Abstract

SANTILLAN ORTEGA, Víctor Manuel. Communards and partisans: political marginalization and community stigmatization in Purépecha self-governments. Estud. sociol [online]. 2026, vol.44, e2870.  Epub Apr 20, 2026. ISSN 2448-6442.  https://doi.org/10.24201/es.2026v44.2870.

This article examines the sociodynamics between communeros and partisans in the Indigenous selfgovernments of Cherán, Arantepacua, and Sevina in the Purépecha Plateau. Drawing on Norbert Elias’s established-outsiders model and a qualitative strategy based on longitudinal ethnography, narrative interviews, and documentary review, it indicates that the power balance favoring communeros enables the political marginalization of partisans from local governance-such as their limited participation in community and electoral assemblies-while fostering their stigmatization as violators of community norms. The study argues that “living without parties” does not eliminate partisan identities; rather, reorganizes intracommunal conflict and provides analytical tools for understanding analogous dynamics in other Indigenous autonomy processes.

Keywords : indigenous self-governments; figurational sociology; community studies; Cherán; community power; indigenous democracy.

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