Commissaries and Sub-commissaries in the Municipality of Mérida: between tradition and modernity

Abstract

The comisarias of the municipality of Merida are rural populations in which their inhabitants, despite being linked to the labour market, from which they get most of their income, also hold certain elements of the peasant economy, such as agricultural activities, that, in most cases, work as a complement to the former, and in other cases, act as the main source of work and income. From this perspective, these comisarias, like other towns in the henequen zone in Yucatán, show the features of what some authors have denominate as rurality or new rurality. In this context we will focus on the discussion of how beliefs and customs related to some of the major cultural practices, like agricultural ceremonies and traditional festivals, including bullfights, have been affected by social factors and taxes imposed by the economic neoliberalism that began in the eighties.