The Decline of Community in Zinacantan: Economy, Public Life, and Social Stratification, 1960-1987

This ambitious work shows how national prosperity and government expansion in Mexico in the 1970’s transformed a relatively closed peasant community into a more outwardly connected, socially differentiated society marked by dissension and conflict. ‘This fascinating study is a fine example of the benefits of long-term research. Cancian …has witnessed something near to a transformation of the community whose ethnography he first wrote some 25 years ago. Though the main part of the book is a clearly and sensitively written ethnography of changing people in a changing place, Cancian also aims to contribute to current debates within anthropology. In particular, he reflects on those perspectives which have tried to link local ethnographic description to national and international economic processes.’ Development Policy Review