Abstract

TERVEN SALINAS, Adriana. Interlegal relations and construction of cultural projects of justice. The case of the indigenous court of Cuetzalan, Puebla in Mexico. Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol. [online]. 2015, n.21, pp.99-120. ISSN 1900-5407.  https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda21.2015.05.

With the recognition of cultural diversity in Mexico in the mid-1990s, legislative reforms on indigenous issues, including justice, began to take place in different areas. This article presents the case of the Indigenous Court established by the Superior Court of the state of Puebla in the municipality of Cuetzalan, a region mostly inhabited by indigenous Nahua people, hence the interest in showing the impact of government measures on local cultural practices and values. I analyze interlegal relations based on the everyday experience of the court, focusing both on bureaucratization and on the procedures for conflict resolution. I thus open up the debate on the legitimacy of writing over orality, showing the importance of the dynamics of attention as an arena of dispute between indigenous legal systems and the justice administered by the state.

Keywords : Cultural rights; state; indigenous peoples; bureaucracy and regulatory systems.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )