Building etnoterritorios in the indigenous cultures of Oaxaca

Abstract

A reflection on the categories of space, place and territory is addressed in this essay: space as a broader continent, place as a nucleus of meaningful density and territory as a cultural space, instrumentally and historically appropriate for a society, which usually implies notions of frontier. In this context the representations or spatial notions of Mesoamerican origin currently existing in the ethno-linguistic groups of Oaxaca can be registered. Regarding these representations, the author seeks to create a descriptive model to construct ethno-territories, which stems from the basis of territorial notions of center and frontier, connected by networks, in order to delimit symbolic ethno-territories constructed according to worldview, mytholog y and ritual practices.