‘Una Esclavitud Simulada’: Debt peonage in the state of Chiapas,Mexico, 1876–1911 1

This article examines debt peonage in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico during the regime of Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911). It argues that debt peonage in Chiapas was a coercive institution, which served to cheapen the price of labour in the growing agricultural export sector. Thus, rather than a ‘feudal relic’ incompatible with the logic of capitalist efficiency, the expansion and intensification of debt peonage during this time was consistent with the political economy of capitalist modernization in Mexico prior to the revolution of 1910–20.     

The Role of Youth’s Ratings of the Importance of Socially Supportive Behaviors in the Relationship Between Social Support and Self-Concept

The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between the perceived frequency and perceived importance of social support with youth’s self-concept. Data from a large representative sample of 921 children and adolescents in grades 3 through 12 were analyzed. Results indicated that the relationships between the frequency of social support from parents, teachers, classmates, and close friends with self-concept were significant. However, only the perceived importance of social support from teachers was significantly related to self-concept. Finally, an interaction was found between the frequency of social support and the importance of social support from classmates and close friends on self-concept. These results suggest that self-evaluations of the importance of teacher support may be especially influential for youths’ self-concept, and that the ability to discount the value of support from classmates and friends, when it is lacking, may be protective to the self-concept of children and adolescents.