ISBN:
9781478024255
,
1478024259
,
9781478093572
,
1478093579
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (xii, 318 pages)
,
illustrations
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Yannakakis, Yanna, 1967- Since time immemorial
Keywords:
Customary law courts History
;
Indians of Mexico Politics and government
;
Indians of Mexico Legal status, laws, etc
;
History
;
Justice, Administration of History
;
HISTORY / Latin America / Mexico
;
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
;
Customary law courts
;
Indians of Mexico - Legal status, laws, etc
;
Indians of Mexico - Politics and government
;
Justice, Administration of
;
History
;
Mexico
Abstract:
"In Since Time Immemorial Yanna Yannakakis traces the invention of Native custom, a legal category that Indigenous litigants used in disputes over marriage, self-governance, land, and labor in colonial Mexico. She outlines how in the hands of Native litigants, the European category of custom-social practice that through time takes on the normative power of law-acquired local meaning and changed over time. Yannakakis analyzes sources ranging from missionary and Inquisition records to Native pictorial histories, royal surveys, and Spanish and Native-language court and notarial documents. By encompassing historical actors who have been traditionally marginalized from legal histories and highlighting spaces outside the courts like Native communities, parishes, and missionary schools, she shows how imperial legal orders were not just imposed from above but also built on the ground through translation and implementation of legal concepts and procedures. Yannakakis argues that ultimately, Indigenous claims to custom, which on the surface aimed to conserve the past, provided a means to contend with historical change and produce new rights for the future"--
Description / Table of Contents:
Custom, law, and empire in the Mediterranean-Atlantic world -- Translating custom in Castile, Central Mexico, and Oaxaca -- Framing pre-Hispanic law and custom -- The old law, polygyny, and the customs of the ancestors -- Custom, possession, and jurisdiction in the boundary lands -- Custom as social contract : Native self-governance and labor -- Prescriptive custom : written labor agreements in Native and Spanish jurisdictions.
Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index
