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1. The economic base that allows the perpetuation and reproduction of the indigenous communities is an area of territory destined for the production of maize, bean, squash, pepper, etc. These territories are divided into as many plots as there are households in the community. The use of plots by each household is possible as long as they are cultivated and households lose their right to the plots if these are left uncultivated for a period of time determined by the community (between two and four years). In the case of irrigated plots the period may be shorter. The work invested in the plots, rather than their possession is what determines the right of use.
2. In spite of the introduction of new forms of production in the indigenous communities, including concepts of private property and private use of land, and the commercialization of goods, the indigenous communities subsist on an agrarian base. A significant variable, however, is the concept of the land as a sacred good rather than a material good to be possessed or exchanged. The cultivation of the household plot (milpa) with an average of between 3 to 5 hectares represents an economic, pragmatic, and rational activity, as well as a magical-religious act without which production is inconceivable. Land then, is the pillar, which maintains the cohesion of the kin group and related extended families forming the community. The attachment and concept of land constitutes the means of social as well as of economic reproduction for the indigenous communities, and it affords them individual security, group cohesion, and cultural continuity.
3. In addition to subsistence production, the majority of indigenous communities also have commercial crops, destined exclusively for the market economy, such as coffee, sugarcane, wheat, tobacco, vanilla, citrus fruits, etc. Commercial crops are an increasing share in the rural indigenous communities and these products are in the first instance distributed between communities in the state or region and subsequently enter the national as well as the international markets.
4. Consumption is based on the level of production obtained in the plots complemented by small-scale livestock production as well as fruits and vegetables of the home gardens. Additional products are obtained through exchange of these products in regional markets. The diversity of this production is impressive. In the five agro-ecological areas of the State of Veracruz, for instance, there are 60 different species produced. In the home gardens of the Chontal area of the State of Tabasco there are 285. A similar diversity is found in the Huasteca region where 185 species were inventoried of which 82 are medicinal plants.
5. The home garden and its associated small livestock production are the responsibility of women. All the products obtained from this household-based activity are used within the household as well as sold in local and regional markets, and are an important source of household income.
6. Depending on the region, hunting and fishing are also important sources of income for the indigenous households, as in the case of Campeche�s Maya municipalities, as are plants from forests.
7. The agricultural and livestock production technologies are relatively simple; however, these have been increasingly modernized in the last few decades through the use of fertilizer, machinery, etc. whose costs are paid out of the products in excess of subsistence needs of the household.
8. It is often thought that the indigenous regions are homogeneous. This is misleading in that each region has particular characteristics and cultural patterns. A shared characteristic is that the indigenous areas are occupied primarily by various indigenous groups plus some mestizo population, which renders them multi-ethnic. An example is the Huasteca area with Nahuas, Teenek, Totonac, and Otomi; Chiapas with nine different linguistic groups all belonging to the Maya language family; or Oaxaca where there are 16 distinct ethnic groups. Other regions, such as Jalisco have a single dominant group, the Huichol.
9. In indigenous areas there are magnet centers controlled by the mestizo population who exert their power in the economic, cultural and social spheres. Examples of such centers are San Cristobal las Casas in Chiapas, with a network that extends to surrounding communities, settlements, and municipalities comprised of indigenous populations. Likewise, there are connected inter-ethnic regions, for example Orizaba, Cordoba, Jalapa, Tehuacan and Tuxtepec, where the relations with communities, and indigenous municipalities are characterized by relations of subordination and dependency in the legal, and political domains. These exert pressure to modify the nature of internal economic community relations and to determine the types of production as well as marketing channels.
10. Another example, significant because of the high population it encompasses, is the network of magnet centers in the Eastern Sierra Madre encompassing the states of Veracruz, San Luis Potosi, Hidalgo, Puebla and Oaxaca. These magnet centers alone influence over three million indigenous people.
| Magnet Centers | |||||
|
15 cities as economic and political axis |
25 small magnet centers |
315 municipalities |
7,000 settlements or communities |
15 language groups and 3 million indigenous peoples |
The indigenous population of over three million in this region produce the majority of the nation�s crops of coffee, sugarcane, vanilla, fruit (orange, avocado, papaya, banana, etc.).
In addition there is the gathering and collection of barbasco for the chemical industry and an array of forest products because of the extensive forests in this region.
11. All this wealth is taken by the indigenous population to the magnet centers where the mestizo population controls the benefits of the coffee production, rice mills, distilleries, sugar cane mills, fruit packing industries, transport of merchandise and passengers, commerce, and banking. The best land in these areas is concentrated in the hands of this population as well as extensive livestock production and irrigation. All this production and wealth is transferred to larger regional centers and from these to the wider national and international markets.
Map 3. Distribution of the Magnet Centers of the Eastern Sierra Madre
Main Magnet Center
Secondary Magnet Center
Table 7.1 Composite Classification of Magnet Centers in the Eastern Sierra Madre and their relations with Indigenous Populations
| Ciudad Valles, S. L.P. | Huastecos | ||
| Ciudad Santos, S. L. P. | Huastecos | ||
| Tamazunchales, S. L. P. | Nahuas | ||
| Huejutla, Hgo. | Nahuas | ||
| Tantoyuca, Ver. | Nahuas y huastecos | ||
| Tenango de Doria, Hgo. | Otomíes y tepehuas | ||
| Tulancingo, Hgo. | Nahuas y Otomíes | ||
| Acaxochitán, Hgo. | Nahuas | ||
| Chicontepec, Ver. | Nahuas | ||
| Huayacocotla, Ver. | Nahuas | ||
| Huauchinango, Pue. | Nahuas y totonacos. | ||
| Zacatlán, Pue. | Nahua | ||
| Xicotepec de Juárez, Pue. | Nahuas y totonacos. | ||
| Tetela de Ocampo, Pue. | Nahuas y totonacos. | ||
| Cuetzalan, Pue. | Nahuas y totonacos. | ||
| Zacapoaltla, Pue. | Nahuas. | ||
| Teziutlán, Pue. | Nahuas. | ||
| Huehuetla, Pue. | Totonacos. | ||
| Papantla, Ver. (Poza Rica) | Totonacos. | ||
| Altotonga, Ver. | Nahuas. | ||
| Perote, Ver. | Nahuas. | ||
| Jalapa, Ver. | Nahuas | ||
| Huatusco, Ver. | Nahuas | ||
| Córdova, Ver. | Nahuas | ||
| Orizaba, Ver. | Nahuas | ||
| Zongolica, Ver. | Nahuas | ||
| Tehuacán, Pue. | Nahuas | ||
| Teotitlán del Camino, Oax. | Nahuas | ||
| Huautla de Jiménez, Oax. | Mazatecos | ||
| Tierra Blanca, Ver. | Nahuas y mazatecos. | ||
| Tuxtepec, Ver. | Mazatecos y chinantecos | ||
| Valle Nacional, Oax. | Chinantecos. | ||
| Ixtlán del Río, Oax. |
Zapotecos y chinantecos | ||
| Villa Alta, Oax. | Zapotecos y mixes. | ||
| Mitla, Oax. | Zapotecos y mixes. | ||
| Oaxaca, Oax. | Zapotecos, mixes, chinantecos y cuicatecos. |
||
| Zacatepec Mixes, Oax. | Mixes | ||
| Yalalag, Oax. | Zapotecos y mixes. | ||
| Acayucan, Ver. | Nahuas y popolucas. | ||
| Matías Romero, Oax. | Zapotecos y mixes. |
12. It is also important to mention that it is in the same regions where the majority of hydroelectric resources of the country are located, as well as the major mining centers, and petroleum destined in their entirety for the rest of the country and for export.
13. Isolation and marginalization are the persistent characteristics of the indigenous communities within each region and micro-region where caciques or big men hold the power to manipulate each municipality and indigenous community.
14. One can conclude that the system of economic, social, political, and legal relations is totally asymmetric. The 100 larger urban centers of the country control approximately 200 smaller urban centers, which in turn subordinate 25,000 indigenous or campesino communities encompassing over 50 ethnic groups.
15. The appropriation of the natural resource base by the indigenous communities in the areas they inhabit is characterized by a distinctly non-materialist view of nature inherited from their past. The indigenous vision of nature perceives it as a sacred and living entity with which they interact, dialogue, and negotiate in the process of production. This conception of nature is opposed to that emanating from the urban and commercial areas and the agro-industrial world designed to extract food, raw products, and energy required for the dominant enclaves. The following table shows the characteristics that distinguish indigenous production from agro-industrial production.
Table 7.2 Main Characteristics of Indigenous and Agro-Industrial Production and Natural Resource Use
| Energy | Basic use of solar energy for production | Primarily dependent on fossil fuels |
| Scale | Small holder plots (Minifundio) | Medium to large properties |
| Self-sufficiency | High use of vegetable fertilizers | High use of externally produced inputs for production |
| Labor force | Family and Community based labor | Family and or wage labor |
| Diversity | Diversified and multi-crop production | Specialized mono-crop production |
| Productivity | Low labor productivity | High labor productivity |
| Wastes | Low waste production | High waste production |
| Knowledge | Empirically based and orally transmitted | Based on specialized knowledge systems with writing and other modern communication means |
| Cosmology | Nature as a living and sacred entity. Each natural element embodied as deities with whom it is necessary to negotiate for the processes of production |
Nature as a system (or machine), separate from society, whose wealth is exploited through science and technology. |
Victor M. Toledo. “An Ecological-Economy Typology of Rural Producers.” In Economia informa, No. 243, 1997.
16. The indigenous peoples exploit the natural resource base through a multiple-use strategy that sustains the ecological processes and natural life cycles. The same diversified strategy is mirrored in the productive systems. For instance, multiple crop production, or aquatic resource use, where the productive systems integrate agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and small-scale livestock production.
Instituto de Ecologia, UNAM
The indigenous peoples inhabit four broadly defined ecological regions.
Table 7.3 Ecological Regions and Indigenous Peoples
| Humid Tropics | 28,598,300 | 3,280,159 | 37.0 |
| Dry Tropics | 25,598,000 | 2,978,510 | 34.0 |
| Temperate Zone | 39,024,000 | 1,953,100 | 22.4 |
| Arid Zone | 102 | 489,818 | 5.6 |
Secretaría de Desarrollo Social SEDESOL, 1994
17. These regions include 45 percent of the forested areas of the country and municipalities with over 30 percent of estimated indigenous population. For example, it is estimated that in Oaxaca 90 percent of the state�s forest resources are located in indigenous lands, and many of the environmental changes affecting Mexico today such as increasing deforestation, soil erosion, water pollution, and desertification, also are occurring in regions inhabited by these populations. These changes are the result of the imposition of economic models that require a high use of fertilizer as well as of the devastating impact of unsustainable extraction of timber from the forests.
18. The indigenous peoples have accessed the resources of these diverse ecological regions through systems of customary tenure for hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of years. The indigenous cultures we see today, is the result of adaptations to these different natural areas and they are repositories of enormous banks of knowledge, technologies, and strategies for the appropriation of nature. The ecological knowledge possessed by these people forms a part of the national patrimony of the country and must be taken into account in development project planning and in the decision-making process designating the location of natural protected areas or national parks.
19. The native knowledge of specific ecological regions and their productive systems are not as damaging, from a long-term sustainability perspective, than other systems, since they operate as allies of nature, specifically looking out for the conservation of biological diversity and culturally significant landscapes.
In Mexico it is not possible to recognize and safeguard the natural resource patrimony without respecting, at the same time, the indigenous cultures and peoples who have given sense and are intimately involved in the politics of conservation of nature in their regions.
Table 7.4 Natural Protected Areas in Indigenous Territories
Peoples >30% |
||
| Biosphere Reserve | ||
| Special Biosphere Reserve | ||
| National Parks | ||
| Forestry Reserves | ||
| Protected Forested Areas | ||
| Special Fauna and Flora Protected Areas | ||
| National Monuments | ||
| Marine National Parks | ||
| Protected Zones of Marine Flora and Fauna | ||
| Parks | ||
| Total |
Source: Lucio Lara Plata, 1994: Indigenous Peoples and Natural Protected Areas. Instituto Nacional Indigenista.
Factors Affecting the Degradation of Natural Resources
20. The analysis of impacts of the traditional technologies compared to logging or building roads has not been systematically undertaken. Environmental degradation drastically modifies the conditions of life of the indigenous peoples. The most extreme levels of environmental degradation are found especially in the areas of the Tarahumara Sierra, the Nayarit Sierra, the Purepecha Mesa, the Chimalapas in Oaxaca, the Lacandon Jungle, the southern portion of the Huasteca, the northern Sierra in Puebla, the Nahuatl region of the Oaxaca-Puebla Canyon, the two Nahuatl regions of Veracruz, the Tlapaneco-Amuzgo region of Guerrero, and almost the entire state of Oaxaca, in addition, the petroleum extracting areas of Tabasco and Veracruz. Most of these areas also have high levels of contamination of the rivers, lagoons, lakes, dams, and water tables.
Table 7.5 Indigenous Regions Identified within the Priority Conservation Areas
| Indigenous Region | |
| I. Mayo | Las Bocas (32) |
| II. Tarahumara | Alta Tarahumara (43); Cañón de Chinipas (44); Barrancas del Cobre (45); Montes Azules (46); Guadalupe, Calvo y Mohinora (48) |
| III. Huicot | Guacamayita (85); Sierra de Jesús María (88); Sierra de Bolaños (90) |
| IV. Meseta Purépecha | Tancítaro (111) |
| V. Huasteca | Cañones de Afluentes del Pánuco (103); Tlanchinol (104); Huayacocotla (105) |
| VI. Sierra Norte de Puebla | Cuetzalan (118) |
| VII. Totonaca de Veracruz | Encinares de Nautla (107) |
| VIII. Otomí | Cañones de Afluentes del Pánuco (103) |
| IX. Mazahua-Otomí | Sierra de Chincua (114) |
| X. Náhuatl de las Costas de Michoacán |
Sierra de Coalcomán (112) |
| XI. Meseta Chocho-Mixteca-Popoloca de Puebla |
|
| XII. Náhuatl de la Cañada Oaxaqueña-Poblana |
Tehuacán-Cuicatlán (123); Sierra Granizo (124) |
| XIII. Náhuatl Jalapa Martínez de la Torre de Veracruz |
|
| XIV. Náhuatl Orizaba-Córdoba de Veracruz |
Perote-Orizaba (119) |
| XV. Popoluca-Náhuatl. Los Tuxtlas de Veracruz |
Sierra de los Tuxtlas-Laguna del Ostión (110) |
| XVI. Náhuatl Tlapaneco-Mixteco-Amuzgo de Guerrero |
Cañón del Zopilote (121) |
| XVII. Chontal de Tabasco | Pantanos de Centla-Laguna de Términos (135) |
| XVIII. Chiapas | Selva Zoque (Chimalapas-Ocote-Uxpanapa) (133); Huitepec-Tzontehuitz ( 138); La Chacona-Cañón del Sumidero (139); El Suspiro-Buenavista-Berriozabal (140); Bosques Mesófilos de los Altos de Chiapas (141); El Momón-Margaritas-Montebello (145); Lacandona (Montes Azules-Marqués de Comillas-Cañada)(146) |
| XIX. Península de Yucatán | Silvituc-Calakmul (147); Zonas Forestales de Quintana Roo (149); Sian Kaan-Uaymil (150); Zona de Punto Put (151); Centro-Sur de Cozumel (152); Isla Contoy (153); Dzilam-Ría Lagartos-Yum-Balam (154); Petenes-Ría Celestum (155) |
| XX. Oaxaca | Tehuacán-Cuicatlán (123); Sierra Granizo (124); Sierra Trique (125); Sierra de Tidaa (126); Sierra Norte de Oaxaca (127); Zimatlán (128); Río Verde Bajo (129); Manglares de Chacahua-Manialtepec (130); Sierra Sur y Costa de Oaxaca (131); Sierra Mixe-La Ventosa (132); Selva Zoque (Chimalapas-Ocote-Uxpanapa) (133) |
Note: The indigenous regions are located primarily or entirely in some of the high priority conservation areas. Source: Socio-Economic indicators of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico. INI, 1993; Priority Conservation Areas. CONABIO/PRONATURA/WWF/USAID/TNC, 1997.
Table 7.6 Minority Indigenous Groups Identified within Priority Resource
Conservation Areas (see map of Indigenous Regions)
| Indigenous Group | State | Municipalities | Priority Conservation Areas and Rank |
| Cucapá | Baja California | Mexicali | Delta del Río Colorado, Alto Golfo de California (14) |
| Sonora | San Luis Río Colorado | Delta del Río Colorado, Alto Golfo de California (14) |
|
| Cochimí | Baja California | Ensenada | Valle de los Cirios (8); Sierra de Juárez (12) |
| Pai-pai | Baja California | Ensenada | Valle de los Cirios (8)
Sierra de San Pedro Mártir (11) |
| Kiliwa | Baja California | Ensenada | Valle de los Cirios (8) |
| Kumiai | Baja California | Ensenada y Tijuana | Valle de los Cirios (8); Sierra de Juárez (12) |
| Cahita | Sinaloa | Entre Ahome y Fuerte | |
| Sonora | Etchojoa | ||
| Navojoa | Sierra de Álamos (33) | ||
| Seri | Sonora | Pitiquito | Isla Tiburón-Sierra Seri (19) |
| Yaqui | Sonora | Bacum y Cajeme | |
| Guaymas | Sierra Bacatete (31) | ||
| Pápago | Sonora | Caborca | |
| Mayo | Sinaloa | Ahome y Fuerte | |
| Pima | Chihuahua | Temosachi | |
| Madera | Cuarenta Casas (36) | ||
| Sonora | Yecora | Yécora-El Reparo (28) | |
| Kikapú | Coahuila | Múzquiz | Río San Rodrigo-El Burro (51) |
| Chichimeca-Jonaz | San Luis Potosí | Tamasopo y Sta. Catarina | |
| Matlatzincas | Estado de México | Temascaltepec y Zinacantepec | Sierra de Taxco (116) |
| Ocuiltecos | Estado de México | Ocuilán y Tianguistengo | Sur del Valle de México (117) |
| Aguacateco | Estado de México | Atizapan de Zaragoza, Naucalpan y Tlalnepantla |
|
| Ixcateco | Oaxaca | Nuevo Soyaltepec y Santa María Ixcatlán |
Sierra Norte de Oaxaca (127) |
| Teco | Veracruz | Minatitlán | |
| Cakchiquel | Quintana Roo | Othón P. Blanco | Zonas Forestales de Quintana Roo (149) |
| Chiapas | Mazapa de Madero | Selva Espinosa Chicomuselo-Motozintla (144) |
|
| Kekchi | Quintana Roo | Othón P. Blanco | Zonas Forestales de Quintana Roo (149) |
| Campeche | Champotón | Silvituc-Calakmul (147) | |
| Quiché | Quintana Roo | Othón P. Blanco | Río Hondo (148) |
| Campeche | Champotón | Silvituc-Calakmul (147) | |
| Chiapas | Huitiupán, Tapachula, Suchiate y Frontera Hidalgo |
||
| Kanjobal | Campeche | Champotón | Silvituc-Calakmul (147) |
| Jacalteco | Campeche | Champotón | Silvituc-Calakmul (147) |
| Quintana Roo | Othón P. Blanco | Zonas Forestales de Quintana Roo (149) |
|
| Ixil | Campeche | Champotón | Silvituc-Calakmul (147) |
| Campeche | |||
| Chiapas | Villa Corzo | ||
| Quintana Roo | Othón P. Blanco | Zonas Forestales de Quintana Roo (149) |
|
| Lacandón | Chiapas | Ocosingo | Lacandona (Montes Azules-Marqués de Comillas-Cañada) (146) |
| Tzotzil | Chiapas | La Trinitaria | |
| Tojolabal | Chiapas | Las Margaritas | Lacandona (Montes Azules-Marqués de Comillas-Cañada) (146) |
| La Concordia, Villa Corzo | |||
| Kanjobal | Chiapas | La Independencia | El Momón-Margaritas-Montebello (145) |
| Las Margaritas, Chicomuselo | |||
| Jacalteco | Chiapas | Amatenango de la Frontera | Selva Espinosa Chicomuselo-Motozintla (144) |
| La Trinitaria, Frontera Comalapa y La Grandeza |
|||
| Motozintleco | Chiapas | Villa Comaltitlán y Huixtla | Triunfo-Encrucijada-Palo Blanco (142) |
Note: The indigenous regions are located primarily or entirely in some of the high priority conservation areas.
Source: Socio-Economic indicators of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico. INI, 1993; Priority Conservation Areas. CONABIO/PRONATURA/WWF/USAID/TNC, 1997.
21. The use of land by the indigenous peoples was perturbed with the establishment of the hacienda system, which permanently affected land tenure. To this day, there are communities and small towns established in the same place as they were over 2,500 years ago. Theirs has been an occupation of land which has been permanent and is an illustration of the historic sustainability of these systems and their people and cultures.
There are different forms of land tenure in the indigenous areas of the country.
a) Communal Property. Includes a territory which may (a) belong to a community; (b) belong to several communities and sometimes be the capital of the municipality. The communal assembly charged with electing the traditional authorities, governors, principals, municipal presidents, and municipal agents regulates use of land. The Agrarian Reform stipulates that the agrarian authorities are autonomous and not subject to the official system composed of:
| Community Resources Commissar | President
Secretary Treasurer Substitute personnel for each of these three positions. |
| Oversight Council | President
Secretary Treasurer Substitute personnel for each of these three positions |
| Auxiliary Judge | Substitute |
| Municipal Delegate | Link between the community and municipal authorities. |
Communal goods are distributed in agricultural plots that are utilized temporarily in a slash and burn system. This system requires leaving the land fallow for a period of several years. Possession of all the land is in the hands of the members of the communities. There are other plots within the same system, which are given to the members of the community and their families. The latter can inherit these lands, or they can be exchanged among the members of the community, but the land does not have the category of private property. The community also controls the lands with forests, those lands not apt for agricultural production but that may have other uses, or common property resources including forests and mining. The most important feature of this system is that the land cannot be sold to persons not belonging to the community.
b)Indigenous Ejidos. Those lands given to communities that lacked any previous documentation of occupancy after the Revolution. These areas are currently operating and organized under the same norms as the communal lands.
c)Indigenous ejidos operating under the norm of the Agrarian reform Law. These are a minority and individually divided. According to the modification of Article 27 of the Constitution, the owners can opt for private titling or for the maintenance of communal ejido property. (The change in Article 27 of the Constitution in 1992 permits the privatization of the ejidos after sixty years where sale and land alienation was prohibited).
22. Examples of the two extremes of land tenure types are the States of Oaxaca and Yucatan. In the first type, there is a predominance of communal lands (67 percent) in Oaxaca and in the second, 90 percent are in ejidos. These three categories of property are controlled by a total of 6,298 registered indigenous communities in the country according to the 1991 Census of the Ejidos. They possess nearly 22 million hectares and about 1.1 million hectares are rainfed. The areas with grazing lands total 9 million hectares; and those with tropical forests or temperate forests total 7 million hectares. Other land use types cover a total of 340,000 hectares. The per capita incomes vary greatly among different regions and communities. There are communities with high incomes because of their rich resource base, as is the case of Nuevo San Juan Paranguaricuticuaro in Michoacan. In other cases, there are communities in dire poverty because of land degradation and scarce natural resources, as is the case of the high areas of the Mezquital Valley in the State of Hidalgo.
Instituto de Ecologia, UNAM
Table 7.7 Area Coverage of Ejidos and Communities in Mexico
| NACIONAL |
29.983
|
103.290.099,151
|
27.797.604,719
|
75.492.494,432
|
8.787.436,301
|
66.705.058.131
|
3.523.636
|
3.040.495
|
||
| 04 | Campeche |
137
|
1.665.385,980
|
163.070,000
|
1.502.315,980
|
0,000
|
1.502.315,980
|
14.651
|
13.510
|
|
| 07 | Chiapas |
1.129
|
2.509.335,000
|
1.261.692,880
|
1.247.642,120
|
14.345,000
|
1.233.297,120
|
147.753
|
141.571
|
|
| 08 | Chihuahua |
141
|
2.042.245,680
|
134.777,500
|
1.907.468,180
|
752.522,000
|
1.154.946,180
|
23.828
|
19.702
|
|
| 10 | Durango |
20
|
834.937,000
|
1.563,000
|
833.374,000
|
350.364,000
|
483.010,000
|
21.467
|
913
|
|
| 12 | Guerrero |
305
|
1.170.038,920
|
408.377,280
|
761.661,640
|
10,000
|
761,651,640
|
70.604
|
60.887
|
|
| 13 | Hidalgo |
529
|
345.690,740
|
194.591,405
|
151.099,335
|
21.533,750
|
129.565,585
|
67.639
|
63.181
|
|
| 14 | Jalisco |
8
|
406.538,700
|
236.470,500
|
170.068,200
|
0,000
|
170.068,200
|
2.594
|
2.547
|
|
| 15 | México |
221
|
175.654,280
|
119.252,750
|
56.401,530
|
467,000
|
55.934,530
|
57.564
|
50.579
|
|
| 16 | Michoacán |
107
|
421.902,690
|
180.283,480
|
241.619,210
|
1.765,400
|
239.853,810
|
32.267
|
22.272
|
|
| 17 | Morelos |
36
|
79.502,660
|
28.446,420
|
51.056,240
|
0,000
|
51.056,240
|
9.539
|
9.024
|
|
| 18 | Nayarit |
32
|
669.869,120
|
5.504,000
|
664.365,120
|
96.815,633
|
567.549,487
|
4.660
|
907
|
|
| 20 | Oaxaca |
1.060
|
5.956.419,330
|
1.982.008,300
|
3.974.411,030
|
96.886,411
|
3.877.524,619
|
297.311
|
262.225
|
|
| 21 | Puebla |
211
|
327.079,050
|
158.114,500
|
168.964,550
|
570,400
|
168.394,150
|
39.920
|
36.741
|
|
| 22 | Querétaro |
30
|
48.920,800
|
17.604,500
|
31.316,000
|
0,000
|
31.316,300
|
4.396
|
4.258
|
|
| 23 | Quintana R. |
167
|
1.592.668,790
|
240.246,000
|
1.352.422,790
|
254.748,500
|
1.097.674,290
|
16.731
|
11.777
|
|
| 24 | S. L. Potosí |
350
|
267.327,630
|
183.771,720
|
83.555,910
|
6.762,500
|
76.793,410
|
40.216
|
39.167
|
|
| 26 | Sonora |
135
|
370.363,660
|
94.738,760
|
275.624,900
|
126.811,400
|
148.813,500
|
18.535
|
8.097
|
|
| 27 | Tabasco |
60
|
58.213,500
|
37.858,000
|
20.355,500
|
11.289,000
|
9.066,500
|
3.693
|
3.237
|
|
| 30 | Veracruz |
956
|
809.647,910
|
724.137,760
|
85.510,150
|
13.254,057
|
72.256,093
|
89.798
|
87.649
|
|
| 31 | Yucatán |
664
|
2.152.984,870
|
565.072,540
|
1.587.912,330
|
17.313,800
|
1.570.598,530
|
109.100
|
69.052
|
|
23. The communal and ejido lands of the indigenous peoples are the basis of a production system geared towards self-subsistence in contrast to the system and lands under intensive use of a capitalist type of production. Productive activities are concentrated in the primary sector and destined to supply the food needs of the households, although there is, even at the level of the household economy, a series of products destined for the market. In the first instance the milpa constitutes the central axis of the household’s production strategies. It is in the milpa that the maize, beans, squash, and edible and medicinal plants are grown. In a second place are the cash crops, including: coffee, vanilla, pepper, sugar cane, honey, rice, fruits, cotton, ajonjoli, etc. These products complement the household income and permit the purchase of needed agricultural inputs and other market items not produced by the household.
24. Information shows that 89 percent of the indigenous agrarian centers are dedicated to agriculture; 8 percent for livestock; 1 percent for timber, and 2 percent to various other activities tied to the primary sector. Agriculture is in a weakened situation at this time due to the fact that 93.8 percent of the ejidos and agrarian communities are rainfed lands and lack any type of irrigation.
25. It is undeniable that the combination of demographic growth leading to more intensive use of lands; increasingly smaller and uneconomical plots for household production; and unsustainable extraction of resources has led to instances of severe if not irreversible land degradation. All these factors have had and continue to have an adverse impact on the micro-regional production systems.
26. Regardless of the type of crops, in general the technology used is simple and its knowledge acquired by the entire community. There is a prevalence of a diversified household production system that constitutes a coping strategy to minimize risks and ensure household survival. These strategies include, in some instances, the combination of agricultural work in combination with fisheries or artisan production. Wage labor, wherever possible is also a coping mechanism as is employment in the large agro-business fields either in the country or in the United States.
27. The division of labor within the family is characterized by the collaboration of all its members in different activities.
| Women | Preparation of food
Care of children Care of home garden and livestock Artisan work: weaving textiles, clothes making, pottery, etc. |
| Men | Heavy agricultural work,
hunting, collection of various items house building public cargos care of old people |
| Children | Assistance to parents in agricultural and home activities |
| Older generation | Assistance to married children in all activities: support role, extra laborer role |
Transfer of experience, knowledge, oral tradition, customs
28. Forms of collective work within the indigenous communities are qualitatively different from those found in a capitalist economy. This type of work acts as a catalytic factor for the enhancement of the production process organized on the basis of reciprocity between families of the community and community members.
29. In the first instance, collective work is done for the cleaning of agricultural plots, house building, and special household emergencies. The nature of this reciprocity is that once a service has been received there is an obligation incurred to reciprocate the favor when there is a call for it. This is a form of social credit insurance, which filled the gap created by the lack of formal credit institutions. The second type of collective work is that which is solidarity-shared with the rest of the community and dedicated to community works such as school or church building, road building, clinics, potable water, street paving, parks and playgrounds, etc.
This type of work goes by the various terms of tequio, faena, fajina, etc. and it is the equivalent to a local community or municipal taxation system to pay for the public social services in urban centers. Each community sanctions the non-compliance with this type of work in different ways.
30. The exchange of the production of the indigenous communities is a combination of the pre-colonial market structures and the
Spanish market customs. There are various types of weekly markets with correspondingly different characteristics.
Typology of Weekly Markets
Regional markets exist where there is a strong interdependence of urban rural networks, and are concomitantly established in the main urban centers or regional capitals of each indigenous region.
Micro-regional markets in the more peripheral main rector centers
Municipal markets
Community markets. 31. Each one of these market types has its own characteristics and scale of integration to the national level economy. Regional markets, for instance, are generally located in enclosed buildings that, together with the sellers, market authorities, and buyers all constitute the market. At the level of municipal markets, all the personnel belongs to the communities and the basic activity is the exchange of merchandise for money and, in some instances, barter. The specialization in different types of products depends to a large extent on the nature of the soils if the communities. All of them, nevertheless, produce maize, which is not normally a part of the exchange economy, but other articles of pre-colonial manufacture are exchanged, for instance:
Table 7.8 Precolonial Intra-community Market Exchange Products
| Fruits | Horticultural | Flowers | Artisanal |
| Cocoa | Potato | Gladiolas | Textiles (cotton) |
| Mamey | Yuca | Gardenias | Textiles (straw) |
| Guanabana | Chayote | Christmas flower | Leatherworks (sandals) |
| Papaya | Yams | Jacaranda | Basketry |
| Tepejilote | Squash | Camellia | Pottery |
| Tejocote | Jicama | Zempoaxuchitl | Stone works |
| Zapotes | Chaya | Squash flowers | Stone works |
32. All these products are part of the indigenous economic system. They are found in local weekly markets and marketed in small quantities, only enough to secure enough to secure other needed items for subsistence and consumption items not produced at home.
33. This regional system of markets forms an exchange network for agricultural, livestock, hunting and collection, fisheries, and artisans such as pottery makers (see map for example of the distribution of artisan communities), basket-makers, carpenters, textile weavers, and stone cutters and artisans. They also include the artists in plastic and silver work. They all come together weekly or during the ceremonial feast days to exchange their products which assures the sustainability of each family, community, municipality and region. This system constitutes an established institution of the indigenous economy that can operate through barter or money exchanges and which permits the permanent and sustainable development of productive forms, distribution, consumption, at all levels of households and of the community.
34. The surplus produced in the community or ejidos pass through the municipal markets and from there to the regional and national markets. Many artisan products are marketed in the tourist market, and some communities live primarily through the marketing of these products. The agricultural and livestock surpluses, as well as the cash crops destined for national or international markets, such as coffee, cocoa, vanilla, barbasco, and forest products and timber, are the cash income generators. These products guarantee the incomes required for the modernization of the household economy, and ensure the satisfaction of their needs for products which they do not manufacture such as soap, fuels, tools, electricity, etc. Each day this economic inter-dependency of the indigenous communities with the state and national economy becomes greater. There are, however, communities which continue to maintain a closed economy based on subsistence such as the Tarahumara, Huichol, Tepehua and others.
35. The inclusion of the systems often considered “informal” but that in fact constitute an intrinsic part of the formal economy must be considered in all the diagnostics and economic studies of the states with a high proportion of indigenous populations. The indigenous economy, with its system of regional markets and specialized distribution systems are a part of the overall economic picture. To exclude these elements from an economic analysis constitutes a distortion of reality and gives rise to conclusions that classify these regions as ones of extreme poverty which in reality is not entirely true.
36. It is clear that while the indigenous economies operate at a micro-economic level, and notably characterized by subsistence, there are others that are oriented towards the regional, national, and international markets. Such is the case; for example, of the Maya in Yucatan that constitutes the backbone of the henequen production.
37. Each one of these forms of economic and social organization is subject to its own ecological and environmental conditions, as much as the cultural constructs which give rise to the particular dynamics of each indigenous group. Modernity, in its various manifestations, permeates the life of the communities and introduces new elements that modify these groups inherited cultural and social tradition, making for new forms adapted to changing conditions, characteristics and identity.
Map 4. Distribution of Traditional Ceramic Styles in Indigenous Areas
38. Poverty in many of the indigenous communities is perpetuated by the presence and network of intermediaries, whose control over the commercial and exchange networks ensures their appropriation of the value of production, while the producers continue to obtain minimum gains and profits from their products. There is a lack of indigenous organization to control of the economic networks, as well as a lack of financing and road infrastructure, which are all factors contributing to making the indigenous peoples highly dependent on the intermediaries with the only option of selling either directly out of their own plots or placing their products in the closest regional market whenever possible.
39. There have been a series of changes in agricultural policies since 1989 according to information gathered by CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America). These included the elimination of guaranteed prices for the twelve basic products, with the exception of maize and beans; the elimination of CONASUPO (National Company of Subsistence Products), and other state enterprises that formerly regulated and commercialized agricultural products such as the Mexican Institute for Coffee Production (INMECAFE), and the Mexican Tobacco (TABAMEX). At the same time there was a re-structuring of rural credit, which eliminated subsidies for credit and agricultural supplies and a privatization and elimination of public entities dedicated to agriculture.
40. The Rural Credit Bank was also reformed at this time. It led to a concentration of credit to the most secure, low-risk, and profitable products. This caused an increase in the rate of defaulted loans and eliminated some segments in the market from receiving credit since they were outside of the new financing parameters. It also changed the institutional mechanisms for crop insurance and limited insurance coverage.
41. The sources of financing for rural producers that had always been limited, both by the private banks and by government institutions, were further constrained by these reforms and led to a diminution of the volume of production in the indigenous communities. Many of them abandoned some of the cash crops because of the lack of credit and institutional support that they formerly gave the producers (as for example INMECAFE, CONASUPO, FERTIMEX, or PROFORTARA).
42. A recent study of the evolution of the ejidos shows a significant decline in the number of producers applying modern technologies. In 1990 fertilizer use among the ejidatarios was 61 percent but had declined to 52 percent by 1994. In the same period, the use of improved seed varieties declined 24 percent and use of insecticides declined by 15 percent. The decline in agricultural extension and other technical services was even more notable. While in 1990 a total of 60 percent of the ejidatarios had access to such services, only 8 percent still had access to them four years later (Alain De Janvry, 1990-94).
43. Most negatively affected were the indigenous ejidatarios that had formerly enjoyed some support from government institutions, although with regional variations, for instance in the region of the Huasteca, Oaxaca and Guerrero where indigenous people had some support. These producers have seen their incomes decrease drastically since they do not fit the requirements for formal loans and credit and continue to cultivate products that were formerly subsidized (grains and oils). The result is an increased dependency of the indigenous producers on the lenders and intermediaries that charge an average of between 10 and 25 percent a month on loans which they obtain through formal credit mechanisms at one tenth the amount of interest they charge to the indigenous producers (refer to the Profile and Diagnostics of the Huasteca, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Chiapas).
44. The most important compensatory mechanisms after this policy change have been PROCAMPO, that substituted the subsidies with direct payment to the producers calculated on the area under basic grain production. In order to gradually ease CONASUPO�s demise, the Agricultural Secretariat (SARH) founded in 1991 another institution: the ASERCA charged with support and services for agricultural marketing but without direct intervention in the buying and selling of products as CONASUPO had previously done. Today, PROCAMPO makes small loans ranging from 500 to 2,000 pesos and works directly with communities. However, because it does not take into account specific levels of differentiation among producers and their endogenous organizational forms their work with the communities has led to an institutional disarray of the regional organizations because there is no further need of them.
45. Other institutions working directly with producers, and which have various credit modalities, include FONAES/SEDESOL ,Fondos Regionales /INI (see the Diagnostic studies for the Huasteca and Oaxaca).
46. Experience has shown that in the indigenous regions a modest but continuous level of credit availability and financing can result in sustainable and self-financing development processes because the majority of the indigenous municipalities already have the resources, knowledge, and will to continue their own development. The problem lies in the limitation of most programs to a six-year period tied to political administration and characteristically lack continuity. This has a negative impact on the efforts of the producers to sustain modest but continuous levels of production.
47. Traditionally, consumption in the indigenous communities was directly related to their production, as well as to those products obtained through hunting, gathering, and fishing. Aside from the products that they obtain in the regional markets, the basic diet consists of tortilla made from maize, beans, diverse sauces made from red and green tomato, and garnished with a variety of chilis. This diet includes cocoa or chocolate, honey, and vanilla. Soups are prepared from squashes, young maize, and onions grown in the home gardens, avocado, and many varieties of mushrooms. Meat, whether beef, pork, or chicken, is not a part of the usual diet and reserved for special family feast days or community ritual observances. Nevertheless, there are food items of animal origin and obtained through hunting, including deer, wild boar, monkey, diverse snakes, iguanas and their eggs, frogs, maguey grubs, ants, and crickets. Several different types of shrimp, crayfish, fish, snails, turtles, ducks, and various edible birds are hunted or gathered in lakes and rivers. From the home garden, the indigenous household obtains many fruits and edible plants. They also produce their own alcoholic beverages including pulque, chica, teshuino , and mezcal.
48. All these items of the traditional indigenous diet have changed significantly in the last few decades. The trend has been to move to increased reliance on manufactured food items. This change has had a strong negative nutritional impact on the indigenous population; particularly young children and women who are particularly vulnerable to the influences of the publicity of companies dedicated to the sale of processed foods. Another critical factor contributing to the change in diet is the sale of the products, formerly for household consumption, in exchange for products of low nutritional value such as sodas, candy, cookies, and other snack food. Evidence of these changes is shown in the following map, which illustrates that, the areas of the country with the highest level of under nutrition and malnourishment coincides with the indigenous regions.
Instituto de Ecologia, UNAM
