Surviving the Economic Transitions in Yucatán, Mexico, 1985-2002
Within the free market economic policy of contemporary Mexico, rural inhabitants are particularly prone to under-employment, a decline of purchasing power, low incomes, government withdrawal from social programs and a disorganized agricultural sector. Given these conditions, there should be a shift by extended rural families in the Yucatán state of southeastern Mexico, to return to a domestic (or food-) based income - to generate activities as a means of easing their growing economic vulnerability. We propose to examine the role of the domestic factor in the need to return to traditional survival strategies by rural Yucatecan families. Despite destabilizing economical and structural variables, maya-descendant mestizo populations have implemented effective combinations of income sources within a system of resource pooling on a domestic scale. One of the survival strategies they have implemented includes assigning a new role to the domestic unit, as one of production. The link between domestic production and the informal sector of the economy provides rural families a needed economic boost in the new rural economy.