URBANIDAD, ETNICIDAD Y LAS DIFERENCIACIONES ÉTNICAS ENTRE ESTUDIANTES EN SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, MÉXICO

Abstract

This article explores the decisive components in ethnic hetero- and self-
identification in a form of “nominal” and “activated” elements that a person employs in eth-
nic categorization. Using mixed methodology, it is analyzed how these elements are priori-
tized and changed among youngsters who study at the Intercultural University of Chiapas,

located in the southeast of Mexico.
It concludes that the elements of ethnic categorization depend on complex imbrications
between level of urbanity, descendance and the native language of the person. In addition,
with the purpose of developing the bases for a typology of different forms of ethnicity, the

possession and the strategic use of “nominal” and “activated” elements of ethnicity are dis-
cussed.