Conclusion

Much of the literature on violence and conflict resolution has been dominated by psychologists, political scientists, historians, or ethologists. When anthropologists have looked at these issues, the focus is usually on men engaged in intergroup violence such as feuding and warfare.

In these descriptions women are usually onlookers or victims, either silent or weeping. Although there is now more research on violence against women, such as rape and battery, the example of the Zapotec shows that women can be more than victims or spectators. Because the Zapotec have social institutions that create a sense of local community and personal responsibility, women can actively intervene in male-to-male conflict to restore order and they can effectively prevent male aggression against women through female solidarity. Yet these roles are currently being undercut by changes in social institutions, community identity, and personal responsibility to redefine gender roles and women’s power. As ritual roles are replaced by secular offices, godmothers will find it increasingly difficult to intervene and offer protection or mediation to others in their community.

Notes

1. According to Chinas, “the phenomenon of machismo, so often cited as a male characteristic in Latin American cultures, seems to be largely absent in intragroup relations in Zapotec culture. Where such behavior is evident, it is negatively sanctioned. A man who acts muy macho is derided as an overbearing bully, and a woman who mistreats or takes advantage of one weaker than she, is similarly criticized (for example, a mother who strikes her child)” (Chinas 1973: 111).

2. According to Selby, if a conflict continues, the godfather is called in to settle the dispute and prevent it from expanding and disrupting other relationships (1974: 48).

References

Chinas, Beverly. (1973).

The Isthmus Zapotecs: Women's Roles in Cultural Context. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

Dennis, Phillip. (1987). Inter-village Conflict in Oaxaca. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

El Guindi, Fadwa. (1977). Lore and structure: Todos santos in the Zapotec system. Journal of Latin American Lore 3: 3-18.

-----. (1986). The Myth of Ritual: A Native's Ethnography of Zapotec Life-Crisis Rituals. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Landau, Saul. (1997). The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas. Meridian Productions.

Nader, Laura. (1990). Harmony Ideology: Justice and Control in a Zapotec Mountain Village. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Pader, Ellen J. (1993). Spatiality and social change: Domestic space use in Mexico and the United States. American Ethnologist 20: 114-137.

Sault, Nicole. (1985). Baptismal sponsorship as a source of power for Zapotec women in Oaxaca, Mexico. Journal of Latin American Lore 11: 225-243.

-----. (1990). The evil eye, both hot and dry: Gender and generation among the Zapotec of Mexico. Journal of Latin American Lore 16: 69-89.

-----. (1994). How the body shapes parenthood: Surrogate mothers in the United States and godmothers in Mexico. In Many Mirrors: Body Image and Social Relations, edited by Nicole Sault. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.

Selby, Henry. (1974). Zapotec Deviance: The Convergence of Folk and Modern Sociology. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Stephen, Lynn. (1991). Zapotec Women. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Sung, Betty Lee. (1985). Bicultural conflict. Journal of Comparative Family Studies. Velez Ibanez, Carlos. (1983). Rituals of Marginality: Politics, Process, and Culture

Change in urban Central Mexico, 1969-1974. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Wolf, Eric. (1966). Peasants. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

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Source: Anderson M. (ed.). Cultural Shaping of Violence: Victimization, Escalation, Response. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press,2004. — 330 p.. 2004

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