Yanna Yannakakis, "Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico" (Duke UP, 2023)
In\xa0Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico\xa0(Duke UP, 2023),\xa0Yanna Yannakakis traces the invention of Native custom, a legal category that Indigenous litigants used in disputes over marriage, self-governance, land, and labor in colonial Mexico. She outlines how, in the hands of Native litigants, the European category of custom\u2014social practice that through time takes on the normative power of law\u2014acquired local meaning and changed over time. Yannakakis analyzes sources ranging from missionary and Inquisition records to Native pictorial histories, royal surveys, and Spanish and Native-language court and notarial documents.\xa0\nBy encompassing historical actors who have been traditionally marginalized from legal histories and highlighting spaces outside the courts like Native communities, parishes, and missionary schools, she shows how imperial legal orders were not just imposed from above but also built on the ground through translation and implementation of legal concepts and procedures. Yannakakis argues that, ultimately, Indigenous claims to custom, which on the surface aimed to conserve the past, provided a means to contend with historical change and produce new rights for the future.\n\ufeffJoaqu\xedn Rivaya-Mart\xednez\xa0es profesor de Historia en Texas State University. Sus intereses acad\xe9micos incluyen la etnohistoria, los pueblos ind\xedgenas de las Grandes Llanuras y el Suroeste de EE.UU., la frontera M\xe9xico-EE.UU. y la Am\xe9rica hisp\xe1nica.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law