Territorial Practices: an Anthropology of Geographic Orders and Imaginations in the Sierra Mixe

This thesis presents an ethnographic exploration of the spatial practices and conceptions employed by the Mixe or Ayuuk (an indigenous group from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico) in the construction of their territoriality. Located in a rugged mountainous region known as the Sierra Mixe, Ayuuk communities have developed a sophisticated range of strategies to socialise a geography characterised by a remarkable ecological, linguistic, cultural and political diversity. The research offers a detailed account of the way in which the discontinuities and variations that characterise the geography of the Sierra influence the political, economic and religious organisation of Mixe communities. It argues that ideas about fragmentation, fluctuation and impermanence are fundamental in the making of a political model characterised by the alternation between different types of hierarchical orders. The study also suggests that Mixe society is marked by a permanent tension between centripetal and centrifugal forces which create a social dynamic in which the inhabitants of the Sierra congregate in villages and towns and then disperse to live in autonomous hamlets scattered throughout the mountains