The Concept of Culture in Mexico (1750-1850)

This paper examines the concept of culture in Mexico between 1750 am 1850, following the methodology of conceptual history. The essay shows that the meaning of "culture" was polysemous and changeable, preserving the old use of "cultivation of the soil". Moreover, we develop the relation with the word "civilization", which would have become important because of the revolutionary juncture of the Latin American independences. A final mutation studied here is related to the change towards the complexity which now characterizes the word, and which was hinted at since the mid 19th century