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The Mixtec Noble House in Colonial Mexico

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Theme: 
Culture, Heritage and Identity

documentThis project employs Lévi-Strauss's model of the "house society" to study the colonial indigenous nobility of the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, Mexico. The focus is on noble status and noble estates, and the associated practices of inheritance, succession, and marriage alliance. Data come from various archives in the cities of Oaxaca, Puebla, Mexico City, and Seville, Spain.

For example, in the document pictured here, dated 1581 from the Mexican National Archive, a Mixtec ruler of the communities of Chachoapan and Tamazola presents testimony in a district court to support his claim to noble descent.

 

 

Publications: 

John K. Chance (2004)

"La casa noble mixteca: Una hipótesis sobre el cacicazgo prehispánico y colonial," in Estructuras políticas en el Oaxaca antiguo.
Memoria de la Tercera Mesa Redonda de Monte Albán. Nelly M. Robles
García, ed. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.
Pp. 1-26.

Team Members: 

John K. Chance, Principal Investigator

Funding Sources: 

Fulbright-Hays ($41,000)