Power Structures and Human Development in Communities Under Indigenous Customary Law (usos y costumbres): Reality and Trends 2012-2018. The cases of Santa Inés del Monte and San Miguel Huautla, Oaxaca

Abstract

This article addresses the relationship between power structures and human development in the communities of San Miguel Huautla and Santa Inés del Monte which operate under indigenous customary law (usos y costumbres). The analysis has been undertaken with a human development approach and articulated with concepts of regional and local development and power, not from the Weberian perspective, but as the capacity and exercise of freedom. It has been found that traditional power structures predominate and that they influence low human development in its different dimensions, causing unfavorable gender inequality for women who, under the influence of social assistance programs, shift their reproductive roles to the public space, in health, education and community kitchen committees. The “positive” structure produces a pragmatic collective individualism characteristic of the new forms of participation, thereby weakening the forms of community organization and participation, even though it is favorable for the recognition of the rights of women and children.