Data on the Civil-Religious Organization of the Highland Mixe Society of Oaxaca, Mexico

IVtitional Mltseum of Ethnology"The purpose of the present paper is simply to present data and commentaries on the civil-religious organization of the highland Mixe society of Oaxaca, Mexico.The first part of this paper presents a traditional organization in which the civil and religious organizations are functioning in unison based on a civil-religious hierarchy sustained by the "egalitarian" economy of the fiesta.In this organization the rituals fbr the oMce-holders enrich the annual ritual cycle of the community.The second part of the paper presents a changing organization in which the civil organization of the municipio is separated from the religious organization of the church and the two tend to be in conflict.Here the remnants of the economy of prestige persist but it no longer influences the civil and religious organizations.In this situation the rituals of the oMce-holders tend to decline and to become politically tinged.In the transition from traditional organization to changing organization, we find complexities of changes in the civil-religious organization of the highland Mixe society of today.t rvscal They have fairly specialized duties: 1.