In 2006-2008, the Mexico Indigena research team has carried out participatory mapping in three communities, and property regime research in these communities as well as an additional three, in the Sierra Norte (Sierra Juárez) of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca (see maps below).

Indigenous Zapotec residents trained in GPS use have produced data and sketch maps which reveal a fascinating, complex system of toponyms (place-names) and concepts of communal and individual property.

Most communities in the Sierra Juarez did not permit PROCEDE to survey and certify individual parcels, but many did accept the PROCEDE surveying of community perimeter boundaries.

Since the tumultuous period of political unrest in the summer and fall of 2006, Oaxaca has been in the news as a region where long-standing grievances among many indigenous communities are meshing with other movements in complex ways. Our work will illuminate neglected but important facets of these movements.