Abstract

CORTES MAXIMO, Juan Carlos. The Disincorporation of Indigenous Property in one Mexican Province: Objectives and Effects of the 1827 Law for the Redistribution of Communal Lands in Michoacán. Relac. Estud. hist. soc. [online]. 2013, vol.34, n.134, pp.263-301. ISSN 2448-7554.

This study deals with two main topics: first, it identifies the lands affected by the redistribution carried out through enforcement of the 1827 Law and its subsequent Regulations, issued in 1828; second, it describes the effects of the application of that legislation on indigenous towns. Acceptance of, or opposition to, land redistribution largely reflected the mode and intensity of the affectations of indigenous lands, which involved the leasing of small -sometimes larger- sections in accordance with the dispositions of the Regulations of community elaborated during the implementation of the so-called "Bourbon reforms". But reactions by authorities and local peoples also mirrored the antiquity of possession and shared usufruct of land. Despite opposition to redistribution based on the argument that local communities had little land and insufficient money to cover the initial costs of the process, the essay shows that the Law of 1827 was brought to bear in some localities. It further argues that the purposes of the state's political elites in seeking the disincorporation of those lands began to take effect with the freeing of properties linked to indigenous towns.

Keywords : distribution of communal lands; communal land ownership; full property; right of residence.

        · abstract in Spanish | French     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )