This project supports an ethnohistorian studying social identity and boundary maintenance in colonial societies by means of an intensive study of a colonized indigenous elite in central Mexico in the 17th and 18th centuries. The importance of class and status hierarchies are hypothesized to vary directly with the degree of elite market integration and external coercion. Increasing preoccupation with noble status in late colonial times will be related to the economic activities of the villagers, coercive policies of state Spanish officials and the nature of hacienda labor relations. Date for the study will come from colonial documents in Spanish and Nahuatl (the Aztec language) located in Mexico and in Seville, Spain. This research contributes to our knowledge of colonial societies by untangling the complex relations among state coercion, market forces, social inequality,and social boundaries in a single community. The comparative focus should enhance our understanding of community structure and its regional variation in Mexico.
