The Historic Formation of condueñazgos and joint Ownerships of Land in the Huastecas Regions of Mexico and in the High Plateaus of Jujuy, Argentina

Abstract

In this article, we submit a comparative analysis of the origin of condueñazgos y/o joint ownerships during the republican period within the Mexican Huasteca region, and the “highlands” of the extreme Andean northeast of Argentina. The analysis was based on examinations of historiographical production and (primarily) secondary sources on the subject matter. Following the legislative sequence and the historic circumstances that intervened in the formation of such corporate property rights and productive and associative community forms, the article seeks to reexamine the liberal project in Latin America, particularly with respect to agrarian confiscation and disentailment of communal indigenous property. With this primary intention, the subject of indigenous agency is examined within the framework of the nineteenth century nation-state constitution, ascribing to the idea that the configuration of these joint forms of ownership, by which these sectors were active participants, was a reaction based on the defense of their territoriality. The comparative approach seeks to raise the scale of analysis and to intertwine the facts and approximations of a history that is undoubtedly shared.