Conflict in The Modern Teotihuacan Irrigation System

Conflict in the Modern Teotihuacan Irrigation System
Rene Millon; Clara Hall; May Diaz
Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 4, No. 4. (Jul., 1962), pp. 494-524.
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CONFLICT IN THE MODERN TEOTIHUACAN IRRIGATION
SYSTEM*
INTRODUCTION
In recent years a number of investigators have been concerned with the

antiquity of irrigation agriculture in central Mexico and its possible relation-
ship to processes of social and political differentiation in the ancient urban
civilizations of that region. Because of its strategic role in the prehistory of
Middle America, attention has centered on the Basin of Mexico in the Mexican
central plateau. The semi-arid Valley of Teotihuacan, in the northwestern
part of the Basin, has been of special concern because it was the locus of the
enormous city of Teotihuacan, one of the most powerful and influential
centers in Middle America during a large part of the first millenium of the
Christian era. Studies to date have dealt largely with historical and archaeo-
logical evidence bearing on this problem.'
* The field work reported on here was conducted as part of a field training program
for graduate students in anthropology sponsored by the National Science Foundation
in the summer of 1959. The program was directed by Millon. May Diaz was the
coordinator of the phase of the program reported on here. Students partici-
pating in this phase of the program were Jerome Briggs of Columbia University, and
Clara Hall and Richard Randolph of the University of California, Berkeley. Randolph
participated in the preparation of a brief, preliminary analysis of the material discussed
in this paper, which was presented at the 1959 meeting of the American Anthropological
Association in Mexico City. We gratefully acknowledge his assistance. Preliminary
observations drawn on in this report were also made by Millon in 1956 and 1957 while
engaged in archaeological work in the Valley of Teotihuacan sponsored by N.S.F. An
early draft of this paper was read by Clifford Geertz, whose comments and observations
were very helpful. He and Hildred Geertz also kindly took the time to discuss relevant
aspects of their Balinese data with us. We are happy to acknowledge a special debt to
them. We wish to thank Ing. Joaquin Elizalde of the Secretaria de Recursos HidrAulicos
in Mexico City for his assistance and cooperation on a number of occasions and in
particular for obtaining approval for us to have a copy of the new water regulation for
the Valley made. We also wish to thank Dr. Ignacio Bernal, Sub-Director of the
Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, and Lic. Manuel Castaiieda, Custodian
of the Archaeological Zone of Teotihuacan, for their assistance in obtaining the necessary
introductions and clearances for our work in the Valley. We also thank Ing. Roberto J.
Weitlaner of the I.N.A.H. and our many friends in the Valley of Teotihuacan for the
time they gave to us. The preparation of this report was aided by research grants from
the National Science Foundation, and the Committee on Research and the Institute of
Social Sciences, University of California, Berkeley.
Armillas, 1948, 1949, 1951; Steward, 1949; Palerm and Wolf, 1961; Steward et a].,
1955; Armillas, Palerm and Wolf, 1956; Sanders, 1956; Millon, 1954, 1957.
CONFLICT IN IRRIGATION 49 5
With the exception of an exploratory study by Palerm and Wolf no serious
attempt has been made to study an existing irrigation system in this region
to determine what specific ecological problems are posed, the manner of their
solution in social and political terms, and what similarities and differences
may be inferred as to the past. Our interest in the possible value of this kind
of inquiry led us to make a study of the modern irrigation system in the
Valley of Teotihuacan in the summer of 1959.
Our objective was the delineation of the structure of authority in the
modern system. While we were able to determine the outlines of this structure
to our satisfaction, we believe that a more significant outgrowth of the study
was a degree of clarification for us of a more general point, which seems of
sufficient interest to warrant formal statement. A number of recent studies
illustrate, sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly, the varied range of
social responses to the problem of the distribution and allocation of irrigation
water which are possible in differing ecological and social settings, both now
and in the past.3 These studies range from detailed analyses of single com-
munities to analyses of much broader scope; the relation between irrigation
systems and systems of centralized authority is stressed in some; in others the
absence of such a relation is emphasized; in still other quite other matters are
given primary attention. The wider conclusion implicit in these and other
studies taken as a body is that any system of irrigation agriculture creates its
own distinctive potential for both cohesion and conflict, whatever may be the
social system of the people who practice it.l This two-edged potential may
be realized in the development of a viable, productive, persisting irrigation
system or it may not. And if it is so realized, its realization may take many
forms, only one of which is the direction of the system by centralized authority,
particularly in a relatively small scale irrigation system. Viewed in this context,
correlations which might exist between irrigation practices and centralized
authority would be seen as special cases or as specific solutions to particular
problems in a wider framework encompassing a variety of other solution^.^
We shall return to this point in our concluding section.
THE MODERN SYSTEM
The Valley of Teotihuacan is a small valley in the northeastern part of the

V a l e r m and Wolf, 1961, pp. 288-296.
Adams, 1957, 1960; Beardsley et al., 1959; Dozier, 1958; Eyre, 1955; Fernea, 1959;
Fernea in Kraeling and Adams, 1960, pp. 35-38; Geertz, 1959; Gray, 1958, Hall, 1960;
Hammel, 1959; Huntingford, 1953; Jacobson and Adams, 1958; Leach, 1959, Palerm
and Wolf, 1961; Peristiany, 1954; Pitt-Rivers, 1954; Steward et al., 1955; Wittfogel,
1957; Woodbury, 1959, 1961a, 1961b.
* Cf. Leach, 1961, p. 65 and passim. Leach's new study was called to our attention
by Alfred Harris after this was written.
Cf. Leach, 1959.
496 MILLON, HALL, DIAZ
Fig. 1. Valley of Teotihuacan irrigation system, and the communities and haciendas
included within it. Ancient Teotihuacan, upper right, with its estimated boundaries
roughly indicated to illustrate the size of the ancient city in relation to the Valley. See
Tables 1-111, especially narrative comments in Tables I and 111. Drawing by Zenon
Pohorecky.
Fig. 2. Aerial photo of the Valley of Teotihuacan, omitting the extreme southern
portion. Communities shown at the right of the photograph, from bottom to top, Tepex-
pan, Cuanalan, Zocango, San Mateo Chipiltepec. See Fig. 1. Ancient Teotihuacan,
upper left. Note the line of demarcation between irrigated and non-irrigated lands.
Courtesy Cia. Mexicana Aerofoto, S. A,
Fig. 3s. Canal de San Jost as it passes north of Atlatongo. See Fig. 1
Fig. 3b. Atlatongo farmer irrigating field from feeder ditch running parallel to and
immediately north of Canal de San JosC north of Atlatongo. Low embankment
has just been breached, permitting water to flow into field.
Fig. 3c. Field north of Atlatongo being irrigated lrom feeder ditch in b opposite.
Fig. 3d. Rio de 10s Manantiales immediately west of juncture of springs forming it in
San Juan Teotihuacan. See Fig. I. Note small volume of water.
Fig. 3e. Waters of Rio Grande dammed above Las Cortinas sluice. See Fig. 1, Table 111.
Fig. 3f. Headquarters of Executive Committee of Valley irrigation Junta, a small

room in Acolman library building.
CONFLICT IN IRRIGATION 497
Basin of Mexico, with approximately 9,400 acres of cultivated land under
irrigation at the present time (Fig. 1, 2, 3a-c). Even though the water table
now is said to be much lower than it was in the recent past and the springs
which provide water for irrigation were probably more important formerly,
it is doubtful if the system at its maximum could have irrigated more than
12-14,000 acres. In 1950 there were approximately 15,000 people living in
communities served by the system.6 The total population of the Valley in
1950 was approximately 25,000.
Irrigated land is naturally highly prized by farmers in the Valley since
such land produces a salvageable crop even in time of drought. Furthermore,
farmers with irrigated land are able to plant a special type of maize with a
very high yield (called maiz chatqzrefio or Chalco maize). This type of maize
cannot be planted in land entirely dependent on rainfall because it has a
longer growing season and must be planted in February or early March, two
or three months before the first heavy rains. In addition, the farmer with
irrigated land is able to grow subsidiary crops during the dry season. Yet
despite his relative freedom from the tyranny of a rainfall that is capricious
both in timing and quantity, the farmer holding irrigated land is greatly
concerned with rainfall, because it is needed as a supplement for maximum
yields, in part because the water for irrigation in the Valley is in short supply,
as we shall see.
The primary source of irrigation water for the Valley is a series of springs
which come together outside the churchyard in the southwestern part of the
modern town of San Juan Teotihuacan, a short distance southwest of the
central part of the ancient city. The springs combine to form a stream called
the Rio de 10s Manantiales (Fig. 1, 3d) which yields a small but steady volume
of water - a little less than 143 gallons per second (540 liters per second).
This is augmented in the rainy season (May to October) by the waters of two
small rivers, the Rio San Juan and the Rio San Lorenzo, which join south
of San Juan Teotihuacan to form a modest stream bearing the misleading
name of the Rio Grande (Fig. 1, 3e). The system is a simple one, technically,
and for the most part is operated with a primitive technology.
The land irrigated by the canals in the system falls under multiple juris-
dictions. However, in accordance with provisions of the federal Ley de Aguas
which governs Mexico's irrigation systems, everyone holding land which
receives water from the system belongs to an organization which is called the
Junta de las Aguas de 10s Manantiales de San Juan Teotihuacan, the head-
quarters of which is in the town of Acolman in the central part of the Valley
(Fig. 1, 3f). This body represents the single formal organization in the Valley
uniting communities from San Juan Teotihuacan at its head to Nexquipayac
6 Censo General, 1953, pp. 222, 225, 246, 249. See Fig. I and Tables I and 111 for
communities sewed by the system.
MILLON, HALL, DIAZ
TABLE I
Privately Owned Lands receiving Water from
- $ 3*
L
Classification .9
., 62
Communities, Haciendas and Municipio $
and Miscellaneous Affiliation * ""
3"
92 dpl$
3
b.5 4 3 2"
Acolman Pueblo, Municipio

(El Calvario Acolman) Seat
Atlatongo Pueblo (SJT)
Cuanalan Pueblo (Acl)
Hacienda de San JosC
(fractionated)
Hda. de Sta. Catarina Hacienda (SJT)
(fractionated)
Maquixco Barrio (SJT)
Nexquipayac Pueblo((Atn)
San Bartolo Acolman Pueblo (Acl)
San Juanico Barrio (Acl)
San Mateo Chipiltepec Pueblo (Acl)
San Pedro Tepetitlan Ejido (Acl)
Sra. Catarina Acolman Pueblo (Acl)
Sta. Isabel Ixtapan Pueblo (Atn)
Sta. Maria Acolman Barrio (Acl)
Tepexpan Pueblo (Acl)
Tequisistlan Pueblo (Tezo)
Xometla Pueblo (Acl)
Hacienda de Cadena Hacienda (SJT)
Hacienda de San Hacienda (Acl)
Antonio Acolman
Hospital de Tepexpan
Rancho San Juanico
* Municipio Codes: San Juan Teotihuacan (SJT), Acolrnan, (Acl), Tezoyuca (Tezo),
Atenco (Atn).
SOURCES: Septimo Censo General de Poblacion, 1950, Estado de M6xic0, Secretaria
de Econornia, Mexico, 1953, and Reglamento para la Distribucibn de las Aguas de 10s
Manantiales de Sun Juan Teotihuacan, Ubicados en el Municipio de San Juan Teoti-
huacan, Estado de Mkxico, Secretaria de Recursos Hidr&ulicos, Mexico, 1959 (un-
published photocopy). The privately owned lands of San Juan Teotihuacan (Villa,
Municipio Seat, pop. 1,764) are not included here because they receive no irrigation
water from the system. They do not because most of the towns' cultivated lands are
"terrenos de humedad" with sufficient sub-surface moisture to make irrigation un-
CONFLICT IN IRRIGATION
the Sulz Juan Teotihuacan Irrigation System
necessary. This results from the fact that the springs providing water for the irrigation
system come to the surface in San Juan and the water table is extremely high (often
less than 3 feet from the surface). Ejido lands of the San Juan Teotihuacan ejido and
of ejidos in two other communities not listed above - San Marcos Nepantla (Barrio,
Acl, pop. 547) and San Agustin Actipac (Barrio, SJT, pop. 154) do receive water from
the irrigation system. See Table 3. Tezoyuca Pueblo, Municipio Seat, pop. 1,715) is located
in the southeastern part of the Valley, bordering on the Texcoco plain. See Fig. 1.
Atenco (Pueblo, Municipio Seat, pop. 1,650) is outside the Valley of Teotihuacan and is
not shown on Fig. 1. It lies a short distance southeast of Nexquipayac, on the way to
Texcoco.
on the shores of Lake Texcoco. The Valley otherwise consists of cross-cutting

groups and interests with overlapping boundaries and multiple membership.
The basic political unit is the municipio, an autonomous unit on the local
level which roughly corresponds to our county. Parts of four such municipios
lie within the boundaries of the irrigation system. Each of them includes
communities which are not within the irrigation system; one of them includes
communities outside the Valley itself and has its headquarters outside the
Valley (see Table I).
Lands within the system are held under two types of land tenure established
by national legislation, both of which are found in most of the towns and
barrios within the Valley. The first type is privately owned land, totalling
approximately 3,000 acres, of which there are two varieties. The commonest
such holdings are called terrenos de pequefia propiedad. These lands fall
within the jurisdiction of the municipios for matters other than those concerned
with irrigation. Those who hold this kind of land often own both irrigated
and non-irrigated lands in their municipio. In addition, some landholders
own pequefia propiedad land in towns where they do not live, occasionally
outside of the municipio to which they belong by reason of residence.
The largest holding of irrigated land of this type in the system listed in the
name of a single individual is 74 acres in Acolman. Another individual from
San Bartolo has holdings of the same size, but these are scattered over the
lands of five communities. There are five other pequefia propiedad holdings
of 25 or more acres of irrigated land held in the name of single individuals.
The effective size of most of these larger holdings may be greater, however,
since in two cases, to our knowledge, they are operationally augmented by
holdings in the names of other members of the family. For example, the
individual from San Bartolo just mentioned has several sons with pequefia
propiedad holdings in their names. One of them is president of the San Bartolo
ejido and also president of the Junta de las Aguas. He is in charge of the
working of all of these lands and of the family's dairy farm. He lives in a
family compound with an undetermined number of kinsmen, including
brothers. More will be said about him below.
The other variety of privately owned land in the irrigation system is called
locally a rancho or ex-hacienda, of which there are some half-dozen in the
Valley. For the most part these holdings seem to be drawn from the undivided
"core" lands of former haciendas. Parts of some of these lands have been
allotted to groups of small holders. Most of the individual plots of this type
are quite small, but some are relatively large for the Valley. One is 25 acres,
for example; another is 40.
But such holdings are the exception. The extent of fragmentation of
privately owned lands can be seen in the accompanying tables (Tables I, 11).
Of the 2,977 acres of irrigated privately-owned land, parcels of five acres
or less account for 83.4 percent. Parcels under one acre amount to 34.5
CONFLICT IN IRRIGATION
TABLE I1
Privately Owned Land less than one acre in Area receiving Water from the
Sun Juan Teotihuacan Irrigation System
Total No. Parcels Parcels Parcels

Communities, Haciendas Total Total No. Under Les Than .25-.49 30-.99
and Miscellaneous Acreage o f Parcels 1 Acre .25 Acres Acres Acres
Acolman 435 114 28 0 4 24
Atlatongo 195 112 63 28 10 25
Cuanalan 40 46 34 15 11 8
Hda. de San JosC 33 27 9 0 1 8
(fractionated)
Hda. de Sta. Catarina 66 11 0 - - -
(fractionated)
Maquixco 124 43 19 16 2 1
Nexquipayac 215 75 20 0 6 14
San Bartolo 300 74 19 3 5 11
San Juanico 67 29 16 4 2 10
San Mateo Chipiltepec 48 41 27 5 10 12
San Pedro Tepetitlan 72 26 8 2 2 4
Sta. Catarina Acolman 134 66 32 3 12 17
Sta. Isabel Ixtapan 185 37 0 - - -
Sta. Maria Acolman 154 28 6 0 1 5
Tepexpan 335 88 18 0 2 16
Tequisistlan 182 36 0 - - -
Xometla 270 73 22 0 5 17
Hda. de Cadena 54 1 0 - - -
Hda. de San Antonio 18 1 0 - - -
Hospital de Tepexpan 10 1 0 - - -
Rancho San Juanico 40 1 0 - - -
2,977 930 321 76 73 172
34.5% 8.2% 7.8% 18.5%
percent of total holdings. Holdings of 20 or more acres constitute only 1.2

percent of the total number of parcels, with 13 percent of the acreage. While
some of these small parcels are part of a larger family holding complex,
most of them are not. Given the crops raised on the smaller plots (maize and
beans are the principal staples) and the primitive techniques used, these are
subsistence plots. It seems probable that approximately 1/2 acre of irrigated
land is required in the central Mexican highlands for the support of one person
at the present rural standard of living.7 If we take this as a reasonable
figure, 6 1 percent of the pequeAa propiedad holdings fall under the minimum
necessary to support a family of four or five. An additional 12 percent barely
7 Palerm and Wolf, 1961, p. 271.

TABLE I11
Allotments o f Irrigated Land to Ejido Organizations in the
Sun Juan Teotihuacan Irrigation System
Acreage Divided According to Canal from which Water Received
Canal de Canal de
Canal de de La San Canal de Total
Ejidos San Jose' Texcalac Antonio Cadena Acreage
Acolman
Atlatongo
Cuanalan
Nexquipayac
San Agustin Actipac
San Bartolo
San Juan Teotihuacan
San Marcos Nepantla
San Mateo Chipiltepec
San Pedro Tepetitlan
Sta. Catarina Acolman
Sta. Isabel Ixtapan
Sta. Maria Acolman
Tepexpan
Tequisistlan
Xometla
See Fig. 1 for canal routes. The Canal de San Jose forms the northern and western limits
of the system. Its waters rejoin the canals of the central and eastern parts of the system at
the major junction north of Cuanalan. The single canal flowing south from this point,
while it bears the name Rio Grande, is fed in large part from the Canal de San JosC.
Hence ejido and other lands in the five communities in the southern part of the system
are classified as receiving water from the Canal de San JosC (see above and Fig. 1).
The Canal de la Texcalac empties into the Rio Grande northwest of Atlatongo; its
waters thence flow south to the Las Cortinas sluice, from which they are diverted to
irrigate the lands of San Bartolo, Acolman and Sta. Maria Acolman. The Rio Grande
itself carries very little water south of Las Cortinas during most of the year. The
Canal de San Antonio begins at La Taza, southeast of Maquixco, flows southwest to
El Temescal, at which point it passes beneath the Rio Grande, after which it flows
southward to a point north of Xometla. There it divides, forming a number of sub-
sidiary canals, which sometimes bear the name of the canal and in other cases are
called "rivers," as, for example, the Rio de Xometla. The Canal de Cadena is not
shown in Fig. 1. It is the shortest canal in the system, and carries very little water.
It runs from San Juan Teotihuacan to Maquixco, on the south side of the highway.
Thereafter it enters the Canal de San JosC. The average volume of water carried by
each of these canals at their sources is as follows: Canal de San Jose - 78.5 gallons
per second; Canal de La Texcalac - 14.2 gallons per second; Canal de San Antonio
- 43.2 gallons per second; Canal de Cadena - 6.8 gallons per second. The average
volume of water produced by the springs feeding these canals is 142.7 gallons per
second.
meet this requirement. It is clear that most of the holders of pequeiia propie-
dad parcels could not support their families through the cultivation of these
plots alone. However, some of them also own parcels of less productive non-
irrigated land and many, if not most of them, also work parcels of ejido land.
Lands in the latter category fall under the second type of land tenure in
the Valley. Ejido lands are lands which were restored or granted to rural
communities after the 1910 Revolution (Table 111). The rights of the holders
of such lands differ from the ownership rights of pequeiia propiedad and
ex-hacienda holders in that ejido land is not supposed to be rented and cannot
be sold. Disposal rights reside in the ejido as a corporate group and ultimately
in the national government. The approximately 6,500 acres of irrigated ejido
lands in the Valley fall under the jurisdiction of 16 separate ejido bodies,
each of which is directly responsible to an official in the district capital of
Texcoco (Fig. 1). Some of these units comprise the ejido lands of several
towns and/or barrios. Each ejido organization exercises authority over both
irrigated and non-irrigated lands. Most ejido members do not appear to own
irrigated pequefia propiedad land (see Tables I and 111, and paragraph below),
but the reverse is not true, as we have seen, since most pequeiia propiedad
holders also hold irrigated ejido plots. For this reason one cannot think of an
ejido member as a simple unit in the system of irrigated landholdings in
the Valley.
Unfortunately, we do not have figures on ejido acreage allotments to
individuals. The Atlatongo ejido has 200 acres of irrigated land under its
jurisdiction (Table III), and according to its president also has 375-400 acres
of non-irrigated land. Each ejiditario is supposed to receive approximately
1 1/4 acres of irrigated land and about 1% acres of non-irrigated land, accord-
ing to the ejido president. There are, however, 288 ejiditarios in the Atlatongo
ejido. This would mean an average allotment per ejiditario of .7 acres
of irrigated land and 1.4 acres of non-irrigated land. Whether the actual
division into individual parcels approaches this average we do not know. In
any case, the Atlatongo ejido president told us that all the maize raised by
ejiditarios is consumed and that not enough can be grown even for consump-
tion needs with present allotments and techniques. Many householders in
Atlatongo are able to meet their requirements only by working as laborers
for more prosperous landholders, with whom they have patron-client relation-
ships. One of our informants had at least four such clients. In addition, at
least 10 heads of households in Atlatongo are landless and work in factories
near Mexico City. Our data for the system as a whole (Tables 1-111) similarly
suggest that while ejido allotments serve to make farming viable for many,
they do not alter its basically subsistence character, given the population,
crops and techniques used.
Each of the types of landholding discussed above receives representation
in the irrigation system Junta: (1) each of the ranchos or ex-haciendas
504 MILLON,HALL, DIAZ
receiving water is represented; (2) each ejido organization is represented,

usually by its president; (3) each town or barrio with irrigated pequeAa pro-
piedad lands elects a representative in an election supervised by an elected
municipio official (delegado murzicipal) in each of the towns. Ideally, Junta
elections are held annually in December, the call for the election coming
from the agent of the federal department of irrigation and water resources,
a department of cabinet rank called Recursos Hidrhulicos. After the elections
the Junta members are certified as elected by the representative of Recursos
Hidrhulicos and thereafter constitute the incoming Assembly of the Junta.
The Assembly then meets to elect an Executive Committee for the Junta,
consisting of a president, a secretary and a treasurer. In practice the president
of the Junta is always an ejido representative. We were told his was because
ejido lands constitute the largest body of irrigated land in the Valley. It is
also customary for the secretary of the Junta to be a pequega propiedad
representative and for the treasurer to be a rancho or ex-hacienda represen-
tative. In other words, the three types of landholding are represented on the
Executive Committee, with the most important post held by an ejido represen-
tative. The election of these officers is supervised by the representative of
Recursos Hidrhulicos, and is not considered valid until he has transmitted
the documents and records of the outgoing Committee to the newly elected one.
The Executive Committee of the Junta is charged with responsibility for
the maintenance of the system. It is expected, first of all, to see to it that
each town receives the allotment of water guaranteed it under a federal decree
dating back some 30 years, when the system as presently constituted came
into being (that is, following the division of hacienda lands). To this end the
Committee employs two guards who patrol the system and are supposed to
report any violations of the rules of water allocation to the Executive Com-
mittee. This body has the power to fine individuals whom they judge guilty
of abuses of water rights. Such fines are often difficult to collect, however.
The secretary of the present Committee complained to us that the Executive
Committee and its orders were not "respected" as they should be.
The second maintenance operation for which the Executive Committee is
responsible is the annual cleaning of canals and the upkeep of the simple
water diversion devices. Annual cleaning is arranged by issuing a call to the
Assembly representatives in each town. Each town is charged with the
responsibility for cleaning designated portions of the main canals. Anyone
who fails to comply with his cleaning obligation or to send someone in his
place is supposed to lose his right to water from the system until he pays a fine
to the Executive Committee. But again these fines are difficult to collect.
The work of the Committee is supported financially from a fund made up
of what is collected in fines and a small water tax paid to the Committee by
each water user according to the volume of water used. This sum is used
to pay the salaries of the guards and small stipends to the members of the
Executive Committee. None of this money is turned over to Recursos Hidriu-
licos or to any other branch of the federal government.
Although representative bodies, neither the Junta Executive Committee
nor the Junta Assembly has the power to change the water allotments of the
towns in the system, even in time of drought. That is, the Junta lacks the
power to make either short or long term changes in water allocations. This
power is specifically the prerogative of the Secretary of Recursos Hidriiulicos,
and its exercise in the past has been primarily an outgrowth of concern with
situations of conflict within the system.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Junta organization in its present form is a recent creation, having been
established by the federal government 30 years or so ago. Prior to this almost
all the irrigated lands of the Valley were owned by haciendas which had
appropriated land and water rights from the people of the Valley over the
past 300 years. There is some historical documentation for this process of
aggrandizement in the Valley.8 According to a 1580 map of the Valley the
16th century irrigation system comprised substantially the same network of
canals as it does today.9 A number of sources testify to the importance
and extent of irrigation in the Valley in the late pre-Conquest or immediate
post-Conquest period.lO But these sources have little to say on the subject
" Gamio, 1922, v. 1 : 2, pp. 521, 524-526.

V a s o y Troncoso, 1905a; Gamio, 1922, v. 1 : 2, pp. 370-371; Nuttall, 1926.
0' The most extensive single 16th century source dealing specifically with the Valley
of Teotihuacan is the relaci6n geogrrifica of 1580 which includes a map of the Valley
and its irrigation system (Paso y Troncoso, 1905a; and Nuttall, 1926). The text of the
relaci6n makes it clear that irrigation was of great importance in the Valley in 1580
(Nuttall, 1926, pp. 51, 52-53, 54, 58, 61, 74, 76, 78). The amount of land irrigated by
the canals shown on the accompanying map is described in leagues for each of the
towns in the relaci6n and it is clear from the account and the map that the central part
of the Valley was completely under irrigation in 1580 as it is today.
This relacidn is one of a number of historical sources bearing on the same question.
The Suma de Visitas (Paso y Troncoso, 1905b, p. 113) reports "some irrigation" for
Teotihuacan in the 1540's. Pomar's Relaci6n de Texcoco (Pomar y Zurita, 1941, pp.
53-54) reports that a century earlier, more than 75 years before the Spanish Conquest,
Nezahualcoyotl, ruler of Texcoco, brought water from the springs near Teotihuacan to
irrigate lands near Texcoco. The Gamio study of Teotihuacan contains accounts bearing
on the antiquity of the water rights of villagers in the central part of the Valley (Gamio,
1922, v. 1 : 2, pp. 524-526). A 1609 document recounts a struggle between the town
of San Bartolo and Jesuits over the right to use water for irrigation, a struggle which
was decided in favor of the Indians. In 1680 an Ilucienda adjoining Atlatongo had
prevented the Indians from using the water from a spring in a tular named Amac for
irrigation. The Indians appealed, stating that "from time immemorial" they had used
this water for irrigating their fields. The Indians were again confirmed in their right to
the water. This decision must have been more or less abided by because Atlatongo
informants told one of us in 1956 that the tular in question had belonged to the
506 MILLON,HALL,DIAZ
of how the system itself was organized and how the water in it was allocated.
Some of the 16th and 17th century documents cited by Gamio imply that the
people of each town in the Valley possessed traditional rights to specified
amounts of water. Gamio also refers to litigation between San Juan Teoti-
huacan and Acolman officials in 1589 over "tribute" which Acolman failed
to pay to Teotihuacan for the use of water originating in the upper Valley."
Teotihuacan officials cut off the flow of water to Acolman, diverting it else-
where, which implies that the authorities in San Juan were able to exercise
some control over the major water divides in the Valley (Fig. 1, 2). Teoti-
huacan was confirmed in its rights to "tribute", but a lower amount was set
and the Teotihuacanos were required to desist from their diversion of the
water. Both sides appealed the decision to the city of Mexico. The outcome
at this higher level is unknown. It appears then that some form of legitimized
authority was exercised over the Valley irrigation system by officials in San
Juan Teotihuacan at the time of the Spanish Conquest, even though each of
the villages and towns seem to have been receiving allotments which had
been traditionalized.
The present Junta organization is a relatively recent creation and cannot
be viewed as representing any meaningful continuity with the past. Never-
theless, some of the farmers in Atlatongo, a community in the northern part
of the Valley, emphasize that their present water rights stem from rights
which their community formerly had to specified water allotments far in the
past. For example, some men will speak of the restoration of land and water
rights belonging to Atlatongo following the Revolution, and invoke documen-
tary evidence in support of their claims. And it is true that the Mexican
government did recognize their claim after the Revolution. Atlatongo now
has rights to a permanent supply of water because of documentary evidence
for the existence of such rights prior to their appropriation by hacienda^.'^
As we shall see below, the existence of these rights has been a source of
conflict between downstream and upstream water users in the system ever
since they were recognized by the federal government some 30 years ago.
They form a focal point for the endemic conflict between downstream and
upstream water users which is characteristic of the system today, as it was
in the past.
Hacienda Cadena before the 1910 Revolution, but that the rights to the use of the
water from it had remained with the townspeople. Since 1925 the tular itself has been
returned to Atlatongo. The small flow of water from it is still being used for irrigation
(Fig. 1). The plots of land irrigated by this water bear Nahua names and are the only
lands within the boundaries of Atlatongo which do so.
Archaeological evidence for the antiquity of irrigation agriculture in the Valley of
Teotihuacan is summarized in Palerm and Wolf, 1961, pp. 297-302, also pp. 291-292.
See also Sears, 1951, 1952; Lorenzo, 1956, pp. 41-46; Hutchinson, Patrick and Deevey,
1956, pp. 1491-1498; Wittfogel, 1957, pp. 19-20; and Millon, 1957.
Gamio, 1922, v. 1 : 2, 526-527.
l2 Gamio, 1922, v. 1 : 2, 524-526.
The special political role played by San Juan Teotihuacan in the 16th
century no longer exists today. But it is interesting that the headquarters
of the present Junta were originally intended to be in San Juan. A building
was started for that purpose. But farmers in the southern part of the system
objected strongly, on the grounds that the water would be inequitably divided
if Junta headquarters were placed in San Juan at the head of the system.
As a result its headquarters were shifted to the present location in Acolman
in the central part of the Valley (Fig. 3f). Nevertheless, San Juan does occupy
a special, traditional religious role in the system because it is the source of
the Valley's water supply, as we shall see below.
SOURCES OF CONFLICT
Endemic conflict between water users in the southern part of the system and
water users in the northern part is and has been a major feature of the modern
system since its inception. This is the familiar conflict between downstream
and upstream water users in an irrigation system with insufficient water for
the needs of all. Those who live in towns in the southern part of the system
complain bitterly that people in the northern part receive a disproportionate
share of the available water and that they systematically steal even more.
As a result, they claim, the relatively sizeable water allotments which are their
due are in fact no more than paper allotments, since the water is appropriated
by upstream users before it reaches them.
A similar situation of long-standing conflict obtains between water users
in the eastern part of the system and water users in the rest of the Valley.
This conflict exists because the point at which the Canal de San Antonio splits
off from the Rio de 10s Manantiales ("La Taza", west of San Juan Teoti-
huacan) contains no sluice gate, as it did at the turn of the century, and the
flow of water consequently cannot be regulated (Fig. 1). What frequently
occurs is that at times when water is most needed, small earthen diversionary
dams are erected surreptitiously at the divide by individuals or groups from
one area or the other to increase the flow of water towards their lands.
While the real basis of conflict is the fact that there is not enough water
in the system now to provide for the minimal needs of all the people served
by it, the focus of conflict has been the special water rights accorded to the
town of Atlatongo in the northwestern part of the system, as mentioned above.
The people of Atlatongo (pop. 1,091 in 1950) received these special rights
because unlike most of the other townspeople in the Valley, they had
documentary evidence to support their claim to traditional water rights in
the pre-hacienda period. Atlatongo's special rights consist of access to a
permanent supply of water from the system, 24 hours a day, every day in the
year. By contrast the other towns in the system are entitled to receive water
only for a specified number of days or hours each month. Atlatongo's original
allotment some 30 years ago was 10.6 gallons per second (40 liters per second).
After a series of increasingly severe conflicts involving breakage of irrigation
devices and other violence, Atlatongo's allotment was reduced by Recursos
Hidraulicos about 20 years ago to 7.9 gallons per second (30 liters per second).
This action did not satisfy the people in the southern part of the system whose
demand was the abolition of Atlatongo's permanent supply of water. They
continued to agitate for a further re-allocation of the water in the Valley.
In the summer of 1959 their demands were partially met by a new water
regulation for the Valley issued by the Secretary of Recursos Hidraulicos.
The new water regulation is patterned after a new system of water allocation
established in other parts of Mexico and embodies a principle which has been
adopted by the Mexican government for all the nation's irrigation systems.
It is not a regulation applied to the Teotihuacan system alone in response to
the pleas of discontented groups. It would have been enacted in any case.
But it is possible that continued protests concerning the present system
hastened its application.
The new principle of water allocation holds that a landholder should
receive water for irrigation in proportion to the amount of land he owns or
has use rights to, that is, a like amount of water for a like amount of land
within any given system. This appears to be an eminently equitable and
rational principle, but a number of our informants argued that it works an
extreme hardship on the holders of small parcels of land.
Under the old regulation towns received specified allotments of water for
their irrigated ejido and pequetia propiedad lands. It was left to the Junta
representatives in each town to decide how it was to be divided in consul-
tation with the landholders and ejido representatives involved. For example,
Atlatongo's permanent water supply is so divided that an individual receives
an amount roughly proportional to his landholdings. But this is subject to
the pragmatic limitation that no one with water rights, however small his
holdings, receives water for so short a period that it is of no practical benefit
to his land. When Atlatongo received its water allotment from the federal
government approximately 30 years ago, all of the water received from the
Canal de San JosC (Fig. 1, 3") was allocated to thc Atlatongo ejido organiza-
tion, none to the holders of pequetia propiedad. This was the result of a
collective decision by the holders of land which would receive water for
irrigation from the Canal de San Jost. The assumption at the time seems to
have been that ejido water rights would be less subject to alteration in the
future. In any event, it was thereafter decided within the pueblo that ejiditarios
and pequetios propietarios would receive water for irrigation during alter-
nating months. It was recognized that within this general framework provision
would have to be made for flexibility in the assigning of individual water
allotments, depending on need. But it was felt that flexible arrangements
would be feasible, according to one informant, because many ejiditarios were
also pequekos propietarios. Flexibility was required in part because ejido
and pequeiia propiedad acreages were not equal (see Tables I, 111). But it was
also recognized that not all plots required the same relative volume of water,
both because of the differing water requirements of different soils and because
of the differing requirements of distinct crops.
Thus, under the system in effect in 1959 a holder of pequeAa propiedad
land might request and receive water for his plot during the allotted time for
ejido plots if he needed it and vice versa. Many such informal arrangements
were made, depending on the exigencies of the moment. It is a flexible and
informal system of allocation which depends on cooperation at the local,
town level. On this level it has evidently worked well and without notable
conflict for the past 30 years, according to informants with varying amounts
and types of land in the town.
It is true that Atlatongo's access to a permanent and continuous supply of
water makes it easier for such a flexible allocation system to be traditionalized.
The same degree of flexibility could not exist in other parts of the Valley
where neither a continuous supply of water nor a single allotment of water
to cover both ejido and pequeiia propiedad lands exists. But it is clear that
comparable arrangements of a flexible nature are widespread in the Valley.
The Recursos Hidrfiulicos engineer charged with developing a new water
regulation for the Valley made a special point of telling us that he wanted to
abolish such informal arrangements throughout the Valley. He made it clear
that he did not view these arrangements in terms of their flexibility; rather,
he concentrated on their negative aspects. He took pains to point out the
feature of the new regulation with specifies that each individual holding
privately owned land shall be listed by name and the size of his plot and of
his individual water allotment listed alongside of it. Under the new regulation,
he emphasized, a farmer need not come to ask for water; each individual
would know how much water was allotted to him and would have only to
arrange when in the month it would be received. The new regulation, he
stressed, provides not only for the rights of groups but also for the rights of
individuals. He contrasted this with the present situation which he described
as one where individual allotments were affected by whether the farmer in
question was a compadre or a good friend or otherwise in good standing with
the local Junta representatives.
The Recursos Hidrhulicos engineer also pointed out that when he had
supervised a survey of the Valley's irrigated lands for the purpose of deter-
mining water allotments, he discovered great disparities between amounts
listed and amounts actually held. He was not able to make such a survey of
ejido lands, however; instead, he was obliged to accept the figures provided
him by the ejido presidents, which are a matter of record and which he
believed to be inflated. While he did not say so, the political and ideological
significance of the ejido, locally and nationally in Mexico, is still such that
it serves as a partially effective block to greater rationalization of Mexico's
economic system, since it is an institution primarily oriented to subsistence
agriculture. Changes in the direction of greater rationality, such as the
engineer would have liked to make in terms of measuring ejido lands, conflict
with ties and loyalties based on values which still figure prominently in the
ideology of the Mexican state.
Thus, the Recursos HidrAulicos engineer was contrasting the new regulation,
which he regarded as rational and universalistic in regard to holders of
privately owned lands, to existing arrangements, which he regarded as ir-
rational and dependent on particularistic relationships. Most of our informants
stressed rather that quite opposite consequences would flow from the new
regulation. They argued that the new regulation, because of its inflexibility,
would work a particular hardship on the holders of small pequeca propiedad
plots and conversely, would favor or at least would not threaten holders of
relatively large amounts of land.
For example, under the new regulation the average rate of flow of the
Canal de San JosC, which carries 55 percent of the water in the system, will
be 78.5 gallons per second (297 liters per second), once new sluices are built
to regulate the flow to all major canals in the system. From this amount,
10.5 gallons per second must be subtracted for communities receiving a
continuous supply of water, leaving 68 gallons per second (258 liters per
second) for distribution by days, hours and minutes. Of the larger landholders
in the southern part of the Valley, one individual from Nexquipayac who owns
a little more than 23 acres is scheduled to receive water for a period of three
hours and 28 minutes each month. Another from Santa Isabel Ixtapan who
owns slightly more than 17 acres is scheduled to receive water for a period of
two hours and 36 minutes each month. Six others from Ixtapan and Tequi-
sistlan with a little over 12 acres each are scheduled to receive water for one
hour and 51 minutes every month. These are workable allotments, since
the owner of such a plot might exercise the option, if need be, of irrigating
only a portion of his land adequately, rather than all of it inadequately.
Informants seemed agreed on this, whether large landholder or small.
In contrast to this, 21 of the 66 pequetios proprietarios from Santa Catarina
Acolman in the west-central part of the Valley are scheduled to receive water
for periods of five minutes or less per month under the new regulation. For
convenience we tabulate this information as follows:
Number Average Size Scheduled

of Owners of Holding Water Allocation
2 .15 acres 1 minute

2 .24 acres 2 minutes
Thus, application of the principle of a like amount of water for a like amount
of land is not rational from the point of view of the holders of extremely small
plots because, with the primitive methods now used to bring water to the land,
brief periods of water allocation of the order of one to five minutes are
virtually valueless (see Fig. 3b). Furthermore, such a brief allotment as one
minute is almost impossible to measure accurately. As one vigorous opponent
of the new regulation put it:
The engineer says we can irrigate by the minute. It is a lie; we cannot irrigate
by minutes. Just in opening a ditch minutes are gone. . . He wants us to have
the full volume of water for a few minutes. . . Our ditches would have to be
much stronger to take the full volume of water; otherwise the water would destroy
the ditches. . . It would be neither beneficial nor correct.
Abolition of the present system and substitution for it of the rationalized new
regulation would result, a number of informants insisted, in effectively denying
holders of small plots access to water from the system. This they bitterly
resent.13
Ejidos, as corporate groups, will continue to receive water for the ejido as
a whole, to be divided thereafter by the ejido organizations themselves. While
this will continue to make possible flexibility in distribution, the land-water
ratio for three-fourths of the ejidos is being reduced under the new regulation.
In most cases the reduction is substantial, from 15 to 30 percent. Conse-
quently, ejido members have been, for the most part, as opposed to the new
regulation as the lesser pequefios proprietarios; indeed, they are often the
same individuals.
The new regulation has the support of a number of the Valley's larger
landholders, of some farmers in the eastern part of the system and of many
in the extreme southern part. Two of the five towns in the southern part
of the system have less severely fragmented landholdings than elsewhere
in the Valley, so that there seems here to be a coincidence of interest in
lS The subsistence farmer in Mexico today faces a strong national trend toward a
market economy in agriculture. The latter has in part resulted from the concentration
of improved techniques, including irrigation, on larger, privately-owned holdings of land
(Lewis, 1960, pp. 312-319, especially pp. 313, 315).
rationalization both because of size of holding and because of geographical
position at the "bottom" of the irrigation system network. The great majority
of the Valley's water users are opposed to it on the grounds that it will only
make matters worse for most of them.
The new regulation was first proposed to the Junta Assembly in 1957, at
which time it was overwhelmingly voted down. An education campaign there-
upon began, but the regulation was again voted down at least twice. Never-
theless, it was signed by the Secretary of Recursos Hidraulicos in August,
1959. The regulation as promulgated differed from the original plan of
Recursos Hidraulicos in only one significant respect, namely, that Atlatongo
continues to have rights to a permanent water supply, subject to certain
conditions.14 But the volume of its permanent supply has been reduced from
7.9 gallons per second to 4.8 gallons per second (18.3 liters per second), a
reduction of 40 percent.15
In summary, the locus of executive authority for the modern Teotihuacan
irrigation system is in the federal department of Recursos Hidraulicos. The
national government has the power to determine who will receive what allo-
cations of water, and it has the power to make changes in these allocations.
It has exercised this power at least three times in the last 30 years, the most
recent change being the new regulation discussed above. The Junta Assembly,
despite its representative composition, is a consultative body with power of
recommendation but without power to take any action which changes water
allotments. Its Executive Committee functions primarily as an administrative
body, as an agency of Recursos Hidraulicos. Its principal responsibility,
from the standpoint of Recursos Hidraulicos, is to carry out the directives of
Recursos Hidraulicos. At the same time, the people of the Valley seem to
believe that the Junta has more power than it actually does. We were assured
by our informants that Recursos Hidraulicos would not put the new regulation
Under the new regulation the pequenlos proprietaries of Tepexpan also receive rights
to a continuous supply of water in the amount of 5.5 gallons per second (21 liters per
second). According to informants, owners of privately owned land in Tepexpan, who
include a general among them, had been entitled to a continuous supply of water prior
to the new regulation. We do not know when such rights were granted to holders of
these lands. The old water regulation which has just been superseded lists no such
rights for Tepexpan, and it is clear that they post-date the division of lands and the
initial establishment of water rights which followed the expropriation of the haciendas
after the Revolution.
l5 The new regulation will theoretically abolish Atlatongo's flexible system of water
allocation, discussed above, by assigning separate volumes of water to ejido and pequenla
propiedad lands, respectively. It is possible, of course, that the flexible allocation
system will be continued in practice, if the distinction made in the new regulation be-
tween the two types of land tenure is ignored as it has been in the past. It would be
easier for Atlatongo's population to so act than for other communities in the Valley,
except Tepexpan, for reasons already discussed, because of Atlatongo's continued right
to a permanent and continuous supply of water. Nevertheless, the flexible system and
the cooperation on which it is based would be put to a severe test now because the
total allotment to Atlatongo has been reduced by 40 percent.
into effect over the expressed opposition of the majority of the Junta Assembly.
On the other hand, we were also told that if the new regulation were to be
put into effect, the water users would have no recourse but to accept it.
The foregoing are the essential aspects of the structure of authority in the
modern irrigation system in the Teotihuacan valley. Structural arrangements
are such that no effective medium exists internal to the Valley for mediating
conflicts of the nature discussed above. At the same time the system as
presently constituted has been too recently created to permit the institutional-
ization of a reciprocal system of rights and obligations which are recognized
as traditional. Nor, as we shall see, is the system supported effectively by
any other social institution within the Valley whose boundaries coincide
with its own.
An irrigation system is potentially a cohesive force in a society. But to
be so it must be viable, which means that the problem of how water is to b
allocated must be solved in one fashion or another. Another way of putting
this is to say that an irrigation system establishes relationships among indi-
viduals and groups which are simultaneously relationships of inter-dependence
and potential antagonism, stemming equally from the need for and the
constraint imposed by cooperation and coordination. The necessity for an
ordered, predictable system of water allocation has divisive as well as cohesive
potentialities. If the participants in the system are to achieve the goals which
are the purpose of the system, means must be found to contain and limit the
sources of conflict and to nurture and sustain the sources of commonalty.
Ecological factors, primarily insufficiency of water, together with other
complicating factors already discussed, result in severe and endemic conflict
between upstream and downstream users of water, between eastern and
western users, and between those with rights to a permanent water supply
and those with periodic allotments. Within the Valley today these conflicts
occur in a context of cross-cutting economic groupings and political units
structured and maintained by federal legislation. If the various contending
groups were to work out a solution on the local, Valley level, a complex but
flexible balance might be achieved and institutionalized. But such a process
undoubtedly would involve further conflict which cannot be tolerated by the
federal government. Open conflict between downstream and upstream pueblos
has occurred at least twice in the last 30 years, and on each occasion inter-
vention by the federal government resulted. The situation in 1959 had so
deteriorated that such intervention again took place. And this new inter-
vention, as we have seen, has generated further conflict.
That it is increasingly severe internal conflict over the allocation of water
in the irrigation system which seems to prevent communities and groups from
cooperating effectively and developing an internal resolution of their problems
which could be accepted by Recursos Hidraulicos may be illustrated by an
incident which occurred in 1956 when one of us was in the Valley. At that
time drilling operations for deep wells, commissioned by officials of the

Federal District, were begun in the extreme southern part of the Valley,
southwest of Tepexpan, in order to provide water for Mexico City. The
people of the Valley were outraged, since they felt that these wells would
lower the water table in the Valley and deplete the springs providing water
for irrigation and for their own wells. Protests were made to the appropriate
state and national officials but no action was taken. Finally, a meeting was
held of elected representatives from communities in all parts of the Valley,
both on the municipio and pueblo levels. At this meeting it was decided that
all those present should join in a march to the wells to persuade the well-
digging crews to halt their operations, and, failing this, to destroy the well-
digging equipment if necessary. All of them carried arms and were joined by
other armed men on their march to the wells. One informant described the
incident as follows:
We went to stop the work. More than 500 men went to make them stop drilling
the wells, but the men there asked us to wait a few hours until they had removed
the machinery. We waited, and then the government sent soldiers. So as not to
commit a bad act against the government, we let it go.
Nevertheless, drilling operations were never resumed.

The form taken by this opposition is not material to the point we wish to
make. The people of the Valley could and did behave as a unit against the
Federal District on an issue concerning the source of supply for water in the
irrigation system, a situation which they felt clearly threatened them all. As
rural Valley dwellers they opposed themselves to the capital. By contrast,
opposition today to the new regulation is not united and in the nature of the
case cannot be. When matters involving the allocation of water in the system
are at issue, no Valley-wide concensus of any form develops because of
conflicts partly generated by the allocation process itself.
The way some of these conflicts work to affect the behavior of a single
individual is illustrative. The present president of the Junta Executive Com-
mittee lives in the town of San Bartolo. He is the president of the ejido
organization in San Bartolo. As mentioned earlier, he, his father and other
relatives own and operate commercially a relatively large amount of farm land
as pequeEa propiedad. He works all of this land and ejido land as well with
the help of hired laborers. More than half of the land is in San Bartolo; the
remainder consists of large plots of irrigated land in Atlatongo and two other
communities, plus at least one other small plot in still another community.
In his role as president of the Junta Executive Committee he is morally bound
to represent all the water users in the system. He should not support the new
regulation because a great majority of them regard it as prejudicial to their
interests. However, in his role as representative of a family owning a relatively
large amount of land, he should support the principle of the new regulation
because it would benefit him and his family. Furthermore, in his roles of
landholder and ejido president in San Bartolo he is expected to support
agitation for reduction in Atlatongo's water allotment, at the same time that
his family's interest in relatively large valuable landholdings in Atlatongo
dictates resistance.
He is well aware of his conflicting responsibilities and was reminded of his
contradictory roles as Junta president and large landholder by the secretary
of the Junta in our presence. At one of the Assembly meetings during which
the new regulation was being discussed with the representatives of Recursos
Hidraulicos, he went on record as supporting it but did not state why. When
opposition to the regulation was expressed, he made an attempt to defend it,
then bowed without serious protest to the expressed desires of the majority. At
no time, however, does he seem to have actively led the opposition to the new
regulation. He was criticized for this in our presence by the Junta Secretary
and accused of placing his interests as a large landholder above his responsi-
bilities as Junta President. He seemed uncomfortable when the subject was
brought up and said nothing in his defense.
SOURCES OF COHESION
There is abundant and overt evidence of sources of conflict in the system.

We were able to explore the sources of cohesion in the system much less fully,
since our limited investigation centered on delineation of the structure of
authority in conflict situations. We do not pretend to suggest, therefore, that
what we have to say on the subject respresents a thorough analysis.
We have already noted and discussed in some detail the fact that coopera-
tion on matters concerning the allocation of water occurs within the pueblo,
in terms of the flexible system of exchange arrangements discussed above.
This is a strong source of cohesion within the pueblo and would have been
discussed in this section had it not illustrated a point earlier in our exposition.
As might be expected, the need for cooperation in matters concerned with
irrigation is explicitly recognized on the pueblo level. One of Atlatongo's
representatives to the Junta Assembly, who is also charged with the respon-
sibility for allocation of water within the pueblo, commented on his work
as follows:
Our work has much responsibility and is a very delicate matter. If the water
were not allocated the way it is, there would be a killing every day. Someone
would be irrigating his field and someone else would say, 'It's my turn now.' The
first one would say, 'Wait a minute,' the other would say, 'I don't have to wait,'
and then the shooting would begin.
Thus, while every source of cohesion is simultaneously a source of conflict,

it is clear that in Atlatongo, from which our most detailed information comes,
the problems involved in the distribution of water have been resolved in a
cooperative framework which informants describe as working well, and which
we observed to work well, both in 1959 and earlier in 1956 and 1957. It is
possible, if not likely, that the ability of Atlatongo farmers to cooperate
as well as they do is fortified by the fact that Atlatongo as a whole is the
target of attacks from people in many other parts of the Valley because of
Atlatongo's privileged position in the system. Whether this be so or not,
this was not a factor in the original formation of the present system of flexible
allocation, as we have already seen. It is also clear that hostility is not far
below the surface in Atlatongo. The Junta representative in Atlatongo for
the holders of pequefia propiedad lands told us that to become a candidate
for the position one must obtain signatures from townspeople supporting his
candidacy because, as he put it, "otherwise people would say that you have
the job because you were put there," meaning that townspeople would be
disposed to believe that a candidate was the choice of an individual of power
in the community and would be beholden to him, unless there was definite
evidence to the contrary. But every effort is made to contain such hostility,
to keep it within bounds and to avoid overt expression of it.
Above the local community level cohesive forces apear to be diffuse, subtle
and limited in scope. Like many Mexican communities, pueblos in the Valley
are, to a large extent, self-contained units. In a sense, the fences which
monotonously surround every home are an expression of the pueblo's inward
looking social system.16 Our most articulate and sophisticated informant, a
member of the Junta from the southern part of the Valley, educated briefly
at the University in Mexico City and well informed on national and inter-
national issues, was unfamiliar with important events in nearby pueblos. He
explained that he never paid much attention to what went on in neighboring
towns; nor was he alone in this respect. While a number of people, primarily
young people, are employed in industrial establishments which line the last
few miles of the highway to Mexico City, this is too recent a development to
have radically affected the pattern of pueblo social islands. The weekly market
in San Juan Teotihuacan provides a point of contact for people from different
communities and is undoubtedly one of the more important integrative
mechanisms in the Valley. But it is small and unimpressive and was not well
attended on the several occasions when we observed it. Its impact is neces-
sarily diffuse and seems to stimulate at most attenuated social interaction.
It is only fair to say, however, that we did not make a special study of the
institution of the market in the Valley. As for the ejido, while a few incor-
."f' Lewis, 1951; Pitt-Rivers, 1954; Banfield, 1958; Foster, 1960-61; Lewis, 1960-61;
Pitt-Rivers, 1960-61; Diaz, 1962.
porate members of several communities, the ejido organization typically en-
compasses a single pueblo.17
This insularity is reflected in the religious institutions of the Valley. The
population is divided into two parishes, and communication between the
parishes is such that the priest of the San Juan Teotihuacan parish could not
name his colleague in the neighboring parish of Acolman, indeed a parochial
state of affairs. Since the parish priest theoretically visits the different pueblos
every 20 to 30 days to conduct services and perform necessary sacraments,
the atomizing tendency is not checked even on a parish-wide level, with one
important exception to be discussed below.
The Junta itself is, of course, the most important political entity in the
Valley from the standpoint of cohesion in the irrigation system. Just as in the
case of the allocation of water within the pueblo, so in the case of the system
as a whole is it generally and explicitly recognized that the Junta performs
an indispensable function. No one questions the need for orderly allocation
of water in the system; what is questioned and fought over is how that
allocation should take place. Because of these conflicts the job of supervising
the allocation of water is not an easy one. The situation grows most acute,
naturally, in time of drought and during the dry season in the months of
March and April, when the maiz grande, with the long growing season, is
being planted. Junta representatives in all parts of the Valley are on duty
almost constantly at such times. One of the Junta representatives from Atla-
tongo commented on this period as follows:
March and April are the two dangerous months for us. We are awakened in the
middle of the night; there are many disputes; we sometimes have to work all
night. We have to distribute the water constantly and to watch continually.
He is referring here, first of all, to the fact that the Jueces del Agua, as they
are called within the pueblo, must see that no one within the pueblo is taking
water out of turn, and, secondly, to the fact that they must continually guard
against attempts by people from other communities to divert part of the
pueblo's water allotment to their own fields. In 1959 one member of our
group was present when one of the Junta water guards removed a temporary
diversion device from the La Texcalac water divide (Fig. 1) which had been
placed there to divert more water to the western part of the Valley.
The Junta, then, performs a crucial function for the system as a whole
and this is recognized to be so by the water users in the system, despite the
complaint of the Junta Secretary that decisions of the Executive Committee
are not respected. But the Junta cannot perform this function adequately, for
reasons which have already been discussed. It is faced with conflicts whose
'7 Within the pueblo, meetings of ejido members are not regularly held but occur when
some crisis or problem arises or when some visiting national or district official appears,
according to the Atlatongo ejido president.
5 18 MILLON, HALL, DIAZ
ultimate basis is an exceedingly scarce supply of water, conflicts which have

divided the Junta Assembly for many reasons, as we have seen. Furthermore,
the Junta is a body with advisory powers only, vis-a-vis Recursos Hidriulicos,
and it operates largely on the basis of directives from a center outside the
Valley. The structure which houses the Junta Executive Committee reflects
its political status (Fig. 3f). In fact, that the Junta is able to operate at all
under these circumstances can be understood only in terms of the vital function
it performs, however inadequately it does so.
We are able to isolate only one other means by which cohesion in the irriga-
tion system as such was supported on a Valley-wide basis. We refer to the
Fiesta of El Divino Redentor (the Divine Redeemer), a major religious fiesta
of San Juan Teotihuacan, held annually in the parish church on July 18th,
19th or 20th. The fiesta overshadows in importance the Fiesta of San Juan
Bautista, San Juan's patron saint.
The Fiesta of El Divino Redentor is conceived in part as a celebration
involving all the communties served by the irrigation system. According to
our most reliable informant, all these communities receive invitations and are
asked to make monetary contributions towards expenses, although only the
northernmost of them belong to the San Juan parish. The contributions are
evidently collected by the respective Junta representatives from the people
they represent. Some 75 pequeiios proprietarios in Nexquipayac, the southern-
most town in the system, annually give a sum of 15 to 20 pesos. The Junta
representative sometimes advances the money and later collects from the
others when their turn for water comes. The donation from Nexquipayac is
clearly nominal and is in the nature of a symbolic recognition of ties between
the communities served by the irrigation system.
We were told that the people of San Juan invite all the other communities
because San Juan is the source and distribution point of the Valley's water
supply. Furthermore, two of the several springs which unite outside the
churchyard in San Juan to form the Rio de 10s Manantiales have their source
within the grounds of the church. One of them feeds a small pool which is
at least as old as the 16th century church itself.l8
The principal focus of the fiesta is the image of El Divino Redentor, an
image of Christ, believed to have the miraculous power to produce rain in
time of drought. Noriega states that it originally belonged to the town of
Atlatongo and was taken from the Atlatongo church in time of drought to
make a circuit of neighboring towns where entreaties would be addressed to it
to bring rain. At some time in the relatively recent past (perhaps the late
19th century) when the image arrived at the church in San Juan, it is said to
have indicated its desire to remain there rather than in Atlatongo. The people
of Atlatongo "with great sorrow obeyed the commands of the Sefior," yielding
Kubler, 1948, p. 474.

him to the church of San Juan.1Woriega comments on the similarity between
the activities of this image and the activities of aboriginal rain gods in the
Basin of Mexico - the Tlaloc of the Aztecs and his predecessor, the Rain
God of the ancient Teotihuacanos.20
Since the restoration and relatively wide distribution of irrigated land and
the formation of the Junta are relatively recent occurrences, we do not know
whether this fiesta and its rain-making tradition formerly included all the
communities in the Valley whose members now participate in it. Our limited
observations at the 1959 Fiesta suggest that what is reported formerly to have
been a strong religious tradition has lapsed with the years. Thus, while the
fiesta does involve communities within the irrigation system which lie outside
the jurisdiction of the San Juan parish, we do not wish to give the impression
that this is an event which dramatically reaffirms the unity of the members
of the irrigation brotherhood as such. It does not. Nevertheless, the fact
remains that the only non-political medium for expressing the commonalty
of interests of the Valley's irrigation farmers today is the San Juan church
with its springs and its miraculous, rain-making image. That it functions to
bridge the distance among individuals and among communities is plain. It is
also plain that in this supporting role it does not possess sufficient strength
adequately to contain the sources of conflict.
CONCLUSIONS
The modern irrigation system in the Valley of Teotihuacan has assumed a

position of crucial importance in the economic life and social structure of
the Valley since the restoration and cession of water rights to a large part
of the population some 35 years ago. The establishment of a system whose
purpose is the orderly allocation of a scarce supply of water has provided
a cohesive potential of great strength in the Valley. At the same time the
normative patterns on which an orderly system of water allocation depends
have never been adequately institutionalized. Serious internal conflicts have
characterized the operation of the system since its inception. Farmers
receiving water from the system have been unable to resolve these internal
conflicts for reasons which are in part ecologically derived and in part socially
derived. The federal government has intervened on several occasions, the
most recent being 1959, these actions having been taken, at least in part,
in response to unresolved and bitter conflicts within the Valley. The establish-
ment of the system has thus introduced a strong disruptive potential in the
social structure of the Valley. This two-edged potentiality for cohesion and
l9 Noriega Hope, in Gamio, 1922, v. 2, pp. 216, 222; also p. 327.

20 Gamio, 1922, v. 2, p. 216.
conflict is, we believe, fundamentally characteristic of all systems involving
the allocation of a scarce supply of water for irrigation.
The irrigation system in the Valley of Teotihuacan has created a potential
for social cohesion which has been partially realized on the community level,
less so on the Valley-wide level. Successful cooperative endeavors on the
community level have been undertaken which are reported to be notably
absent in at least some Mexican and other peasant communities which do not
practice stream irrigation.21 Why this cohesive potential has not been realized
and adequately institutionalized on a Valley-wide basis and, conversely, how
the disruptive potential inherent in an irrigation system has manifested itself
in the Valley, forms the subject of this paper.
The two-edged implications for social integration which characterize an
irrigation system providing a scarce supply of water for one or more com-
munities are present in such a system regardless of the system of authority in
the society as a whole. Such an irrigation system, however decentralized its
administration may be, establishes relationships among its members which
serve to bind them to each other. In multi-community systems, such as the
one in the Valley of Teotihuacan, the lack of self-sufficiency on the local level
provides a potential means for integration on a supra-community level. This
potential may or may not be realized in the context of a hierarchical and
centralized system of authority and may or may not involve actual inter-
ference in or direct authority over the irrigation system itself by political
figures. The variation possible here is enormous. Nevertheless, to the extent
that the populations of a number of communities in a society are economically
interdependent through mutual dependence on stream irrigation, to that extent
their social system simultaneously contains both a greater cohesive potential
and a greater disruptive potential than it would otherwise, whatever may be
the system of authority.
The social system of a people practicing irrigation on a multi-community
basis is potentially more cohesive than it would be if they did not practice
irrigation at all. The opposite is also true, however. Every cohesive potential
is simultaneously a disruptive potential. The disruptive potential in a multi-
community society practicing irrigation with a scarce supply of water stems
from the fact that people with divergent, sometimes contradictory interests,
must bend to common needs in a manner which is predictable and disciplined
within sharply circumscribed limits.
If the members of any given society are to carry on irrigation agriculture
successfully on a multi-community basis, some means must be found to exploit
positively the relationships of interdependence and potential antagonism
which are implicit in this form of agriculture. A means must be found to
actualize and institutionalize the potentialities for cohesion, while at the same
21 See footnote 17, esp. Diaz, 1962.

time keeping within bounds the disruptive potentialities. Under certain cir-
cumstances centralization of authority may be the only solution. But in
many, if not most instances, this is clearly not the case.22
In short, it is our opinion that once irrigation agriculture is separated from
the problem of centralized authority, its distinctive potentialities for both
cohesion and conflict may be better appreciated. The practice of irrigation
has distinctive social implications whatever the system of authority.
RENB MILLON and CLARA HALL

University o f Rochester
MAY DIIAZ
University o f California (Berkeley)
This has an obvious bearing on the possible relevance of irrigation agriculture to

the development of civilization in ancient Teotihuacan. It is conceivable that archae-
ological evidence would be forthcoming in the future which would demonstrate that
the central Teotihuacan valley was wholly under irrigation when Teotihuacan civiliza-
tion came into being. If this were to be demonstrated, it would tell us that certain
distinctive problems would have faced the ancient Teotihuacan irrigators. But it would
not of itself tell us how these problems were solved, given what we know of the modern
system, particularly in view of its small size (cf. Adams in Kraeling and Adams, 1960,
p. 40). And it is difficult to see how any judgment could be arrived at on this score
on the basis of archaeological evidence alone, given present limitations on the recovery
of information concerning social and political matters of this kind.
MILLON, HALL, DIAZ
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Conflict in The Modern Teotihuacan Irrigation System

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Conflict in the Modern Teotihuacan Irrigation System

Rene Millon; Clara Hall; May Diaz

In recent years a number of investigators have been concerned with the

THE MODERN SYSTEM

The Valley of Teotihuacan is a small valley in the northeastern part of the

Fig. 3f. Headquarters of Executive Committee of Valley irrigation Junta, a small

Privately Owned Lands receiving Water from

Acolman Pueblo, Municipio

the Sulz Juan Teotihuacan Irrigation System

on the shores of Lake Texcoco. The Valley otherwise consists of cross-cutting

Total No. Parcels Parcels Parcels

Acolman 435 114 28 0 4 24

Atlatongo 195 112 63 28 10 25

Hda. de San JosC 33 27 9 0 1 8

Hda. de Sta. Catarina 66 11 0 - - -

percent of total holdings. Holdings of 20 or more acres constitute only 1.2

7 Palerm and Wolf, 1961, p. 271.

Allotments o f Irrigated Land to Ejido Organizations in the

Sun Juan Teotihuacan Irrigation System

Acreage Divided According to Canal from which Water Received

receiving water is represented; (2) each ejido organization is represented,

" Gamio, 1922, v. 1 : 2, pp. 521, 524-526.

Number Average Size Scheduled

2 .15 acres 1 minute

time drilling operations for deep wells, commissioned by officials of the

Nevertheless, drilling operations were never resumed.

There is abundant and overt evidence of sources of conflict in the system.

Thus, while every source of cohesion is simultaneously a source of conflict,

ultimate basis is an exceedingly scarce supply of water, conflicts which have

Kubler, 1948, p. 474.

The modern irrigation system in the Valley of Teotihuacan has assumed a

l9 Noriega Hope, in Gamio, 1922, v. 2, pp. 216, 222; also p. 327.

21 See footnote 17, esp. Diaz, 1962.

RENB MILLON and CLARA HALL

This has an obvious bearing on the possible relevance of irrigation agriculture to

Adams, Robert M., "Settlements in Ancient Akkad", Archaeology, v. 10, n. 4 (Cincin-

Steward, Julian H., R. M. Adams, D. Collier, A. Palerm, K. A. Wittfogel and R. L.

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