The Structure of Civil Hierarchy in Tekanto, Yucatan: 1785-1820

Resumen

The contemporary municipios of Yucatan do not contain the ‘Indian’ governments, often called ‘civil-religious hierarchies’, typical of their Chiapan and Guatemalan counterparts. Indian governments, known as cabildos or repúblicas de indígenas, were abolished by the Yucatecan government in 1868 and failed to reappear with the reestablishment of the municipio libre under the Constitution of 1917. Before 1868, however, and particularly before Independence, the Indian cabildo was the primary institution of government in rural Yucatan.