Ethnic Succession in a Highland Chiapas Community1

Abstract In the past half century, in several indígena (Indian) communities of highland Chiapas, Mexico, a transformation in ethnic relations toward greater equality and less antagonism between the formerly dominant mestizos (ladinos) and the formerly dominated indígenas has taken place. I describe this change and the improvements in ethnic relations it produced, for one highland community, Tenejapa. I show that one important cause of this phenomenon of ethnic succession was the imparting to indígenas of skills for the mestizo world by the national agency, INI (Instituto Nacional Indigenista). This transfer of skills constitutes a type of power, often overlooked because of its long-term and subtle nature, one that can have significant effects. However, INI's use of this power depended on the fact that the state government neither strongly obstructed INI's action nor carried out this action itself. The material for this study is drawn from field research I conducted in 1990–91 and follow up research in 1994.