Faena, mutual aid and communality among the Otomí people. Community ecosystem conservation experience.

Abstract

The faena is the element of the Otomí indigenous-peasant cultural system that expresses life in communality and the form of collective work that generates common benefits. The objective of this study was to contribute to the understanding of the faena, by identifying and analyzing the components that give it validity in the Otomí of the Valles Altosof the State of Mexico.The document is based on the theoretical analysis of mutual aid and communality; from the ethnographic method, two semi-structured interviews were designed and applied to twenty strategic characters, in addition to eight tours and three stays in the community. The causes that originate the loss of the faena practice are discussed and the elements that strengthen it and give it validity are analyzed: cultivation of collective work, popular democracy, creation of governance regulations, incentives and institution of representative bodies.