Abstract

GAUSSENS, Pierre. By usos y costumbres:The Communitarian Systems of Government in the Costa Chica region of Guerrero. Estud. sociol [online]. 2019, vol.37, n.111, pp.659-687.  Epub Feb 20, 2020. ISSN 2448-6442.  https://doi.org/10.24201/es.2019v37n111.1723.

In 2018, for the first time in the legal history of the state of Guerrero, local elections have taken place by usos y costumbres, in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres. In relation to this event, the article develops a sociological analysis about the social practices that sustain the political organization of rural localities in southern Mexico, and to which the term “usos y costumbres” refers. To do so, it takes up critically some anthropological approaches, in order to propose an alternative concept: the "communitarian systems of government", whose general functioning is presented and explained as a result of a case study in the Costa Chica region of Guerrero.

Keywords : community; government; cargo system; assembly; Costa Chica.