This dissertation analyzes the intersections of different forms of migrations, and how such intersections shape and are shaped by gendered kinship and care relationships. In other words, I analyze how the ways in which people relate, and how they define and redefine their gender identities as they become mobile in diverse ways. This dissertation is based on ethnographic research conducted with the Zapotec community of Zegache, Oaxaca. Research took place in Oaxaca (Mexico), Mexico City, and Oregon. I approach the study of different migrations from a transborder perspective that is able to better capture how the crossing of different borders (national, regional, ethnic, rural and urban) has different meanings and consequences for migrant men and women from Zegache. I analyze how different forms of mobility and migration are constructed and discussed in scholarly works and “in the field.” The definition of who is a migrant is even more complicated as we consider that men and women from Zegache often engage in more than one form of migration. Thus, women who migrate to Mexico City sometimes will also migrate to the U.S. Even if women don’t migrate, they are increasingly becoming mobile and commuting to Oaxaca City, and are often in families with transnational migrants. In the same manner, men who join the military (which, I argue, is a form of migration) often become transnational migrants themselves. This dissertation looks at the articulations of intersecting migrations shows how relatedness and gender identities become constructed and re-constructed when people become mobile.

No description available.

The transnational network La Vía Campesina (LVC) coined the term ‘food sovereignty’, which has been appropriated by many actors seeking alternatives to the neoliberal food regime. Traspatio Oaxaqueño (TO) is a small initiative seeking to revitalize backyard agriculture and the role of women in local food systems. While TO leaders do not explicitly claim to be pursuing food sovereignty, the initiative promotes some of its key principles: (1) the empowerment of women from economically vulnerable families, by increasing their access to productive resources; (2) the preservation of the right to healthy and culturally appropriate food; and (3) the use of ecologically, socially and economically sustainable methods. Despite the fact that the initiative does not deeply challenge the neoliberal food regime, it contributes to the collective organizing and politicization of marginalized actors, allowing them to gain greater autonomy and to eventually reclaim control over food systems.

Numerous historical reports written by Spaniards in the Americas during the Early Colonial Period describe public life. However, less is known about quotidian lives during this period. In the Mexican state of Oaxaca, a region encompassing dozens of cultural groups, little is known about the everyday life of Mixtecs and how they reacted towards the newly established Spanish authority in their households. When they arrived at Achiutla, one of the biggest religious centres of ancient Oaxaca (Byland 2008), the Spaniards imposed their power on the public sphere, using religion and economy amongst others (Terraciano 2001:294, 340). My objective is to study the Mixtecs’ reaction to the arrival of Spaniards in the region by using paleoethnobotany to study foodways and how Achiutla’s inhabitants negotiated the arrival of new food items and to what level they accepted, incorporated, and resisted them. This study presents the traditional Mixtec and Spanish foodways and the important role they played in their beliefs, traditions, and identities. I present elements supporting the claim that certain Spaniards might have tried to modify Indigenous foodways in the Americas, while others believed it was preferable for Spaniards and Indigenous people to eat different foods. This study also presents other results obtained in Colonial foodways studies made in the Americas and in the Mixteca Alta region. This study includes the analysis of 27 paleoethnobotanical samples, 22 of them being macrobotanical remains obtained from light fractions and 5 of them coming from microbotanical residues extracted from artifacts. All these samples were collected by Jamie Forde in 2013 at San Miguel Achiutla in the course of the PASMA archaeological project and come mainly from two terraces (10 and 13) likely occupied by Mixtec nobility. By combining samples coming from the Postclassic and the Early Colonial Periods, this study establishes the Mixtec diet prior to the arrival of Europeans in the region, enabling a better comparison between the two. This study supports the idea that the Mixtec diet likely remained the same at Terraces 10 and 13 during the Postclassic and the Early Colonial Periods. Two genera dominate the paleoethnobotanical assemblage: Chenopodium sp. (pazote, apazote) and Amaranthus sp. (huisquelite or quelite), the presence of which demonstrates continuity through times. I assess different scenarios that might explain the absence of European introduced plant species at Achiutla, cautiously presenting a hypothesis linked to Mixtec colonial resistance. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This study is a systematic and ethnobotanical treatment of the genus Ipomoea in Oaxaca, Mexico. This taxon merits deeper investigations because of present disorganization and disaccord in its classification on generic, subgeneric, and species levels. A second facet of the investigation involves an ethnobotanical survey on past and present nutritional, medicinal, and shamanic uses of these plants. The taxonomic study involved acquisition of herbarium materials from various sources with review of past descriptions and sectional organizations of the genus. Morphological.relationships were correlated with phytochemical data from collected plant materials from Oaxaca. A key to species, species descriptions, and sectional organization of the genus were constructed by these studies. A survey of plant uses was also compiled with reference to the relationships of these plants and their utilizations. / Master of Science

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

O presente trabalho visa analisar o impacto que a condição de migração dos pais exerce sobre a alocação do tempo dos filhos entre 10 e 14 anos no Estado de São Paulo. A atenção volta-se especialmente para a verificação empírica da probabilidade de a criança estudar/trabalhar, separando a amostra do estudo de acordo com as diferentes possibilidades de combinação das condições de migração dos pais da criança. No primeiro capítulo é apresentada uma revisão da literatura econômica referente ao trabalho infantil, com ênfase nos resultados obtidos no caso brasileiro. A seguir é mostrado como os fatores de curto e longo prazos da migração familiar podem interferir na alocação do tempo das crianças entre escola e trabalho. Para distinguir os impactos de curto e longo prazos da migração dos pais sobre a probabilidade de a criança estudar/trabalhar, os pais migrantes foram separados de acordo com o tempo de residência no Estado de São Paulo em: migrantes há menos de dez anos, que podem ter origem em outra Unidade da Federação, ou serem paulistas retornados e, ainda, migrantes de outros Estados que residem há pelo menos dez anos no local de destino. Essa distinção foi utilizada para analisar o diferencial de rendimentos de pais e mães migrantes em relação aos não migrantes através da aplicação da decomposição de Oaxaca, apresentada no capítulo 2. A constatação da seletividade positiva ou negativa de cada um dos três grupos de pais/mães migrantes em relação a pais/mães paulistas não migrantes auxiliou a análise de como a diferença de rendimentos colabora para a explicação das discrepâncias das probabilidades de estudar/trabalhar de seus respectivos filhos. No capítulo 3, antes do cálculo do probit bivariado para obter as probabilidades previstas de a criança estudar/trabalhar, a amostra dos filhos de 10 a 14 anos é separada de acordo com as possíveis combinações de pais e mães, segundo o tempo de residência no Estado de São Paulo. O probit bivariado para meninos e meninas é calculado para cada tipo de família e, com base nas probabilidades previstas obtidas, aplica-se a decomposição entre características observáveis e não observáveis da diferença das probabilidades de estudar/trabalhar entre os filhos de migrantes e não migrantes. De maneira genérica, os resultados encontrados mostram que a migração dos pais amplia as chances de seus filhos ofertarem trabalho no curto prazo, enquanto no longo prazo, dada a seletividade positiva dos adultos, os filhos de migrantes têm menor probabilidade de trabalhar. Este resultado aponta que durante o período de adaptação dos pais ao mercado de trabalho do local de destino, as chances de a família fazer uso da mão-de-obra de seus filhos têm uma leve ampliação. Por outro lado, os resultados indicam que a migração não interfere de maneira positiva sobre a probabilidade de a criança estudar, independentemente do tempo de residência de seus pais no local de destino. Como os filhos de migrantes apresentam probabilidade de estudar sistematicamente inferior à dos filhos dos não migrantes, o deslocamento geográfico para o Estado de São Paulo não pode ser visto como um processo que contribui para a redução da pobreza intergeracional. / The present work analyzes the impact of different parents migration condition over their children of 10-14 years time allocation in São Paulo State. The attention is especially turned toward the empirical approach of child probability to study/work following the sample segregation in accordance with different possible combinations of parent’s migration condition. In the first chapter a revision of economic literature of child labor is presented, with emphasis for the results gotten in the Brazilian case. To follow it is shown as the determinants of short and long terms of family migration can influence in child time allocation between school and work. To distinguish the impacts from short and long terms of parent’s migration on child probability to study/work, the father and mother migrants conditions was split up according with their time of residence in São Paulo State: migrants less than ten years (who can be born in another State or a returned) and migrants that live at least ten years in destination place. This distinction works as a base to differential wage calculation between the migrants and non-migrants parents carry through the application of Oaxaca decomposition in chapter 2. The evidence of positive or negative selectivity to each one of the three groups of fathers/mothers migrants in relation to non-migrants parents helps the analysis of how the wage differential contribute to explain the discrepancies of study/work probabilities between their children. In chapter 3, before bivariate probit calculation, the sample of the children of 10-14 years is separate in accordance with the possible combinations of fathers and mothers according to time of residence in São Paulo State. The bivariate probit for boys and girls is calculated for each type of family and based on the predict probabilities of study/work the difference between migrants and non-migrants children is decomposed in observed and not observed characteristics. The general results show that in short term the parents migration increase the chances of children work, while in the long term the migrants children have less probability to work, due to their parents positive selection. On the other hand, migrant conditions are not significant to explain the child study probability, independent of their parent’s time residence in destination place. Because the study probability of migrants children are continually lesser than non migrants child it is not possible to affirm that migration is a process that contributes for the reduction of intergerational poverty in São Paulo State.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 475-496).

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 area investigated in this research is the groundwater basin of the valley of Tlacolula de Matamoros, of the central valleys of Oaxaca in Mexico. The objectives of this research were to consider together the causes and symptoms of the technical problems concerned with effective management of ground-water and related land resources in a semi-arid climate. / The preparation of electronic basemaps and their field control is first investigated. A methodology for the preparation of multi-layer base maps is successfully established. / The variability of climatic conditions and climatic trends that may affect the quantification of the design rainfall and the elaboration of long term water strategies are then investigated. / Historical pumping test data are analyzed. Analytical techniques for the interpretation of single well test data are applied. A trial and adjustment procedure based on the reversibility of the test when the aquifer-well system has stabilized, is proposed for the data analysis of a single well test with declining step drawdown. / In order to determine the suitability of water for irrigation and to obtain an early warning of groundwater salinization, the quality of groundwater is assessed over the area. / Hydrometric are analyzed for accuracy and potential water availability.