Full Description
Markets in Oaxaca is a study of the regional peasant marketing system in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. It relates the marketing system to other aspects of the regional economy, to neighboring regions, and to the Mexican national economy. Combining ethnographic, theoretical, and regional analyses, it suggests new directions in the fields of peasant and development studies.
Contributors to the volume describe the operation and nature of several marketplaces in the region, analyze village-based artisan production and various specialized economic roles (particularly the role of traders), and describe the operation of several total regional marketing systems. The editors then consider their findings against the background of political, economic, and social structures from the pre-Conquest period to the present. In their conclusion, the editors find the regional peasant economy to be responsive both to the influence of the urban metropolitan sector, on the one hand, and to its own indigenous structural integrity and internal dynamism, on the other.
In addition to the editors, the contributors to Markets in Oaxaca are Ralph L. Beals, Richard L. Berg Jr., Beverly ChiÑas, Herbert M. Eder, Charlotte Stolmaker, Carole Turkenik, John C. Warner, Ronald Waterbury, and Cecil R. Welte. Their essays combine analyses of the elements of the system within a comprehensive theoretical framework. Together, they present a complete and integrated view of a peasant economy.
Contents
Note to the reader
Foreword by Sidney W. Mintz
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part One. Introduction
1. The Peasant Market Economy of the Valley of Oaxaca in Analysis and History (Scott Cook and Martin Diskin)
2. The Oaxaca Market Study Project: Origins, Scope, and Preliminary Findings (Ralph L. Beals)
Part Two. The Valley System and Related Regional Systems
3. The Structure of a Peasant Market System in Oaxaca (Martin Diskin)
4. Markets as Mirrors: Reflectors of the Economic Activity and the Regional Culture of Coastal Oaxaca (Herbert M. Eder)
5. The Zoogocho Plaza System in the Sierra Zapoteca of Villa Alta (Richard L. Berg, Jr.)
6. Survey of the Market System in the NochixtlÁn Valley and the Mixteca Alta (John C. Warner)
Part Three. Producers and Marketers: Case Studies
7. The "Market" as Location and Transaction: Dimensions of Marketing in a Zapotec Stoneworking Industry (Scott Cook)
8. Zapotec Viajeras (Beverly ChiÑas)
9. Examples of Stability and Change from Santa MarÍa Atzompa (Charlotte Stolmaker)
10. The Marketplace Traders of San Antonino: A Quantitative Analysis (Ronald Waterbury and Carole Turkenik)
Part Four. Problems in Retrospect and Prospect
11. A Historical-Ecological Approach to the Study of the Oaxaca Plaza System (Martin Diskin)
12. A Concluding Critical Look at Issues of Theory and Method in Oaxaca Market Studies (Scott Cook and Martin Diskin)
Appendix. Maps and Demographic Tables (Cecil R. Welte)
Table A-1. State of Oaxaca: Population by Districts
Table A-2. Municipios within Which Plazas of the Market Studies Are Located
Map A-1. State of Oaxaca and Surroundings
Map A-2. The Central Valleys of Oaxaca
Glossary
Notes
References Cited
Index
