The Government of the Indians: An Anthropology of State Formation in Oaxaca, Mexico

This article analyzes the process of state formation in Mexico, focusing on the case of the state of Oaxaca, where the role of indigenous forms of governance are examined in the relation to the construction of state power. Drawing on ethnographic material it examines how the concept of government of the indians circulates in a variety of contexts in which different actors - legal experts, academics, leaders and indigenous intellectuals- construct this concept through everyday social practices which in turn undergirds the way in which the state constantly produces and reproduces itself. These diverse local practices demonstrate that the strength of the state in Mexico is in its fragmented and decentered nature even if its existence is predicated on formal institutions and the law.