cofradías and cargos: an historical perspective on the Mesoamerican civil‐religious hierarchy
- 1 February 1985
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in American Ethnologist
- Vol. 12 (1) , 1-26
- https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1985.12.1.02a00010
Abstract
Most accounts of the Mesoamerican civil‐religious hierarchy assume either a pre‐Hispanic or colonial formation of the system, despite the lack of convincing evidence. This paper presents unpublished archival data on colonial cofradias and civil cargos from four regions of Mexico: Jalisco, central Mexico, the Valley of Oaxaca, and the Sierra Zapoteca of Oaxaca. It is argued that while a civil hierarchy was well developed in colonial times, the civil‐religious hierarchy was mainly a post‐independence development. Changes in the functions of the hierarchy and its mode of articulation with the larger society are also discussed. [Mesoamerica, peasant society, ethnohistory, religion, political organization]This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
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