CLASS AND ETHNICITY IN MEXICO - SOMATIC AND RACIAL CONSIDERATIONS

Based on research conducted during the past twenty years on superordin ate stratification in Mexico City and the class system of several citi es, this article has three goals. First, it establishes the historical origins of ethnic categories that began strictly as racial categories in the sixteenth century. Second, it describes the main ethnic sector s of contemporary Mexican society, their class composition, and the pr inciples of social mobility. Third, it analyzes interclass and interet hnic relations and the cultural and racial perceptions they engender. The generalizations of (1) apply to the entire country, whereas those of (2) and (3) characterize central Mexico (from Oaxaca to Jalisco and from coast to coast).