From the others to the us: Intercultural processes betweenmixtecs and afromexicans from the Costa Chica of Oaxaca

Abstract

This paper analyzes the intercultural relations between afrodescendants and mixtecs of the municipality of Santiago Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca. For this purpose, the topic of identity is conceptually reviewed, taking up authors and proposals for its understanding. We start from the psychological to the anthropological, passing through Ricoeur’s hermeneutics to explain changes and permanence of the phenomenon. Subsequently, from an ethnographic methodology based on open and semistructured interviews, two mayordomías and a dance are described with the purpose of explaining how they contribute to identify and distinguish the groups. Finally, an interpretation of the practices and their meanings is presented. The main objective is to indicate the importance of otherness in the construction of identity for the study of social processes in intercultural contexts.