilingual Education PRONEBI (E. Fischer, 'Induced
Culture Change as a Strategy for Socioeconomic Development: The Pan-Maya
Movement in Guatemala',in Fischer and Brown, MayaResurgence, pp. 68, 70.
69 See M. Mejia Piieros and S. SarmientoSilva, La luchaindigena:un retoa la ortodoxia
(Mexico, 1987) for an overview of post-revolutionaryindigenist policies.
70 Currentlythere are alreadymore than 800 bilingual teachersin Campeche(Tribuna,25
Feb. 1996). In the whole peninsula there are about 2,500. See Alonso Caamal,'Los
mayas', p. 50.
71 For similar developments in Guatemala see Wilson, Maya Resurgence,pp. 280, 283;
Warren, IndigenousMovements,pp. 5 , 209.
72 See, for instance, F. Schryer, Ethnicityand Class Conflictin Rural Mexico(Princeton,
I990), pp. 25I-5 and J. Jackson, 'Culture, Genuine and Spurious: The Politics of
Indianness in the Vaup6s, Colombia', American Ethnologist, vol. 22, no. I (I995), pp.
3-27.
478 WolfgangGabbert
not do so put on an ipil, etc. As for bilingual teachers, being able to
communicate in Maya increasingly becomes 'cultural capital.73
The ongoing insurrection of the EZLN in Chiapas is furthering this
trend as the Mexican government attempts to prevent similar rebellions in
other parts of the country by distributing money in marginal regions
considered to be Indian. What is more, the government is prepared to
make certain concessions on the legal, cultural, and political level. Thus,
in Campeche a special congressional commission for 'Indian Affairs' has
presented a bill concerning the teaching of Maya in regular schools. In the
state of Yucatan some Spanish-speaking people have begun to learn Maya,
anticipating its becoming a second official language in the not too distant
future.74 Nevertheless, the term indigenais still mainly a technical one used
by government institutions, INI, intellectuals, etc., and is rarely used by
the village populations themselves in everyday speech.
Ironically, the affirmative views on Maya culture held by the ethnicised
middle class reproduce many of the general stereotypes of the national
public. For example, the importance of the Maya culture is accounted for
almost exclusively by referring to the great achievements in astronomy,
mathematics and architecture of the ancient Maya civilisation. The
following quotation will illustrate this type of discourse:
We should be proud that not long ago it was proven scientificallyby discoveries
in Belize and Guatemala that the Maya race is the most ancientof the world and not
the Egyptian, as was assumed before. It is well established that all Maya
constructions were made based on mathematicaland astronomicalcalculations....
They used the most precise astronomicaland solar calendar... For all this knowledge
which shows the superior scientificand astronomicculture of ourMayaancestors
we have the historical obligation, scientificallyand culturally, to preserve and
keep alive our valuableMayalanguage,its culture,customs, archaeologicalruins,
the paintings, sculptures,music, dances, rites, traditionalmedicine and all other
activities which especially distinguish the Maya race.75
This is to some extent an elitist discourse, since only traits restricted to

the upper class of the ancient indigenous society are mentioned as valuable
73 Cf. P. Bourdieu,'The Forms of Capital',in John Richardson(ed.), Handbook of Theory

andResearchfor theSociology
of Education(New York, 983), pp. 241-5 8. Other examples
are the INI-programme for legal aid for Indian prisoners and the scholarship
programmefor Indian youths.
74 See Diario de Yucatan, Merida, 22 March
1996; Tribuna, 12 March I996.
75 F. Zavala Ramos, el desarrollode la modernizaci6nde la educaci6n
'Estrategia para
indigena, 199I-I994', unpubl. manuscript, SEP, Direcci6n de Educaci6n Elemental,
Departamentode Educaci6n Indigena, Campeche,I991, pp. 5-6, 6o, emphasisin the
original, translationmine. For examplesof this discoursefrom Guatemalasee Wilson,
Maya Resurgence, pp. 269-70; Raxche' (Demetrio Rodriguez Guajan), 'Maya Culture
and the Politics of Development', in Fischer and Brown, MayaResurgence, pp. 74-6;
Warren,Indigenous Movements,p. 39.
Socialcategories
achievements of Maya civilisation. What is more, it is backward-looking,
with little relationship to the present-day culture of Yucatan's Maya-
speaking peasants and workers. Instead such views favour the pres-
ervation of what are supposed to be 'the traditions'. In so doing, they
strengthen the established association between Indianness and 'back-
wardness' and the reduction of the indigenous population's culture to
folklore and allegedly timeless and static traditions. Still today, in Yucatan
as in other parts of Mexico, to be modern means to share in the
Westernised middle-class culture of the country. The activities of INI are
working in the same direction. INI's cultural projects are restricted to the
preservation of'holy sites', 'traditional' medicine, dances, rites and other
practices, the dissemination of myths and legends, etc. Sometimes peasant
communities are given money so that they can carry out certain
'traditional' ceremonies.76
The backward orientation of many of Yucatan's Indianists is also
shown in relation to language policy. They propagate an idea of Yucatec
Maya as a language purified from Spanish influences. The ordinary speech
of lower-class Maya-speakers, which contains numerous elements in
lexicon and grammar derived from Spanish, is denigrated as polluted,
degenerate and of inferior value. Thus, Indianists are themselves
contributing to the preservation of the low status of Maya in everyday
interaction. Lower-class Maya speakers would be required to laboriously
learn the 'real', 'true' Maya created by intellectuals (bach maya).
Confronted with the few opportunities the knowledge of Maya still offers
for social advancement in the peninsula, it is no wonder that most people
prefer to acquire language skills in Spanish.
Conclusion
The Yucatan material hints at several important methodological issues in
relation to the study of ethnicity. Firstly, ethnicity is, pace Jenkins and
many others, not a ubiquitous form of social organisation.77 It has to be
understood as a historical process related to specifictechniques of social
distinction. Ethnicity is strongly related to processes of social classification
or categorisation. It is of the utmost importance to keep analytically
separate socialcategoriespresent in a specific society, groupsor organisations
based on such categories, and the individualsusing categories in daily
76
See, for instance, Instituto Nacional Indigenista, 'Informe', pp. 170-80.
77 This point is arguedfor convincinglyand at length by Fardon,'African Ethnogenesis';
see also R. Astuti, 'The Vezo are not a Kind of People: Identity, Difference, and
"Ethnicity" among a Fishing People of Western Madagaskar',AmericanEthnologist,
vol. 22, no. 3 (1995), pp. 464-82.
480 Wolfgang Gabbert
interaction.78 It would be erroneous to conclude from the existence of a

category denoting a certain aggregate of individuals that this necessarily
implies social cohesion, solidarity, and group consciousness within that
population. There are neither important ethnic organisations within the
Maya-speaking population of the Yucatan peninsula, nor is the idea of
belonging to a Yucatec Maya people rooted in this group.79 Therefore,
the speakers of Yucatec Maya and their descendants should be seen as a
cultural category not as an ethnic community. What there is of pan-
Yucatec Mayan ethnicity today is still ethnic consciousness in the making.
It is a project advanced mainly by members of the ethnicised middle class,
institutions such as INI and, last but not least, Mexican and foreign
intellectuals.80
Secondly, several categories denoting overlapping aggregates of people
may exist, meaning that no such thing as a bounded, separate ethnic
community results. No clear-cut term exists to denote Maya-speakers and
their descendants. The term mestizo is used for persons who are dressed
in folk costume.81 But men wearing this type of attire are rarely seen in
78
This differs from the distinction between 'group identification' and 'social
categorisation' recently proposed by Jenkins. For him the initial process occurs inside
the ethnic boundary, while the second takes place outside. See Jenkins, Rethinking
Ethnicity, pp. 23, 54-5, 8i. However, this proposition, seems unfortunate since it
obscures an important epistemological difference between the term category, which
refers only to classes of objects or persons having one or more features in common, and
the term group which denotes an aggregate of people with developed social
interrelations between its members. Evidently one can identify oneself with either of
these types of collective and can be classed by others as belonging to either one or the
other.
79 Up to the present the descendants of the rebels of the Caste War in Quintana Roo
dissociate themselves from the Spanish-speakers as well as, although less rigidly, from
the Maya-speaking population of the states of Yucatin and Campeche. The foundation
for this is the historical experience of fighting against the government's troops, in
which both Spanish and Maya-speakers took part. See, for instance, Villa Rojas, The
Maya, p. 95; Bartolome and Barabas, La resistencia maya, pp. I 7-S8; Sullivan,
'Contemporary Yucatec Maya Apocalyptic Prophecy', pp. 90-2.
80 In other regions of Mexico and Guatemala ethnic mobilisation is more developed and
ethnic consciousness at the level of the language category is more rooted even among
Indian peasants and workers (see e.g. for Michoacan J. Zirate Hernandez, 'Notas para
la interpretaci6n del movimiento 6tnico en Michoacan', in Victor Gabriel Muro and
Manuel Canto Chac (eds.), El estudiode los movimientossociales: teoriay metodo(Zamora,
1991), pp. I I-29; for Oaxaca H. Campbell, 'La COCEI: cultura y etnicidad
politizadas en el Istmo de Tehuantepec', Revista Mexicana de Sociologia,vol. 5I, no. 2
(I989), pp. 247-63; for Guatemala Wilson, Maya Resurgence;Metz, 'Without Nation';
Warren, IndigenousMovements.In the case of Guatemala, these differences seem to be
related to the experience of civil war, the intensity of the struggle for resources,
especially land, the possibilities of social mobility, the extent and structure of migration
and other factors. A comparative discussion of these cases is, however, beyond the
scope of this paper.
81 It is not a self-identification of an ethnic group (the Maya) as has been suggested by
some authors. See, for instance, Hervik, 'Position', pp. 4I, 6o, 65-6, 75.
Socialcategories
Yucatan today. People who speak Yucatec Maya are referred to as mayero.
But mayeromay be used for any person independent of descent and social
status. Maya-speaking peasants in the countryside and inhabitants of
smaller towns who do not belong to the local elite refer to themselves as
otsilmako'b (poor people) and in Spanish as nosotroslos pobres (we, the
poor) or gente del pueblo (common people). They are called gente humilde
(ordinary people) by members of the elite, implying the expectation of
certain humility and obedience. To refer to the upper class or local elite,
people of the lower classes use the terms ts'ulo'b (originally the
'foreigners'), los ricos(the rich) or gentede categoria(people of rank). Social
status remains related to geographical space, for in the larger settlements
the elite are referred to as los del centroor centrolo'b,that is 'people of the
centre' [of the village]. All these terms refer essentially to the social
distance between the speaker and the person of whom he is speaking. In
contrast, the local elite and upper class see themselves as clase media
(middle class).82
Third, the meaning of social categories can only be elucidated by
renouncing analogies to organisms and taking as a starting point the use
individuals make of certain terms in everyday interaction. In adopting
such an approach, it should be remembered that the use and meaning of
categories may change in accordance with who is using them and to
whom they refer. As Bourdieu has noted, the everyday usage of social
categories does not aim at logical coherence, the development of a system
of classifications that is free from contradictions but obeys the "'logic"
of partisanship'.83 It is itself part of social conflicts. Thus, self-
identification and ascription by others are not indissolubly linked to a
person, as the organism analogy and the notion of ethnic identity suggest.
Frequently, they do not coincide. Thus, whereas the Spanish-speaking
public generally considers Maya-speaking peasants to be Indians and
Maya, these labels are frequently rejected by them.84 Even today, for many
Maya-speaking peasants in the northern and western parts of Yucatan the
Indians (indios, or indioso'bin Maya) are 'those who burned down the
82 This paragraphis based on the analysisof relevantwritten materialson Yucatanand,

especially,on the resultsof my fieldworkin the municipalityof Hopelchen, Campeche.
In additionto some formalinterviewing on the use of social categories,the analysisof
speech acts in everyday life was of special importance. Although there may be
differencesin some of the details, the results by and large seem to be valid for other
parts of the states of Campecheand Yucatanas well. But compareRedfield, 'Race and
Class'; Thompson, Aires; Holmes, 'Women'; Barabas, 'Colonialismo y racismo';
Hansen, 'Change' and Hervik, 'Position' for earliertreatmentsof social categoriesin
Yucatan. 83 Bourdieu, Distinction.
84 One should not forget that many Maya-speakers are indeed mestizos, that is, of mixed
descent (as can be deduced from the Spanish surnames) and never identified themselves
as Indian.
482 WolfgangGabbert
villages, those who had no compassion'.85 The terms masewaland indioare

associated with ignorance, rudeness, bad manners, etc. and used - behind
their back - to belittle someone.86 If somebody is poor and ignorant it is
said that 'he is very Indian' (es muy masewal or es hach indio). To talk
vulgarly is called 'to talk very Indian' (hablarmuymasewal,hachmasewalku
t'an).87 Because of the semantic link it has with the term indio, people
generally do not refer to themselves as Maya. Maya is used instead for the
indigenous language of Yucatan or for the Indians of the past, the builders
of the ruins and those who fought in the Caste War.88 Indio, indigenaand
Maya do not stand for a more or less precisely defined group, rather their
meaning is highly dependent on the changing contexts of their usage
(when, where and by whom they are used). The term indiohas come to be
what Edwin Ardener called a 'hollow category': Everybody can point
out an indio but up to the present (almost) nobody calls himself indio,
notwithstanding the current trend towards 'indianisation' mentioned
earlier.89
Fourth, the meaning and content of social categories is by no means
static but changes over time.90 The relationship between these categories
and people of flesh and blood is very often a highly complex one or, as
Edwin Ardener correctly puts it:
A biological population... may not coincide in its history with the affiliationsof
its language or of its culture... We are concerned with continuities whose
processes are only in part biological. Fulbe, Jews, and... Britons are createdby
definition as much as by procreation.9l
One therefore has to be explicit as to which kind of continuities between
people of different historical periods are suggested. It may be possible to
show a biological relation between Yucatec Maya speakers of today and
the Maya of ancient times but in Yucatan still many (especially older)
85 Interview with author, Xcupil, 7 May 1995; see also interview with author, Campeche,
29 Aug. 1998.
86 See, for instance, Redfield, 'Race and Class', pp. 5 5-I6; Trujillo, 'Los "mestizos"',
p. 336; Thompson, Aires, p. 26; Barabas, 'Colonialismo y racismo', p. 31; Sullivan,
'Contemporary Yucatec Maya Apocalyptic Prophecy', p. 90.
87 FN-Xcupil, 07049501;
FN-Xcupil, 07059503.
88 See FN-Ich Ek,
o6049402; FN-Hopelchen, I4099403; FN-Bolonchen, I709940I; FN-
Xcupil, 24099403; FN-Xcupil, 07059503; Interview with Jose Chan Chi, Presidencia
Municipal, Hopelchen, 13 Dec. I994; Press, Tradition,p. 72; Hervik, 'Position', pp. 58,
75-6; but cf. A. Re Cruz, The Two Milpas of Chan Kom. Scenariosof a Maya Village Life
(Albany, I996), p. 79 note o0.
89 See, for
instance, Redfield, 'Race and Class', p. 520; Holmes,' Women', p. 24. It is only
lately that some Maya speakers, generally intellectuals with an indianist orientation,
have begun to use the term indio to refer to themselves.
90 See, for instance, Fardon, 'African Ethnogenesis', p. 170.
91 '
Ardener, 'Language', p. 35 ; see also M. Mc Donald, We are not French!' Language,
Culture, and Identity in Brittany (London and New York, I989), p. o08.
Maya-speaking peasants do not consider themselves the direct descendants

of the builders of the ruins. They do not read the past as history the way
Indianists (like all nationalists) do and the way schools teach it.92 For them
the ruins were built by the aluxo'b, a mythical people of dwarfs wiped out
by a huge flood. The following quotation from an old speaker of Yucatec
Maya illustrates this view of the past as well as the negative connotations
of the term indio:
Then there emerged another race, the race of the Indians [indios].They did not
deserve any respectand ranaroundnaked. They did not treatthe Christianswell.
They were a bad race. They lived in the woods all the time, with a contemptible
appearance,their whole life in the woods. Then the Spaniardsarrived and the
Indians were exterminated.... Now, the race of today is a civilised and obedient
people, educatedpeople full of understanding,good looking, adequatelydressed
and adequatelynourished.93
Fifth, the post-revolutionary state, as elsewhere, has played an important

role in the development of ethnicity in Mexico. On the one hand, certain
governmental policies encouraged tendencies of acculturation and
assimilation by strengthening the association between everything identi-
fied as Indian and low social status. On the other hand, by directing
resources especially to Indian communities, they have fostered the
92
Particularlyin the case of older people with little education,history only extends back
to the time of the fathersof the older men still alive. Before that time 'there are only
myths, the stories, moralor merelyfantastic,of the acts and happeningsof supernatural
races,unconnectedwith the Mayaof today'. R. Redfieldand A. Villa Rojas, ChanKom.
A Maya Village(Washington, 1934), p. I2. A survey on social categories carriedout
in 1994 with sixteen Maya speakersin two villages of the municipalityof Hopelchen
showed that for most of the respondentsthe term Maya referredto a people in the
distant past with whom they had no connection. See also FN-Xcupil, 24099403;FN-
Xkanha, 26039501; M. Gutierrez Estevez, 'Mayas y "mayeros": Los antepasados
como otros', in Miguel Le6n-Portilla,Manuel Gutierrez Estevez, and Gary Gossen
(eds.), De palabray obraen el NuevoMundo,vol. I (Madrid, 1992), pp. 424-5. For a
differentinterpretationconcerningthe descendantsof the CasteWarrebelsin Quintana
Roo see Bartolome and Barabas,La resistencia maya,pp. 60-4; P. Sullivan, Unfinished
Conversations.MayasandForeigners BetweenTwo Wars(Berkeley, 1989), pp. 84-7.
93 Recorded in Pustunich in 1984, quoted in F. Asis Ligorred Perram6n,Consideraciones
sobrela literaturaoralde los mayasmodernos(Mexico, 1990), pp. 96-7, I26-7, translation
mine; see also A. Tozzer, Mayasy lacandones. Un estudiocomparativo (Mexico, I982, ist
English ed. 1907), pp. 179-80; Redfield and Villa Rojas, Chan Kom, pp. 330-I; A.
Burns, Unaepocade milagros.Literaturaoraldelmayayucateco (Merida, I995), pp. 60-71.
Q'eqchi'-speakersin Guatemala, in contrast, seem to refer to 'ancient Maya' as
mythical ancestors. However, this is only one of a multiplicityof interwoven dualist
identities ascribed to the mountain spirits (tguultaq'a).These are, for example, also
associatedwith beardedEuropeans.In the past, most Q'eqchi' held a low opinion of
'the Maya' and sought to distancethemselvesfrom them. Usually Q'eqchi' referredto
them as 'savages'. Recently indianist Catholic catechists have begun to selectively
stress the good aspectsof the tguultaq'asand to reducetheir multipleand contradictory
identities to an unequivocal identificationwith the, now idealised, ancient Maya. See
Wilson, Maya Resurgence,pp. 53, 57, 6i, 74, 8i, 269-71, 324.
484 WolfgangGabbert
strategic use of this label by the country's rural dwellers. By treating

Indian language categories as ethnic groupings and promoting the
establishment of 'supreme councils' of these 'peoples' the state has
created the beginnings of forms of organisation which owe more to the
romantic nationalism (one language, one nation) of the nineteenth century
than to the reality of the indigenous populations, whose social
consciousness and feeling of community have generally been much more
localised. By propagating these views in public schools and other
institutions the state participates in the generalisation of ethnicity. Thus,
more and more children of parents who speak an indigenous language are
learning to read the past as history,94 to attribute to it the force of an
argument with respect to the evaluation of present conditions and to see
social organisms (peoples), not individuals, as actors on the historical
stage - a further step in the career of the nation-state concept.
94 See Fardon, 'African Ethnogenesis', p. 178.

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Social Categories, Ethnicity and the State in Yucatan, Mexico

Author(s): Wolfgang Gabbert

Social Categories, Ethnicity and the

Abstract. This article discusses the development of social categories and

unspecified quality of 'being Maya'. Moreover, it is generally assumed

relationship between ethnic categories and groupings of human

dealing with already existing social or ethnic categories but, frequently,

Yucatdn in Colonial Times

Caste defined the Indians' place in colonial society but it provided no

The language generallyspoken in this province by Indians,mestizos and pardos

And Nancy Farriss notes:

31 See R. Chamberlain, The Conquestand Colonigationof Yucatan, if/7-izfo (Washington,

Independenceand the Caste War

by others and used as synonyms in official documents, newspapers,

Today, the Caste War is looked upon as a symbol of Indian resistance

salvajes, indios bdrbaros).Sometimes they were referred to as 'cannibals'

During the Caste War the development of a socially and culturally

The Mexican Revolutionin Yucatdnand the 'IndianQuestion'

education, initiated in the 1970S when the official doctrine of Mexican

nongovernmentalorganisationsand cooperatives. See C. Smith, 'Maya Nationalism',

This is to some extent an elitist discourse, since only traits restricted to

73 Cf. P. Bourdieu,'The Forms of Capital',in John Richardson(ed.), Handbook of Theory

interaction.78 It would be erroneous to conclude from the existence of a

82 This paragraphis based on the analysisof relevantwritten materialson Yucatanand,

villages, those who had no compassion'.85 The terms masewaland indioare

Maya-speaking peasants do not consider themselves the direct descendants

Fifth, the post-revolutionary state, as elsewhere, has played an important

strategic use of this label by the country's rural dwellers. By treating

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