abstract
The Wixaritari or Huichol communities of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico have a long tradition of defending their own political organization and de facto autonomy in relation to the state. In this essay, I present a brief analysis of their political-ritual system and argue that the Wixaritari can be understood as a complex society against the state. The political-ritual organization not only reproduces a traditional authority system, but also permanently questions it. It also reproduces an ontologically complex world of “parts without a whole” that is impossible to govern.
keywords
Autonomy; community; ritual; Wixárika; Mexicoo