Synopsis:

In this talk, Kathleen McIntyre examines how Protestant conversion impacted usos y costumbres, the cargo system, and tequio in Zapotec and Mixtec Communities in Oaxaca.  The resulting religious competition in these communities led to disputes over tequio  and cargo  participation. The talk describes how between the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the Zapatista uprising of 1994, Protestant conversion fueled regional and national discussions over the state's conceptualization of indigenous citizenship and the parameters of local autonomy.

Presenter:

Kathleen M. McIntyre is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Rhode Island. A historian of religion, indigenous peoples, and gender in Latin America, her research examines religious conflict and traditional governance in Native communities of southern Mexico. Her book, Protestantism and State Formation in Postrevolutionary Oaxaca is published in both Spanish and English. In 2024-2025, she was a Fullbright guest scholar at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) CIESAS in Oaxaca.