i Patrick W. Staib Anthropology This dissertation is approved, and it ...

These communities appear to have escaped the reaches of the national
government after the failed indigenous revolt. Wheelock (1980) claims that the events
following the 1881 revolt signified the end of Indian culture in northern Nicaragua. He
does not assert that the ‘savage’ tribes were eventually civilized, but rather that they had
disappeared. In my view, the natives had to conform to dominant Nicaraguan social
standards as a means of survival. Expressions of Indian identity posed a threat to survival
and thus were abandoned or disguised.
National versus Segovian Identity Formation
The indigenous experience during the colonial era was that of pawns caught amid the
growing tensions between colonists and the Spanish Crown. Liberalization, or privatizing
what was once communal or public land, throughout the countryside and the subsequent
colonization of mountainous regions, the last refuges for traditional communities, marked
the independence period in Nicaragua.
“Within Nicaragua, practices of land tenure differed substantially depending on
local population pressure, the availability of virgin forests, and local custom.
Before 1870, national laws favored access to unclaimed lands by those who had
money and could read Spanish. The process involved staking the boundaries of a
claim and having authorities post the claim publicly for a specified period. If no
other claimants came forth, the authorities would grant the land to the person who
made the claim after a fee was paid” (Williams 1994: 82).
Campesinos and indigenous peoples were usually excluded from this process.
Whether under the guise of national sovereignty or nation-building, these decisions made
in the centers of power have had significant impacts on rural communities. However, this
is not a Redfieldian scheme of urban and folk or a Wallersteinian one of center and
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