Custom under attack by its own guardians: The demands of Indian Zapatista women

Owing to the traditional sexual division of labour in the Indian communitie s of Mexico, the responsibility for cultural reproduction is borne by the w omen, which explains their being deprived of acculturating contacts with th e "white" world, especially the school. This mechanism of cultural preserva tion operates to their detriment, since they are deprived of other alternat ives. Still, the Zapatista movement which appeared in Chiapas in 1994 revea led the Indian women's determination to transform various oppressive tradit ions, clearly expressed by their two laws concerning women. Some of their d emands seem ambiguous, reflecting the multiplicity of women's interests and the complexity of their lives. Many other demands are extremely radical in the sense that, if applied, they would undermine the very foundations of w hat is known today as Indian cultures. They face a lot of strong opposition both inside and outside the Indian communities. War is raging and Indian w omen are struggling on two fronts - against both the neoliberal white order and against the internal traditional order, which leaves the revolutionary Indian women with little margin of maneuver.