Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. A Note on Orthography xiii
5. Maps xiv
6. Introduction 1
7. Part I. Legal and Intellectual Foundations Twelfth through Seventeenth Centuries
8. 1 Custom, Law, and Empire in the Mediterranean-Atlantic World 23
9. 2 Translating Custom in Castile, Central Mexico, and Oaxaca 45
10. Part II. Good and Bad Customs in the Native Past and Present Sixteenth through Seventeenth Centuries
11. 3 Framing Pre-Hispanic Law and Custom 73
12. 4 The Old Law, Polygyny, and the Customs of the Ancestors 109
13. Part III. Custom in Oaxaca’s Courts of First Instance Seventeenth through Eighteenth Centuries
14. 5 Custom, Possession, and Jurisdiction in the Boundary Lands 139
15. 6 Custom as Social Contract: Native Self-Governance and Labor 171
16. 7 Prescriptive Custom: Written Labor Agreements in Native and Spanish Jurisdictions 199
17. Epilogue 229
18. Notes 237
19. Bibliography 273
20. Index 305