archives@tulane.edu / This dissertation investigates the site of El Tesoro, Hidalgo, Mexico during the Early Classic period Chingú phase (A.D. 200-500). Archaeological evidence, including material culture and burials, has previously indicated that this site was settled by a group of people with affiliations both to Teotihuacan, in the Basin of Mexico, and the Valley of Oaxaca, the Zapotec homeland in southern Mexico. I argue that the Chingú-phase occupation of El Tesoro is best understood as a creolized community of Zapo-Teotihuacanos that were likely related to members of the Oaxaca Barrio of Teotihuacan who migrated into southern Hidalgo during Teotihuacan’s expansion into that region. Evidence to support this argument comes from a variety of datasets presented herein, including: qualitative and quantitative analysis of ceramic attributes, artifact distribution and spatial patterning, ceramic compositional and provenance studies, and inter-site burial comparative analysis. Ceramic attribute analysis showed that El Tesoro’s potters recreated vessels from the Valley of Oaxaca, although with some divergence in style, and from Teotihuacan, but that they also created new, hybridized vessels that combined elements from both traditions. Artifact distribution maps indicated that Zapotec-style and Teotihuacan-style pottery overlapped throughout the site, suggesting that these vessels were used by the same people and in the same contexts, possibly side-by-side and interchangeably. X-ray diffraction and neutron activation analysis conducted on a sample of sherds recovered from surface collection at El Tesoro indicate that Zapotec-style and Teotihuacan-style pottery vessels were constructed on local clays, using similar past recipes. Finally, comparison between mortuary practices at El Tesoro and two locations in Teotihuacan, the Oaxaca Barrio and La Ventilla B, supported the results of the ceramic analysis, showing a hybridization of burial traditions at El Tesoro that replicated aspects of typical Teotihuacan and Zapotec burials, but in a novel way. Based on these datasets and analyses, I argue that the Chingú-phase population at El Tesoro should be considered a creolized group with affiliations both to Teotihuacan and the Valley of Oaxaca, and that they likely settled in southern Hidalgo during Teotihuacan’s expansion into that region and are an offshoot population of the Oaxaca Barrio of Teotihuacan. / 1 / Haley Holt Mehta

This study examines the reactions of the Serrano from Capulalpam in the Northern Sierra of Oaxaca, Mexico to the pressures of global capitalism. This is examined through the community responses to mining exploitation, which began in mid 19th century and which during the early years of the 21st century became linked to a concept of global business.Historical memory of indigenismo and mestizaje of the 20th century plays a major role in the configuration of collective identities in Capulalpam, which the community has used to claim full ownership of gold and silver. This mobilization of lived experiences of the past is examined through the role of the elders, former indigenous miners, and indigenous authorities who are the intermediaries between the community and the state. They have mobilized major local spaces of collective representation such as the agrarian and municipal jurisdictions, as well as the communal assembly, to challenge the federal government's granting of mining concessions to multinational corporations. Members of the community adjust discourses about community to novel circumstances.Consequences of mining on Capulalpam's key resources for survival such as depletion of aquifers, pollution of water and communal lands, as well as the extraction of gold and silver, are assessed through the language of collective possession of resources. Former indigenous miners have used the landscape to attach memories to reconstruct and assess changes in the environment occurred over time due to mining. Documentation of communal land possession forged through time, memories of elders about mining and experiences of community cargo carried out across generations are connected to international and national law for Capulalpam to claim its indigenous rights and its inclusion into the politics of allocation of subsoil resources.In claiming a historical possession of gold and silver, Capulalpam has undermined major ideologies shaped by cultural anthropology depicting indigenous culture as part of indigenous traditions untouched by time and history. Thus, this study contributes to the discussion of the politics of culture and power in which ethnicity, gender, nationalism and law are interlocked and formed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Resource Development, 2005. / Page 1 missing. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Dec. 1, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-197). Also issued in print.

This report analyzes the phonology of Betaza Zapotec, a language within the linguistic family of the Otomanguean languages of Mesoamerica that is spoken in northern Oaxaca, Mexico. The first part of this report describes the consonants of the language; the second part focuses on the vowel system; and the third section describes the suprasegmentals; tone and stress. I support my claims about the phonological system in Betaza Zapotec using data collected during the Summer of 2008 in San Melchor, Betaza Villa Alta, Oaxaca. I analyze the phonetic properties of the consonants, vowels and tones using spectrograms obtained through Praat, software for phonetic analysis. I consider the fortis/lenis opposition inherent in the consonants rather than using the traditional classification of voiced/voiceless consonants. The tone system in Betaza Zapotec involves four contrastive tones: high, low, falling, and rising. In addition there is a phonetic mid-tone which is a toneme of the high tone. / text

This thesis will discuss the factors that lead to language shift from Zapotec to Spanish in San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya (SJT), and the challenges faced by language revitalization efforts that have emerged in the home and migrant communities. Today hundreds of Indigenous languages are widely spoken across the Americas; however, in the last century an increasing amount of language shift to the nation-state language has taken place in many Indigenous communities. In the Zapotec community of San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya (SJT), located in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, about 40% of the town’s population currently speaks Zapotec. However, the majority of speakers within this percentage are elders and adults. This means that the transmission of the Zapotec language to children has declined while Spanish language socialization has increased and is now the norm. Due to socioeconomic factors and neoliberal reforms in Mexico, many community members have migrated to other Mexican states and the United States which has furthered removed Zapotec speakers from the home community. The data for this research is based on 28 open-ended interviews with elders, adults, youth, children, and language activists and participant observation in SJT during the summer of 2013. I argue that the public education implemented by the Post-Revolutionary Mexican state in Tlacochahuaya during the 1930s influenced a language shift to Spanish. Many of those who had a negative schooling experience during this era, which prohibited and punished the use of the Zapotec language in the classroom, choose to raise their children with Spanish. In SJT from 2009-2011 Zapotec tutoring lessons for children were offered by a retired teacher, and since March 2013 migrants residing in Los Angeles, CA have been uploading Zapotec language tutorials on YouTube. Although there is awareness of language loss, I argue that these efforts have been hindered by the absence of a healing process regarding negative schooling experiences and dismantling the language ideologies that continue to devalue the Zapotec language. This case study contributes to the literature of languages shift and revitalization by suggesting that both home and migrant communities have crucial roles in Indigenous language maintenance. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2627. Author's first name misspelled on cover as "Jaquline." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-251).

Who uses the forage resources under a communal land tenure system? Using data from a Mexican Indian community with a history of communal land tenure extending prior to the Conquest, the research explores and attempts to answer this question. The analysis is based on 1970 socio-economic data for 533 households, secondary sources, and 1987 field observations in a community of Zapotec farmers in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. The factors influencing who uses the communal resources include livestock ownership, wealth ranking, migration history, and participation in the local labor market. Although all members of the community have the right to graze animals on the commons, only a fraction of the wealthier households exercise this right. Consequently grazing pressure is minimized (reduced) compared to the potential grazing pressure that otherwise would be exerted if all the members of the community were to exercise their rights to use the forage resources at the same time.

The Adlerian psychological model has long been used in Western Europe and in the United States and Canada as a framework for understanding individual behavior and for conducting family counseling. The model is based on values of equality, mutual respect and cooperation. Parents are taught techniques and attitudes which will facilitate responsible and cooperative behavior in their children and induce more positive relationships among family members. The field of Anthropology has provided a multitude of studies examining family life in less-technologically complex societies. However, the Adlerian model, which provides a paradigm for interpreting interpersonal relationships, has never been used by researchers. This study utilized Adlerian theory in examining child-behavior, parent-child relationships and parenting attitudes among Zapotec Indians in a remote mountainous area of Oaxaca, Mexico. The people of the village in this study numbered 350 and were engaged in subsistence-agriculture. Open-ended interviews were conducted with adults concerning cooperation at the village and family levels and the cooperative and non-cooperative behavior of their children. Intensive observations were conducted in six families, during which all behaviors of children in each family along with consequent reactions of adults, were logged. Behaviors were then categorized as cooperative or non-cooperative according to certain criteria and tallied for each child. The sample contained 19 children who demonstrated cooperative behaviors, 83% of the time. Nine of the children fell into the 90-100% cooperative behavior range. Children carried out, to a lesser degree, most of the adult work tasks. In addition, they regularly served as caretakers for younger siblings. Parental attitudes elicited through the interviews reflected a preference for giving counsel or advice over physical punishment, a toleration of differences in children, a willingness to allow children to work at their own pace and an understanding of the adult "role" in child misbehavior. Adler's basic premise was that when children are allowed to belong to the family group in a constructive meaningful way, they do not need to find a place of significance through destructive means. This premise was confirmed by this study. Zapotec children begin around the age of three to participate in the family's daily work tasks. They seem to cooperate out of a recognition of the necessity of their contribution rather than as a result of any autocratic parenting behaviors on the part of adults. Since all work is valued, children grow-up in an atmosphere which allows and needs their constructive input.

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