Resumo

LLANOS-HERNANDEZ, Luis. Social actors and processes of sociocultural change in the indigenous territory of the Chiapas Highlands, México. agric. soc. desarro [online]. 2008, vol.5, n.1, pp.1-17. ISSN 1870-5472.

This study attempts to explain social and cultural processes that transformed the indigenous territory in the Chiapas Highlands during the last fifty years of the past century. These changes were slow and full of conflict within indigenous communities, and they modified the social relations of exploitation that had ordered social life in that territory. The government's policies sought to eliminate indigenous culture and disintegrate communities to help the figure of citizen to emerge. This did not happen, for the indigenous population managed to seize the limited benefits that the federal government's programs provided them, they opened up to interaction with the mixed race society and reconstituted their indigenous identity. The study has as its analytical axis the territory, which is appropriated and transformed by the social action of actors that live and politically confront each other for the resources found in it.

Palavras-chave : Social action; indigenous community; identity; integration; space; mixed race society.