ABSTRACT
In order to understand the social institution of the Mazahuas from El Nopal, one should try to see them in terms of the two cultural universes which coexist and often overlap in a most complex way in contemporary Mexico: the Occidental universe and the Meso-American Indian universe. The way of life of the Occidental population is, broadly speaking, of a European type, and their institutions are foreign and often incomprehensible to the Indian population. The Meso-American Indian universe shaped by the centuries of Occidental influences is naturally far from being culturally pure. The Indian universe to which the Mazahuas from El Nopal belong provides an individual Mazahua with pressures, privileges, and demands quite distinct from those of the Occidental universe. Out of the two universes in which contemporary Mazahuas from El Nopal live their difficult lives, the Occidental universe is probably easier to cope with than the traditional Mazahua universe.
