Ethnic Identity, Conflict, and Discrimination Among Ancient Nahuatl-Speaking Peoples

Although the phenomenon of discrimination, as we know it, is a product of European imperialism, we cannot affirm that it is an exclusive reality of said context, since the act of discriminating goes hand in hand with the process of categorization and formation of social groups, which, in turn, imply the construction of stereotypes, both of the ingroup and of the outgroups. The contexts of interethnic relations are conducive to the circulation of stereotypes, since many of the elements that define social groups are anchored in them and which end up being conceived as their essential characteristics. In the context of the indigenous peoples who lived in the Valley of Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish, ethnic identity, but also territory, kinship, history, and myth were elements that determined interethnic relations, whether they were of friendship or enmity and conflict, and the creation of negative representations about outgroups. It is at the level of ethnicity where we can find some elements of discriminatory practices among the peoples of ancient Mexico—not a structural discrimination that crossed every aspect of the life of a group in a vulnerable situation, but certain practices of humiliation, harassment and physical violence due to their ethnic condition. The lesson that pre-Hispanic history gives us is that no group is exempt from practicing discriminatory acts. Being aware of this will allow us not to idealize non-Western societies.