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ritoriality. An extended family or group of families held priority in the use of a
given ihiizitim. Ritual gestures like burying a newborn’s placenta at a particular
ihiizitim permanently established a relation between the individual to the land.
Social interactions among the Comcaac were often determined by the possession of
specific environmental knowledge, since resource availability and type varied from
ihiizitim to ihiizitim and consequently, different kinds of environmental expertise
developed along different familial lines. This condition was reinforced by social
patterns of transmission of knowledge that emphasized individual creation over
reproduction (Martínez-Tagüeña 2015; Alfredo Lopez, personal communication,
June 2013). In turn, highly specialized knowledge “belonged” to just a few. Moser
characterizes this:
[…] the hant iiha quimxoj or those who tell about the ancient ways, who in turned passed it
on to the hant iiha cöhacomxoj or those who have been informed about the ancient ways.
Today only a few members of the community are considered to be hant iiha cöhacomxoj,
entrusted to be the carriers of knowledge to transmit it to future generations (Moser 2014,
p. 39).
Nonetheless, while specialized knowledge and the resulting subsisting skills it
created were considered a matter of individual achievement, the distribution of
resources resulting from such specialized skills was not. Comcaac society enforced
different modalities of reciprocity within and between different ihiizitim, generating
a network that ensured resource distribution. The Kimosin represented one of such
modalities:
The kimo?sími?a represents a type of begging, somewhat akin to the ‘palanqueo’. When
food is being prepared, a person can approach another’s house and announce his purpose,
using the proper grammatical form of kimo?sími?a. If the family has a sufficient supply on
hand or is of “good heart”, the person will receive something to eat; the procedure indicates
that one has come to ask for food because he is hungry—he has not come to visit or to trade.
Today some people abuse this practice and go around saying “give me” but this is not the
same as the kimo?sími?a; others, on the other hand, are not willing to give as freely as they
did in the past (Griffen 1959, p. 33).
From this it should be evident that reciprocity and individuality as moral values
played a key role in Comcaac subsistence. The first assured a relatively balanced
distribution of resources across different families. The latter propitiated the constant
updating of specialized knowledge and the mastering of basic subsistence skills.
Together, they orchestrated power and expertise among the Comcaac—domains
that were greatly affected not only by the colonial encounter but also by different
waves of external influence during the twentieth century, namely the re- structuration
of the many ihiizitim into a single “territory” owned as communal ejido land; the
incorporation of the Comcaac as labor in the regional small-scale fishing industry of
the region; the appropriation of new technologies and material goods; the establishment of permanent settlements; and the influence of Protestant logic all constitute
processes that greatly altered said balance.
18 Social Cohesion and Environmental Governance Among the Comcaac of Northern…
ritoriality. An extended family or group of families held priority in the use of a
given ihiizitim. Ritual gestures like burying a newborn’s placenta at a particular
ihiizitim permanently established a relation between the individual to the land.
Social interactions among the Comcaac were often determined by the possession of
specific environmental knowledge, since resource availability and type varied from
ihiizitim to ihiizitim and consequently, different kinds of environmental expertise
developed along different familial lines. This condition was reinforced by social
patterns of transmission of knowledge that emphasized individual creation over
reproduction (Martínez-Tagüeña 2015; Alfredo Lopez, personal communication,
June 2013). In turn, highly specialized knowledge “belonged” to just a few. Moser
characterizes this:
[…] the hant iiha quimxoj or those who tell about the ancient ways, who in turned passed it
on to the hant iiha cöhacomxoj or those who have been informed about the ancient ways.
Today only a few members of the community are considered to be hant iiha cöhacomxoj,
entrusted to be the carriers of knowledge to transmit it to future generations (Moser 2014,
p. 39).
Nonetheless, while specialized knowledge and the resulting subsisting skills it
created were considered a matter of individual achievement, the distribution of
resources resulting from such specialized skills was not. Comcaac society enforced
different modalities of reciprocity within and between different ihiizitim, generating
a network that ensured resource distribution. The Kimosin represented one of such
modalities:
The kimo?sími?a represents a type of begging, somewhat akin to the ‘palanqueo’. When
food is being prepared, a person can approach another’s house and announce his purpose,
using the proper grammatical form of kimo?sími?a. If the family has a sufficient supply on
hand or is of “good heart”, the person will receive something to eat; the procedure indicates
that one has come to ask for food because he is hungry—he has not come to visit or to trade.
Today some people abuse this practice and go around saying “give me” but this is not the
same as the kimo?sími?a; others, on the other hand, are not willing to give as freely as they
did in the past (Griffen 1959, p. 33).
From this it should be evident that reciprocity and individuality as moral values
played a key role in Comcaac subsistence. The first assured a relatively balanced
distribution of resources across different families. The latter propitiated the constant
updating of specialized knowledge and the mastering of basic subsistence skills.
Together, they orchestrated power and expertise among the Comcaac—domains
that were greatly affected not only by the colonial encounter but also by different
waves of external influence during the twentieth century, namely the re- structuration
of the many ihiizitim into a single “territory” owned as communal ejido land; the
incorporation of the Comcaac as labor in the regional small-scale fishing industry of
the region; the appropriation of new technologies and material goods; the establishment of permanent settlements; and the influence of Protestant logic all constitute
processes that greatly altered said balance.
18 Social Cohesion and Environmental Governance Among the Comcaac of Northern…