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Vagabundaje and Settlement Patterns in Colonial Northern Sonora

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Peter Stern  and
Robert Jackson
Peter Stern
Affiliation:
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
Robert Jackson
Affiliation:
Ben Lomond, California
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Extract

Frontiers are, by definition, unsettled and wild places; populations are shifting and mobile, social conditions are in state of constant flux, and governmental authority is generally weak. Frontier populations tend to be resentful of any type of control, and are often engaged in entreprenurial activities whose degree of legality varies widely. In frontier conditions, people the state defines as vagabonds and marginal tend to flourish. Their tenure as frontiersmen is usually brief, for they depend on the very conditions of instability which exist in areas with underdeveloped economies, weak authority, and sparse and spatially dispersed populations. Nevertheless, they can have an effect out of proportion to their numbers in a frontier society.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , April 1988 , pp. 461 - 481
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1988

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References

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75 Padre Reyes to Viceroy Bucareli, México, April 20, 1772, AGN Misiones 14.