M                  : N C
PRYROPMM., CONrI NUITY AND CHANGE
Nornan D. Thonas
' Fllowing the conquest of Mexico and Guatemala, the, Indian comnmunities of
*those ar'eas were purposefully reorganized around Spanish institutions of Church
and 'Stite. Although these institutions were intended to integrate individual
towns and vi'llages at a'"national level, as,they did in Spain, that level of
integration did not persist'for long. Spanish religious orders were ultimately
withdrwn from' direct supervision of native life, and Indian communities sank
to a folk-society level of organization wherein they were left to their own-de-
vices, remained socially homogeneous, and continued to be patterned around kin-
ship'relations. With the gradual development of-centers of Spanish and mestizo
culture and their enctoachment upon native areas, communities have been pro-
gressively and variably drawn from the Indian sphere by acculturation so that
community studies of those areas today are able to document towns in various
states of change on the Indian-Mestizo continuum.
-The Spanish re'ligious institution of ayordomla, the stewardship of the
sa ints  was among those introduced by the S  iish clergy  Essentially it in-
volves the assumption of the responsibility of caring for one of the sacred
images in the church for one year or more and organizing and firnncing the
annual fiesta of that image. It is the thesis of this study that the persis-
tence of the institution'of mayordomia on the Spanish-Indian-Mestizo continuum
has been effected by progressive adaptation to new maintenance systems wherein
structural-adjustment of the institution itself 1as occurred. We shall proceed
by an examination of mayordomia in its Spanish, Indian folk-community, and
mestizo contexts with the intent of noting basic principles of organization and
change.
Mayordomia in Spain
In Spa'in, myordomia has traditionally been a function of cofradlas, or
brotherhoods, and a history of the latter is to a large extent a history of
the former, Gillen has called attention to the possible influence of Islam
in furthering the development of cofradlas in Spain. Moslem laymen's clubs,
which 'continue to be widespread in the Islamic world today, were encouraged
during the Moslem occupation-'of Spain as mechanisms for furthering Islam
(Gillin 1951:86-87)o Although Islamic institutions may have influenced the
development of Christian cofradias, it seems more likely that the Spanish
cofradla is more direct'ly der-ived from the religious brotherhoods and trade
guilds of western Europe.  These occurred in Germany, France, Holland, and
TEhgland'as early as the ninth century, but not until the twelfth century did
they occur in developed form in Spain (Foster 1953:10-11), when the north of
the peninsula was already free of Moslem domiration.
The history of the cofradia movement in Spai,n has been summarized by
Foster (1953:11-17), and the following data on the pre-contemporary period is
from his paper except where otherwise indicated. The earliest form was the
cofRadta  eligiosa-benjflca, composed of voluntary devotees of a particular
sa int, which offered mutual aid and guaranteed spiritual welfare to departed
members in the form of masses and Christian burial.  Membership was by accep-
tance of the other members. With this type of organization as a base there
developed the cofradia gremial, which functioned similarly except that the
meimbers were restricted to workers in a particular trade. The cofradla gremial
later became a cofradia-gremio when the tradesmen members began to use it as a
medium for effectn and enforcing regulation of their trade. Ultimately, the
cofradla-gremio became two bodies, a gremio, or trade guild, and a religious
cofradia- sponsored by that guild.
All cofradias and gremios were chartered by Church, royal, or municipal
authority depending on whether the religious or the trade aspect was empha-
sized. The ordenanzas, or charter constitutions, specified the officers of
the organizations and the rights and-obligations of the members. The names of
the officers given by Foster are of particular interest for the fact that some
of them are later duplicated in New Vorld organizations.  Offices noted are
those of prioste , alcalde, myordomo, scribe, deputy,  r bste     ohombre,
nayoral, procurador, administrador, and prior,  The Cona de SnEloy, of
r,dob    was governed by a prioste, two alcaldes, a mayordomo, a scribe, and
two deputies, each of whom was elected annually. A general chapter meeting,
called the cabildo, was held each year, sometimes on the day of the patron
saint's fiesa   as well as other less important meetings at less auspicious
times.
Spiritual welfare to departed members was early extended to include aid
by the cofradia in time of illness, economic aid to widows of members, loans
to members from returns on counal property, legal aid, dowries for orphaned
daughters of members, and old age provisions. Hospitals were even built to
care for sick members and their families.
The patron saint of the cofradia was materialized in an image owned by
the group and housed on an altar in space provided by arrangement with a local
parish church or convent, At the time of the saint's annual fiesta, the saint
and image were feted by the group. A feast was a usual part of these fiestas,
and operational expenses for the fiesta as well as throughout the year were
met by periodic assessments and fines levied against members.
In the fifteenth centuwj the term hermandad, or brotherhood, became popu-
lar for these cofradlas, a use which has continued to the present. Cofradlas
developing in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries fell into new or revised
types. These are the cofradla sacramental, organized solely for homage to a
patron, with no mutual aid; cofradia religiosa-benefica , the old religious
mutual aid society with rigid, closely defined services. 'Women's cofradlas
also developed, as exemplified by the formal associations of women in Old Cas-
tile which celebrated the fiesta of Santa Agueda, the patroness of women
(Foster 1960:182)0
Today the hermandades of Spain provide the individual an opportunity to
reaffim his faith through collective sponsorship of religious fiestas or of
the im ges which are part of f iesta s. -- Thei r organization at the present re-
veals some of the structure of the past. An hermano myor, who is elected
normally for a fixed period, but sometimes serving for life, is .usualy at the
head of the brotherhood; the remaining members are called her nos. (Foster
1960: 163-4).
The Hermandad de San Benito of Cerro de Andevalo in Huelva is governed by
a board of twelve hermanos myores who elect their successors, usually sons of
their own deceased.  Other officials, including prioste, secretario, and
depositario, are elected from among the hermanos mayores every two years. The
former post of alcalde has been dropped, although other hermandades in the
town have retained the positionO  Membership as an hermano menor, or younger
brother, is open to any man in town on payment of an annual dues. For the
amnual saint's fiesta a mayordmo is appointed each year. He may be one of
the heranos.mayores, but any man in town may volunteer for this carao by ask-
ing the town mayor, who passes the request on to the priest, who in turn ad-
vises the hermanos .mayores.  If nmed, the mayordomo must assume the financial
burden of covering the expenses of a feast for the hermandad and its guests
and paying for the mass in honor of the saint. Sometimes the cargo, or burden,
of the mayordomo is shared simultaneously by sev~eral men. Considerable honor
attaches to service as a mayordomo and a successful man is expected to "vali-
date his position by serving at least once0 (Foster 1960:164)o Although it is
not specified, one might hazard the guess that San Benito, the patron of this
her-an-dad  is also the patron of the town  which would account for the circui-
tous route through the mayor of a prospective mayordomols request.
The fiesta of Jesus Nazareno, patron of the village of Belinchon in
Cuenca, is not sponsored by an hermandad or any other sodality. Instead,
three mayordomos, a secretary, and a treasurer are elected at an open town
meeting. Their service is for three years, and there are no other members.
The term mayordomla is used to refer to the group, or to their serv'ice, rather
than herndad or cofradla (Foster 1960:164),
Several significant principles are apparent in these descriptions of
Spanish sodalities, past and present. The most important of these bear direct-
ly on the distinction of myordomla itself. It becomes clear that a mayordom!a
is not a cofradla, that mayordoitia is a separate institution which may or may
not be a function of a cofradia, Ior brotherhood. A mayordomo, in the original
sense of the word, was the steward of a gentleman, and in its religious usage
reflects this meaning in that the office implies being the steward of a saint
and accepting the cargo, or burden, of that saint's fiesta.  Within or without
the structure of the cofradla, myordomla is a rotating function. Furthermore,
mayordomla may be the funct'ion of a set of officers who may have specialized
tasks and whose organizational structure in no way conforms to the tradition
for brotherhoods.  The officers of a mayordomla are usually led by a mayordomo
or meyordomos, and if a brotherhood is the ageny for a mayordoa, then the
directing officers of that brotherhood, the hermanos mayores, my be considered
as the officers of the mayordomla, with one of their members serving in the
rotating post of mayordomo. Thus, mayordomla in Spain has been or is the func-
tion of a rotating group of officers who may or may not be the agents of a
cofradtla or brotherhoodo They may in fact be agents of any group which pro-
fesses to have a patron saint, such as towns and parisheso
By contrast, a cofradia or hermandad is a permanent, voluntary organiza-
tion, claiming a patron saint, administered by a group of high officers, with
membership generally open to all acceptable to those officers. Mutual welfare
and sociality have been as much or more a part of their function as religious
activities.  Furthermore, women's associations have not been excluded from
this type of organization.
Introduction of Mayordomla to New Spain
There Is no question that following the conquest of Mexico and Guatemla
mayordomla ws introduced to those areas in the traditional Spanish contexts
of trade association and mutual aid.  Ordenanzas, which leglized their exis-
tence and specified their orgnization and operations, bave survived to indi-
cate their exact duplication of the Spanish sodalities of the day. The
Cofradla of St. Eloy a gremial brotherhood of silver workers, received its
chirter in Mexico City in 1537 '(Foster 1953:17-18). Cofradlas with a gremial
context were not especially common In Indian areas, possibly due to the fact
that Spanish adherence to European proprietorship of the trades excluded or
restricted Indians from these areas of activity (Foster 1953:22). However,
they appear to have hid a reasonably successful development and survival in
the Tarascan area. At Cheran merchants and musicians each own a saint's image,
and the honey gatherers own two.  The myordomlas which serve these saints are
transmitted only in the respective trades (Beals 1946:139-42)o  Quiro? still
retains gremios of the bakers, foremen, and shoemakers (Brand 1951:20h)
Motolinla, referring to the period about 1540, declared Mexico City to
have "many excellent confraternities which honor and celebrate the principal
feasts, console and relieve many poor sick people, and give honorable burial
to the dead" (Motolinta 1950:204)o  Today, past officers of mayordomlas in
Tzintzuntzan, Michoacan, receive the privilege, on death, of lying in state
in the Church free of the fees which must be paid for others (Foster 1948:195).
In some Guatemalan commnities officers of cofradias are charged with the re-
sponsibility of burying anyone who dies in the pueblo. The lending of money,
a well documented function of Spanish brotherhoods, has also been noted for
cofradlas in various places in Mexico and Guatemala (Foster 1953:19).
In central Mexico prior to 1540 the religious orders fostered a number of
brotherhoods which operated hospitals for the Indians. The Hospital of the
Incarnation was established in Tlaxcala in 1537 and was operated by a brother-
hood "dedicated to serving and burying the poor and celebrating the feasts,"
(Motolinta 1950s155). In the Tamscan area Don Vasco de Quirog founded a
great nunber of these hospitals modeled after his earlier success, the Hospital
de'SantA Fe in Mexi-co-City (Basauri 1940:528-9)o  At Tzintzunt2an the hospital
was in the charge of the Cargueros de la Kenguerla, a group of officers whose
patron was the 'iage of-the Immaculate Conception. Not only did the hospital
administer to the well-being of the populace, but it also provided a focus for
the activities of other mayordomla groups concerned with Church festivals
(Foster 1948:201-2),
However important cofradlas of the gremial and mutual aid varieties became
in centers -of Spanish and mestizo population, generally speaking they do not
appear to have developed to any great extent in Indian communities. The only
well docuimented exceptions are the Taascan area and the Guatemalan highlands,
and here they are muted by other organizational principles. This absence is
58
to be expected when we consider that the institutions of the Church were
mediated to Indian communities primarily by the religious orders. As a
means of propagating the faith these orders encouraged among the Indians
the cofradla sacramental, a cofradla dedicated to purely religious ends
(Foster 1953:18)o  This type of cofradia, as we have previously noted, was
developing in Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, undoubt-
edly encouraged by the Church as instruments of the Counter Reformation
(Gi llin 1951: 86-7 ).
The form of the cofradia sacramental was ideally suited to the needs of
the priests, who were more interested in assuring the regular perpetuation
of the major festivals of the Church calendar than in a random proliferation
of cults of individual saints. Conceptually the celebrations that they estab-
lished fell into two categories. On one hand were the Church holidays, such
as those of Lent and Holy Week; on the other were the fiestas of the patron
saints of the commnity and its wards. The annual celebrations of each cate-
gory were assured by individual sets of mayordomia officers. The rayordomlas
of the Church festivals were sometimes facilitated by associating them with
the cult of an appropriate image. Thus, images of the Santo Entierno, or
Deceased Christ, were formerly feted at Holy Week in Tzintzuntzan (Foster
1948:199) and Tepoztl&n (Redfield 1930:115)o However, nmyordomla was also
divorced from images and applied to the support of pageants or fiestas alone.
For example, the Alferez Pasion organization at Chamula, Chiapas, is responsi-
ble for organizing the whole festival of arnival (Pozas 1959:168)o
The priests, in their capacity as naster planners of cmmunity religious
life, organized the Indian towns along the lines of the Spanish parish, a
structure which was validated by the rules laid down for the reduction and
reorganization of Indian settlements in the Laws of Burgos of 1512 (Simpson
1934h32). Mayordomia when applied to this structure fell into two levels of
integration. On the comunity le'vel were the myordomias of the Church festi-
vals and the village patron saint; on the barrio, or ward, level were the
myordomias of the patrons of those barrios. We shall further examine the
adaptation of this plan to the Indian situationo
Adaptation of Mayordomla to New Spain
It is clear that the pueblo-barrio system of patron saints is a basic
and ancient framework on which the mayordomlas of Indian communities are dis-
tributed. There are numerous towns throughout Middle America today in which
it continues to be an active, functioning system. For towns where barrios,
or parishes, no longer function ceremonially, it is commonplace to find that
their former existence and activity in this realm is documented.
There is no doubt that indigenous territorial divisions of towns were
used at least in some cases as the basis for parish barrios. Motolinta states
that following the conquest of Tenochtitian, religious services for each
ca     lli.9 or native ward, were held in the old public buildings of those wards
until such time as churches could be built (Motolinta 1950125)) In mry
cases, however, the barrio system was a deliberate construct as part of the
Spanish nasterplan for Indian communities outlined in the Laws of Burgos.
The Laws of Burgos of 1512, the first comprehensive attempt to regulate
Spanish-Indian relations, provided a plan for the resettlement, or reduction,
of Indians In villages organized along Spanish lines (Simpson 1934:1).  The
code failed to be applied systematically, however, until the Count of Monterrey
activated it in 1598, and a program of congregation of the Indians continued
under him and his successor, the Marquis of Montesclaros, until at least 1605.
These congregations appear to have extended over all of New Spain south of Tam-
pico and Guadalajara. Missionizing under the religious orders, however, long
preceded this reduction and their influence in Indian life was well established
(Simpson 1934U32-39)o
The policy of these laws was ultimately codified in the Recopilacion de
leyes de los reynos de las Indlas of Madrid, 1756.  The preamble of the Recopi-
Iicib-n essentially the same as when the Count of Monterrey undertook the con-
gregation of 1599, provided the parish plan.  Each congregation was to have a
church, and civil and Church officers were specified (Simpson 1934:45-46). The
commission of Pedro de Cervantes to tmdertake the actual congregation of the
Province- of Tlanchinol in Hidalgo, 1604-05, specifies that in the new town he
should "'put in one place the villages and estancias that are brought in., accom-
modating them on one street, one village in one part and another in another"
(Simpson 1934:97). This he did for a number of villages which he established,
and furthermore he called the divisions barrios and named them after the origi-
nal towns from which they were composed.  The commission then specified that
the churches in the abandoned villages be destroyed (Simpson 1934:104-125).
It is clear that in reduction of this sort the ceremonial functions of
each of the original towns making up the congregation would likely be perpetu-
ated in their new surroundings. Mayordomias of the patron saints of small
towns would become mayordomias of barrio patronso That these towns had mayor-
domias prior to reduction is almost assured in each case where they possessed
churches, It is also reasonable that any relationship distinctions possessed
by the component towns independently would be continued in the composite com-
munity, and barrios could thus have become based upon kinship groupings.
Much has been said concerning the present and former occurrence of uni-
linear kinship groups in Middle America.  Nonlocalized, patrilineal, exogamous
claus exist today among the Cora (Nutini 1961:67) , the Tzeltal villages of
Cancuc and Oxchuc (Guiteras Holmes 1952a;103), and until recently among the
Lacandones (Tozzer 1907139-5).  In the Tlaxcan Nahuatl village of San Ber-
nardino-Contla, Nutini has -identified a wouking system of semilocalized,
patrilineal,exogaaous clans, subdivided into lineages (Nutini 1961t67-72).
Nonlocalizeds patrilineal, exogamous lineages are active in the Tzotzil com-
munities of San Pablo Chalchihuitan (Guiteras Holmes 1951:199-205) and
Chamula (Pozas 1959033-40).
There is little evidence that the kin groups of the Tzeltal and Tzotzil
were formerly ceremonial units.  The dispersed nature of their clans and lin-
eages today appears to have reasonable antiquity, and in fact nonlocalized
clans have been identified for the pre-conquest Maya of nearby highland Guate-
mala (Nutini 1961:64)o The barrios and calpules of the Tzeltal must be dis-
tingui shed from the structures of the -same name of the Tzotzi 1; the former
are nonlocalized, exogamous clans, the latter are roughly endogamous territorial
60
units composed of nonlocalized exogamous lineages.  This structural com-
pleteness of the Tzotzil barrio with its component lineages and endogamy
has led one author to view the Tzotzil pueblo of Chamula as a confederation
of autonomous pueblos, each barrio possessing within itself all the politi-
cal functions which would permit it to operate as a village (Pozas 1959:35).
The mayordomla structure of the village, as we shall see later, certainly
evidences this concept.
Whether Spanish barrios were or were not deliberately based upon kinship
groups, it does appear that the villages chosen for incorporation into congre-
gations because of their small size would have been composed of close kin.
Beals has noted for the Mixe area that early writers affirm that small Mixe
settlements were always composed of related families, and therefore were exo-
gamic (Beals 1945033).  This situation probably obtained in a large part of
Middle America.
Cofradias which centered on the patron saints, of small towns, on those
of barrios which formerly were small towns, or on the patrons of barrios
created on existing native wards were likely, in a very real sense, to be
drawing their membership from pre-existing relationship groups. The friars
of the lay orders, imbued as they were with the concept of the brotherhood
of man, certainly would not have objected to such an extension of cofradla
membership.  If kinship unity were not a basic element in barrio organization,
the homogeneity of the relatively classless small towns, as well as the ulti-
mate reduction of the class structure of more urban Indian towns to a homo-
geneous folk society level (Carrasco 1961:493), would have led to a lack of
support for and ultimate readjustment of any sodality initiated on the basis
of factional membership.  Indeed, the fact that in most of Indian Mexico it
is the term mayordomla and not cofradia which is used, and the fact that the
formal organization of mayordomla consists only of officers9 would seem to
indicate that true cofradias were rarely successfully introduced into Indian
areas and that the concept of a brotherhood was extended to all who by resi-
dence or kinship fell under the protection of the particular patron. In
those areas where the term cofradia is used, the Tarascan area and the Guate-
mala highlands, it is applied only to the officers of a mayordomla; no true
cofradias in fact exist today. This, it is suggested, indicates an adjustment
to a homogeneous society.  Throughout Middle America today virtually any adult
male, provided he can afford the expense, can become a mayordomla officer.
Election by the general populace or appointment by concensus has been reported
from Tzintzuntzan, in the Tarascan area (Foster 1948:195); and Contla,
Tlaxcala (Nutini 1961:73), and Tecospa, Mexico for the Nahuatl area (Madsen
1957:169). The custom of appointment by the representatives of the people,
the elders and principal men, is very widespread.
In this connection, Foster has previously suggested that the Spanish
institution of cofradla did not thrive in the New World due to the success of
the competing Spanish institution of compadrazgo, or coparenthood. Both of-
fered mutual aid, but compadrazgo functioned similarly to the pre-existing
kinship ties of the people, and formalized brotherhoods as agents of these
services were nonfunctional (Foster 1953:17-26). In the case of mayordomla
similar reasoning appears adequate. When mayordomlas were imposed on kin-
based or otherwise homogeneous societies, organized cofradias or brotherhoods
61
were not needed to serve as agents for those mayordomias, The brotherhood was
implicit in the organization of the society itself. Thus, mayordomia came to
persist in New Spain'
Mayordomia and Barrio Autonom
When barrios occur as components of larger communities, their participa-
tion in community level myordomias, such as those of Church festivals and
community patrons, follows principles which establish their autonomy as basic
ceremonial units0 Essentially these principles involve equal participation of
the barrios in-pueblo level functions. The Tzotzil community of Chamula in
the Chiapas highlands, as described by Pozas (1959), exhibits these principles
very adequately.
Chamula is divided, within the town, into three barrios, San Juan, San
Pedro, and San Sebastian. The latter is being assimilated by San Pedro, and
the two sometimes act as a single ceremonial unit. Only San Juan possesses a
church, which is used by all three, but it is felt that a barrio should have
a church and indeed San Sebastian once did. The saints' inges in the Church
of San Juan are treated by each barrio independently as if they were their own.
Thus the mayordomias of the barrio of San Juan are duplicated by the barrio of
San Pedro;-each have one mayordomla of San Juan, two of San Sebastian, two of
San Miguel, one of San Manuel, and apparently others similarly divided. Each
of these barrio level mayordomias is performed by a ranked series of officers
with specialized tasks, headed by a mayordomo. Some of the saints which these
mayordomlas serve also rate village-wide fiestas, the execution of which is
not the responsibility of the barrio mayordomlas. For each of these village
fiestas there exists a chief officer, called the alferez, who heads a group of
specialists. There are five of these alferez posts in the village, and they
rotate barrio to barrio on a fixed circuit, each barrio responsible for its
own selection of officers when its turn comes. For Church festivals associated
with Carnival and Holy Week., each barrio independently appoints an Alferez
Pasion and two Alfere  0.3obs. Each of these officers heads a group7 oFspdcial-
ists from his owM bzrIo and cooperates to some extent with his counterparts in
the other barrios, but no village-wide representative group is formed (Pons
1959X160-187).
It is obvious that at Chamula the barrios are ceremonially autonomous.
Two principles of pueblo level action are evident, neither of which disrupts
the autonomyn of the barrio. One of these is the principle of contemporaneous,
cooperating teams of officers, each team representing its own barrio. The
other is the principle of rotating pueblo level offices among the barrios so
that through time barrio obligation is equalized. At the barrio level there
are no mayordomla groups involving an equality of officers; all officers of
any one team are ranked specialists with a leader or chief officer.
Variations-on the contemporaneous, equal representation theme are to be
found in other villages. In the Chinantec pueblo of Ojitlan the fiesta of the
patron saint is under the charge of five mayordomos, each one elected by and
representing one of the five barrios. These five are assisted by ten to fif-
teen candidates, presumably also representing all of the barrios (Weitlaner
1951445-46), In the Municipio of Tepoztlan, Morelos, in the Nahuatl area,
62
there are fourteen mayordomias of barrio patron saints, including those of the
seven barrios of Tepoztlan itself and those-of seven outlying pueblitos which
are classed as barrios.  The mayordomos of these barrio saints not only indi-
vidually serve those saints, but for pueblo-wide Church festivals such as
Carnival and Christmas they form a corp -f equal functionaries, each with his
own persoral assistants, who work together to further the festivals. The fi-
esta of the patron saint of the municipio, strangely, is the property of one
barrio of the pueblo, and its mayordomia is always filled by men from that
barrio; equal financial assistance, however, is given by all the barrios
(Redfield 1930:69-119)o
The principle of revolving the responsibility of cargos among the barrios
is also present at Tepoztlan. On occasions of major fiestas in the outlying
snail pueblos, especially that of Ixcatepec, the nayordomos of all the barrio
patrons in the municiplo rotate the costs of the eight day fiesta so that any
one or a pair are responsible for a particular day of the celebration (Red-
field 1930:65),  By the revolving principle, each af the ten barrios of the
Nahuatl pueblo of San Bernadino Contla, Tlaxcala is charged with the mayor-
domias of the four pueblo-owned images only once every ten years.  A single
team of ranked officers is elected by the barrio at this time to handle all
the mayordomlas. The three largest barrios carry the principle even further
and divide themselves into halves, each of which has the responsibility of
the pueblo cargos only once every twenty years (Nutini 1961:72-73),
Authority and Support
A characteristic feature of the Indian folk societies of Middle America
is the civil-religious hierarchy.  It involves the graded hierarchical class-
ification of all the civil and religious offices of a pueblo, coupled with
obligatory service in that hierarchy for all male adults of the commnmity.
In theory all men must enter at the bottom and work their way by successive
yearly terms of office to the top whence they emerge as a principal, or
pasado, an elder who has completed his service to the community. The hierar-
chy of posts actually can be divided conceptually into two categories, one of
civilI offices, the other of religious cult offices.  Church offices, such as
fiscal, are classed with the civil group, while the mayordomia offices fall
into the cult categoryo This dichotomy contrasts with the usual Spanish-
mestizo plan where all religious offices, including those of the Church,
would be separated from the civil category.
The tendency in the Indian system is to pull civil officers back repeat-
edly to perform service in the mayordomias of the saints' cults. This gives
the appearance of a single organization pyramiding to a single authority at
the top, whereas the Spanish-mestizo pattern for unified Church and State
involves two separate entities working together, a distinction noted by
LaFarge (1947:13n). However, in the case of the Indian villages it must not
be overlooked that in the vast majority of cases the cult offices are consid-
ered to be prerequisites for political office and are in fact supervised by
the civil officers themselves, or as often by the emergent principales, or
elders, The mayordomlas in these-hierarchies are thus conceived as communal
obligations, more or less onerous, and the responsibility for seeing that they
are accomplished falls to the authorities of the commun'ities. The fact that
63
there are communities, as 0 itlan   Oaxaca (Weitlaner 1951:445) and Quetzalte-
peque, Guatemala (Wisdom 19g 0375 , where the emergent elders themselves exe-
cute the mayordomias further emphasizes that cult posts and civil offices are
essentially mutually exclusive categories.
The pre-Spanish background of this hierarchical system and its development
in the Colonial period has been clarified by Carrasco, who derives both cere-
monial sponsorship and hierarchy from aboriginal custom, but which were recon-
stituted on Spanish forms and adapted to an emerging Indian folk society
(Carrasco 1961 483-497)o The important point in this consideration is that
mayordomia was integrated into this system and persists today, in its most de-
veloped form, associated with civil hierrchies.
The principles of integrating mayordomla into a hierarchy are well demon-
strated in the case of the Quiche pueblo of Chichicastenango, Guatemala, Here
there are fourteen cofradias, each of which is composed of six ranked mayor-
domos; there are no other members. The cofradias themselves are ranked in im-
portance, and the first and second mayordomos of the six most important ones
carry batons of office and form an ecclesiastical council which oversees the
activities of all the cofradlas. New mayordomos for ary of the cofradlas are
appointed by this council and the civil authorities acting in accord. Service
in both the civil and cult hierarchies is obligatory. A boy enters first the
very lowest civil posts, then moves into a post as fourth, fifth, or sixth
mayordomo, leaving that for another civil office only to return later to the
cofradlas as third Mayordomo. Only service on several occasions as a mayordomo
nakes one eligible for higher office; the civil alcalde for example is chosen
from the first and second nayordomos. Mayordomos must pay most of the expenses
of their offices from their own pockets; this and the relatively smaller number
of high posts causes these posts to gravitate to a small body of wealthy aris-
tocracy (Bunzel 1959:189-90)o
-Even more rigid is the system of Tlacoatzintepec, a Chirantec village of
Oaxcaa Here all males are members of one of five age grades, the to ilitos
of the church,                     b   nt chica,  ebn s, medio-ancianos, and anci  princi-
ples    Each group pays   es and is organ ied, with officers who bave obtained
theif positions by a strict register of advancement. All except the lowest
group  requires the completion of specific civil offices as a prerequisite of
membership, during which service individuals are members of no group.    The high-
est group, the ancianos principales, is an emergent group of men whose civil
service is through; membership is restricted to those who have passed through
the highest civil office of alcalde. It is these ancianos principales who as-
sume the direction of religion, and it is they who appoint the Dayordomos of
the saints' cults. Mayordomos are selected only from the contribuyentes group,
but although obligatory service is inferred, such service to the saints does
not in itself grant the individual passage to the next age grade; only by com-
pleting specific civil offices as sindico, fiscal, and regidor is a man enabled
to move from the contribuyente group to the following medio-anciano group (Weit-
laner 1954h:158-658
The principles of relationship between myordomia and the civil hierarchy
evident in the structures of Chichicastenango and Tlacoatzintepec are generally
valid throughout Middle America wherever the old civil hierarchy is still
64
intact.  These principles define mayordomia service as obligator for all
male heads of households, or at least obligatory if appointed by the authori-
ties; as imposed by a high authority group, usually the emergent principales;
and as a prerequisite for political office, but categorically separate from
political office. As well as the eXamples outlined above, the system has been
well described in the 1ya area for Chinaltenango (LaFarge 1947:141-42), San
Carlos (Gillin 1951:82), Santa Eulalia (LaFarge 1947:19-20, 133-38), and
Chamula (Pozas 1959:134-70); and in the Oaxaca area for Ayutla (Beals 1945:
21-25), Ojitlan (Weitlaner 1954:445-46), and Yalalag (de la Fuente 1949.213).
Published examples in the north are rare, but Kelly identifies it at the
Totonac village of San Marcos, Puebla (1953:179-84), and the principles of
the system seem to be present in ceremonial remnants at Cheran in the Tarascan
area (Beals 1946:131-32).
Traditionally myordomla throughout Mexico and Guatemala has meant the
expenditure of at least some of the appointee's personal funds, regardless of
whatever other means of support are also present.  Much of the meaning in the
discharge of the office of mayordomo obviously has derived from the symbolic
value of the conspicuous expenditure of his accumulated wealth before the
eyes of his neighbors. Much of the sacrifice that he makes is of his time.
In the more conservative villages of Chiapas and Guatemala this has meant that
most or all of his time as a food producer for his family is taken from him
for a full year. To remove some of the burden of mayordomia expense, two
sources of income :from beyond the office holder have been variously applied.
One of- these proceeds from land ownership by the myordomia or cofradi'a, the
other is a general contribution levied on all households.  Both show some
antiquity.
Ownership of communal property was a characteristic of Spanish cofradlas.
Apparently in New Spain it adhered to the parish organization which was imposed
on the Indian communities, wherein each pueblo church and each barrio chapel
was allotted land, proceeds from which went to the upkeep of the Church struc-
ture and to financing the patron's fiesta. At Tepoztlan, Morelos the lands of
the barrio chapels are referred to as 9tthe milpas of our santolt and are farmed
under the direction of the mayordomo of the barrio patron. Redfield suggests
that these lands may be the continuation of the communal lands held by the
ca pulli, or native wards, of the pre-Spanish Indian town, which were converted
into barrios (Redfield 1930:75-6). A similar conversion of communal lands can
be visualized for any native town left intact by the Spanish, but church lands
probably also were established for barrios in congregated communities. In
Coban, Alta Vera Paz, Guatemala, seven cofradias which formerly corresponded
to the seven barrios of the town owned their own lands from which they derived
income (Foster 1953019). At San Francisco Tecospa, a Nahuatl village in the
State of Mexico, there is one church, but the town is divided into four named
quarters in each of which are located church lands. A 3efe is appointed for
each quarter to see that the lands are worked (Madsen 1957:169)0
A general tax on households has been reported from central Mexico. At
Mayultlanguis, a Chinantec village of Oaxaca, fiestas once were financed by
equal contributions collected from all (Weitlaner and Castro 1954:83). The
contribution system is highly formalized at Tepoztlan. Each saint's fiesta
has two nayordomos, one for the candles and one for the fireworks. Each year
on the same day representatives of all the families in the barrio present them-
selves at the houses of these two mayordomos where, accompanied by ritual, they
pay their contributions; the amounts are established by previous pledges which
are considered perpetual, irrevocable, and binding on the fam1ily after a mn's
death (Redfield 1930:74-5). At the Pokomam pueblo of San Carlos, Guatemala,
money for the patron's fiesta is obtained by parading the'saint's image from
house to house (Gillin 1951:74).  Te same custom is practiced at Soteapan,
Veracruz, a Pop4luca village, where the image is carried from door to door by
women accompanied by a men's chorus. They stop at each house and receive con-
tributions of a few ears of maize or money, which are in the charge of the
mayordomo of the image (Foster 1942:66-67).
Despite these auxiliary means of subsidizing mayordomlas, the cargos gen-
erally are largely borne by the myordomos. It is clear that in the villages
where obligatory service is expected the service can be onerous. Under these
circumstances a disruption in the authority system of the village and the
appearance of competitive, less expensive means of religious expression must
lead to a readaptation of mayordomia if it is to persist0
Modern Readjustment
With the growth of mestizo culture and the expansion of rational institu-
tions the Indian communities of Middle Anerica have undergone progressive
change. The well-integrated, obligatory., homogeneous societies are becoming
loosely-integrated, voluntary, class-based societies.  These changes have neces-
sitated a reconstitution of the traditional civil-religious hierarchies so that
today 'many have approached the mestizo model.  A general characterization of
this- readjustment has been presented by Cimara (19520142-73). On this continu-
um of change myordomla has also undergone readjustment, and even loss in many
caseso
The most effective agents of change have on one hand been those which
undermine the authority structure which supports mayordomla, and on the other
those which provide adequate altermatives 'Representative of the first cate-
gory is constitutional 'civil government, with its legal separation of Church
and State; representative of the second is the lay religious association, with
its economical, voluntary, permanent membership.
The authority structure which we have outlined for traditional myordomla
is the civil-religious hierarchy with its emergent status group, the principales.
The civil officers and the principales, aided by a general feeling of community
solidarity, were able to assure the perpetuation of mayordomla by imposing man-
datory service upon all adult males. The growth of rational republican govern-
ment during the last and present centuries has cut this chain of autbority. To
be sure, population growth has made the hierarchy unwieldy in larger commni-
ties, and universal service has been thus reduced to theory. But the imposi-
tion on Indian towns of municipal civil government, divorced of all religious
posts in accordance with state and national constitutions, has been the most
important single blow to the authority of the Indian elders.
For a time, it appears, an active native hierarchy need not disappear but
can continue to function side by side vith a legal civil goverrment. Such is
the case of Chamula where the Indian population continues to support the
66
traditional ayuntamiento which exercises authority over mayordomia, despite
the fact that a legally constituted ayuntamiento constitucional composed of
more educated Indian secretaries operates side by side with it (Pozas 1959:
134-54). In other locations the relatively greater political interest of
the mestizos and ladinos and their obviously greater rapport with state and
department authorities has resulted in the capture of civil posts by these
non-Indian elementso Under these circumstances the Indian hierarchy may
shift to one side and become a hierarchy of religious posts only, incorpor-
ating Church and cult offices in one series with an emergent principales
class at the top as before. San Carlos, Guatemala falls into this categoryo
In San Carlos the ladinos have also effectively set up their own religious
system which is essentially non-competitive with the Indian one (Gillin 1951:
78-80)0
In situations such as those Just cited, it is obvious that not only does
the authority exercised by Indian officials and elders become weakened, but
also the principle of passage and emergence which is their own sanction for
existence. The growth of voluntary option to mayordmoma service so severely
weakens the principle of hierarchical succession that the principales are de-
posed completely and become merely the proprietors of a group of mayordomias.
At the village of Cheran, Mlichoacan, such a group, the cabildo, exists.
Known also by a Tarascan name meaning "principal men," TEit n  isters a group
of six mayordomias in competition and roughly parallel to seven others in the
town. The cabildo itself is composed of pasados of the Church offices of
prioste and colector, which they fill by their own appointees (Beals 1946:
131-3a). In a far advanced state of disintegration the former emergent au-
thority group may be recognizable only as a respected status group composed
of those who have discharged cargos in the cults.  Thus, in Tzintzuntzan no
man can be important and respected in his advanced years unless he has served
in a mayordomia.  His status or prestige does not increase with more than one
service (Foster 1948:195).
With the passing of central and coercive authority mayordomia has come
to persist in mestizoized pueblos by volunteer service aloneo  The new rela-
tionship between the individual and the saint whose cargo he vows to discharge
is adequately represented by the dyadic contract model developed by Foster to
describe social interaction in Mexican peasant communities.  Specifically it
is Foster's asymmetrical type of dyadic contract which here pertains, in which
the individual and the person or supernatural being with whom he makes the
contract are of different status or order, and the reciprocal obligations are
non-complementary. His example of a supplicant lighting candles and hanging
votive offerings before an image of the Virgin and promising certain restric-
tive encumberances on his life in return for a favor (Foster 1961:1174-75) is
explicitly of the same category as taking a saint's cargo on vow or promesao
It is this method that is almost universally present in modern Mexican and
Guatemalan communities where hierarchies and mandatory service are lacking.
Constitutional civil authority not only has undermined the authority
structure of mayordomla but has also contributed to the disappearance of barrio
organization and barrio solidarity by creating new territorial divisions in
towns irrespective of traditional barrio lines. Sometimes these new divisions
are so little used or correspond sufficiently to the old barrio lines that they
67
do not disrupt the barrio-based ceremonial life. This is the case with the new
ejido divisions of Ojitlan, Oxaca (Weitlaner 1951:443), and the demarcaciones
of Tepoztlan (Redfield 1930072).  But sometimes barrio-solidarity is destroyed.
The Popoluca village of Sayula, Veracruz, for instance, had two barrios in the
nineteenth century which functioned in the traditional civil-religious hierar-
chy. Later a constitutional municipality was established and four secciones
replaced the barrios, which ultimately disappeared (Guiteras Holmes 1952b).
The disappearance of the traditional authority structure and the appear-
ance of voluntary service associated with dyadic contract rather than with
community responsibility has permitted competitive institutions to encroach on
the traditional domain of mayordomla. Economy is an essential feature of
these new forms of religious-expression. This can be provided by a shortened
form of mayordomia, such as the velorio at Soteapan, Veracruz. The velorio
here follows largely the same mechanics as a myordomla. A man makes a promise
to the saint, arranges to have the image installed at his house where it is
feted in an overnight celebration, and returns to the church the next day
(Foster 1942:67). The affair is short, does not involve a major fiesta, and
is cheap.
Voluntary lay religious associations are probably the most successful
competitors of mayordomia. They are very characteristic of mestizo society.
In Quiroga, Michoacan, a Spanish-speaking European and mestizo village, there
were sixteen lay religious organizations active in the twenty years prior to
Brand's study in 1945, but the pueblo at that time sponsored only one mayor-
domia, that of the patron (Brand 1951:203-4). Generally this pattern holds
true for Middle America as a whole; as the number of lay associations goes up
the number of mayordomias goes down.
Lay religious associations are structurally quite different from mayor-
ctomia groups. In many respects they are much more similar to true cofradias
and hermandades and in fact sometimes bear these terms in their official titles.
From the descriptions provided by Foster (1948:202-4) and others, the following
characterization of the religious associations can be made. Membership is vol-
untary and generally for life.  They are sex-segregated, with women's organiza-
tions far outnumbering men's; groups which ostensibly are open to both sexes
are segregated within. Youth associations also occur, as do auxiliaries of
religious orders. The purposes of the associations as verbalized or stated in
their charters are varied and vague. Rarely are they organized around the
direct care of an image. Many have an insignia or special costume. They are
usually headed by a president, secretary, and treasurer. Rapport with the or-
ganized Church through the parish priest is often close. Finally, low prestige
is attached to membership in lay religious associations. The associations can
become immensely popular. Brand has observed that probably 90 percent of the
adult population of Quiroga belongs to one or more of these associations
(Brand 1951:203) .
In some places, lay associations have absorbed functions that once be-
longed to mayordomias. At Yalalag, cOxaca, the religious aspects of all fies-
tas, including the novenas, rosaries, processions, and high and low masses,
are in charge of the feminine hermandad (de la Fuente 1949:276). Hermandades
at Sayula, Veracruz help the individual mayordomo by collecting maize and money
on house to house rounds through the year (Guiteras 1952bol25)0
68
With the growth of mestizo values the fiestas at the pueblo level of
organization have become more and more secularized, and mayordomos have
ceased to functiono  Civil government, motivated by economic ends in many
cases, has stepped in and taken over the organization of these affairs. In
the more urbanized Maya villages of Yucataa the organizers of these fiestas
are civil appointees, diputados, who are not under solemn oath to a saint and
who organize the fiesta as popular entertainment which pays expenses or bet-
ter. The religious part of the fiesta here consists only of formal masses
conducted by priests from the city (Redfield and Villa 1934-157-8).  At
Cheran, Michoacan, the fiesta of the patron saint and other pueblo-wide Church
festivals are the responsibility of commissioners who are named by the civil
mayor from each of the administrative barrios'. These commissioners, to pay
for the fiestas, collect-donations from each household. The civil appointees
are a temporar-y organization and are not connected with the remaining mayor-
domlas of the same town (Beals 1946:120-28).
Summary and Conclusion
The introduction of the Spanish institution of mayordomia to Middle
America involved its separation from its usual Spanish vehicle, the cofradla.
In its New World setting mayordomla became the function of a set of officers
specially constituted for a term of one year. These teams of officers were
organized in the Indian communities on the framework of the Spanish parish
system with its associated structure of territorial patron saints.  The basic
unit of mayordomla organization was the barrio, or ward; when a mayordomla
functioned at the community level, the structure of its body of officers re-
flected equal representation from the component barrios. A supporting struc-
ture for the institution was the civil-religious hierarchy in which mayordomia
was incorporated as a prerequisite for political office and hierarchical ad-
vancement. The emergent authorities in the structure supervised a system of
mandatory service for all adult males. With the introduction of civil munici-
pal government, divorced of religious functions, the authority structure sup-
porting mayordomla has been weakened or destroyed, and it has come to depend
on volunteer service motivated by the seeking of status and by vows made to
the saints. The voluntary basis and high cost of mayordomia have left it vul-
nerable in the mestizoized village to competing religious institutions, par-
ticularly lay associations. Its religious functions are being absorbed by the
lay associations, and pueblo level fiestas, formerly its domain, are being
secularized and managed by the civil authorities.
With the d'evelopment of Mediterranean-type peasant culture in Mexico and
Guatemala, a new type of religious organization is domirating the scene in
former Indian villages. This is the lay religious association, and although
it approximates in an ephemeral way the structure of the early brotherhoods
of Spain, it does so without commitment to the mayordomla of a patron saint.
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