Indigenous attitudes and ethnic identity construction in Mexico

Challenging primordialist positions commonly held in Mexico's policy debate over relations between indigenous groups and the state, this article confirms the instrumentalist position that ethnic identities may be readily shaped. Using findings from a recent survey in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Zacatecas, the author concludes, after distinguishing individual-from collectivity-oriented attitudes, that indigenous and non-indigenous respondents are similarly individualist. Important differences were found, however, on a second dimension distinguishing pro-state respondents from those who were more communally-oriented. Indigenous respondents, particularly in Oaxaca, were found to possess more statist orientations than non-indigenous respondents. The author asserts that decades-old state policies to assimilate indigenous communities may be partially responsible, and that disillusionment with these policies and state-led repression in Chiapas may explain attitude differences among indigenous respondents.