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REINVENTING TRADITION: THE WOMEN'S LAW.
The armed conflict that broke out in Chiapas on the first of January has brought up many questions about the general picture of the Indigenous population. Different historical experiences have defined the way in which Indigenous people displaced from the highlands, as well as immigrants, view their identity and how through armed struggle they take a stance politically opposed to the Mexican government.
In order to make a more incisive analysis, many anthropologists have pointed out that it is necessary to examine both differences in class and political views within communities as well as the differences in regions. However, as is the case in the majority of anthropological studies carried out in the region of Chiapas (except for a noteworthy few), gender difference have been absent from speculative analyses.
The Mexican Academy still refuses to recognize differences in gender as a fundamental part of understanding and explaining social relationships, and ethnographies and anthropological analyses continue to rely on information given to them by "informers," - men who act as representatives of the Tzeltal, Tzotzil or Tojolabal cultures. Meanwhile, Indigenous women from many different areas call attention to the fact that it is important to recognize their specific problems and experiences. Their voices have not been absent from the political debate going on within the current conflict.
On the first January, the National Liberation Zapatista Army (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación - or EZLN) began to distribute pamphlets called The Mexican Awakening (el despertador mexicano). It was startling to find that among its revolutionary laws there was a Revolutionary Law for Women. For those who have been denying the Indigenous foundation of this movement, the claim to reproductive right for women and for their greater participation in the community is yet more proof that "outside" forces are an underlying part of this movement.
For those who continue to view Chiapaneco Indigenous people as descendants of the Maya who live in incorporated, closed communities and who are organized around a barter system, it would be difficult to imagine that Indigenous women would demand the right to participate in politics or to marry the partner...