Ñuu davi Yuku Yata : comunidad, identidad y educación en la Mixteca (México)

Julián Caballero, J. (2009)

Doctoral Thesis

This thesis focuses on the question of how the social person constitutes itself within the Mexican indigenous reality of today. It is a theme that forces us to consider the traditional concepts and conditions of Mesoamerican society as well as the interaction, the transformation and cultural and sociopolitical dynamics of the last decades, in particular the impact of the different social movements and their proposals for development, emancipation, education and decolonization. This is illustrated with the cultural and social reality of a specific village: Yuku Yata, known with its Nahuatl name Huitepec, situated in the mountainous part of Ñuu Savi, the Mixtec region, in the State of Oaxaca, Southern Mexico. I carried out this study as a Mixtec (from Yuku Yata) and a participant in such processes. Consequently, I combine anthropological perceptions with introspection (referring to my own experience and formation), in a permanent dialectic and dialogical procedure. Over the past 25 years, my concerns as a participant of the Mixtec culture and and speaker of the Mixtec language, have focused on the following topics: a) The ways of how the person is constituted as a social subject through the transmission of communal norms and knowledge. b) The upbringing of the children within the family until they become what in Huitepec is called daá ñuu, “child of the people”. c) The incorporation of young people in the cargos that the community confers at an early age. d) The social and cultural function of the sampaliluu, samaniluu or viko tna’an nda’a ritual performances as a process of conformation of couples in the Mixtec communities and of communicating the shared cultural and ethical values, above all, in Huitepec. e) The role (or failure) of educational institutions in preservation, maintenance and development of the Ñuu Savi culture and the tu’un savi. f) The roll of the Ñuu Savi intelligentsia in strengthening the identity and the recovery of the dignity of this millennial people. g) The future that awaits the new generations of Ñuu Savi.

• Different social movements
• Huitepec
• Mesoamerican society
• México
• Mixtec region
• Nahuatl
• Yuku Yata

• All authors: Julián Caballero, J.
• Supervisor: Jansen, M.E.R.G.N.; Bartolomé, J.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University
• Date: 2009-09-30
• Court: LEI Universiteit Leiden