The Möbius Strip: A Spatial History of Colonial Society in Guerrero, Mexico

by Jonathan D. Amith

Overview

The Möbius Strip explores the history, political economy, and culture of space in central Guerrero, Mexico, during the colonial period. This study is significant for two reasons. First, space comprises a sphere of contention that affects all levels of society, from the individual and his or her household to the nation-state and its mechanisms for control and coercion. Second, colonialism offers a particularly unique situation, for it invariably involves a determined effort on the part of an invading society to redefine politico-administrative units, to redirect the flow of commodities and cash, and, ultimately, to foster and construct new patterns of allegiance and identity to communities, regions, and country. Thus spatial politics comprehends the complex interaction of institutional domination and individual agency. The complexity of the diachronic transformation of space in central Guerrero is illustrated through an analysis of land tenure, migration, and commercial exchange, three salient and contested aspects of hispanic conquest. The Möbius Strip, therefore, addresses issues important to social theory and to the understanding of the processes affecting the colonialization of non-Western societies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804767354
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	10/10/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	688
File size:	20 MB
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About the Author

Jonathan D. Amith is an independent scholar who has been affiliated with Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Gettysburg College, and the University of Chicago. He has previously edited a volume on the politics and culture of indigenous art: The Amate Tradition: Innovation and Protest in Mexican Art (1995).

Table of Contents

Contents List of Maps, Figures, and Tables xxx Acknowledgments Conventions Orientation Maps Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Part 1: Terrain and Territoriality: The Natural and Social Context of Land and Property Chapter 2: The Lay of the Land Chapter 3: The Law of the Land Part 2: Eppur si muove: The Dynamics of Economic Transformation in Rural Central Guerrero Chapter 4: Land Acquisition during the Early Colonial Period Chapter 5: Hacienda Formation and Market Structure: A Comparison of Landholding Patterns in North- and South-Central Guerrero Chapter 6: From the Recuperation to the Production of Place: Intraregional Migration and the Development Cycle of Community Chapter 7: The Politics of Economy and Space: Interjurisdictional Migration into the Iguala Valley Chapter 8: Spaces of Capital and Commerce: Rural Society and the Interregional Economy of Central Guerrero Chapter 9: The Transformation of Rural Society: Commercial Capital and the Monopolization of Resources Part 3: Absolute Property and Spatial Politics: Struggles for Control over Grain in the Late Colonial Period Chapter 10: The Political and Moral Economy of Subsistence: State Control of Grain Markets Chapter 11: Seeds of Discord and Discontent: Grain, Regionalism, and Emerging Class Conflict Chapter 12: Conclusion Reference Matter Glossary Bibliography and abbreviations used in notes Index

Editorial Reviews

"...this work presents what is arguably one of the most detailed socio-political and economic analyses to be written on any given region in colonial Spanish America."—Itinerario

"Jonathan D. Amith's book is one of the most important works on colonial Mexican history to be published in the last decade."—American Historical Review

"The Mobius Strip, a history of central Guerrero that includes cultural geography and anthropology, constitutes an ambitious study, one that is meticulously researched and artfully crafted, combining the methods and materials of economic, social, and environmental history."—Colonial Latin American Historical Review

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