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Author Yannakakis, Yanna, 1967- author.

Title Since time immemorial : Native custom and law in colonial Mexico / Yanna Yannakakis
Published Durham : Duke University Press, 2023

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 318 pages) : illustrations
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
Summary "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"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on print version record
Subject Customary law courts -- Mexico -- History
Indians of Mexico -- Politics and government
Indians of Mexico -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- History
Justice, Administration of -- Mexico -- 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.
Mexico.
Genre/Form History.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2022041592
ISBN 9781478024255
1478024259
9781478093572
1478093579
Other Titles Native custom and law in colonial Mexico