USE AND ABUSE OF THE SERVICE OF THE “INDIGENOUS ATALAYEROS” IN NOVOHISPANO YUCATAN

Abstract

The work of the “indigenous atalayeros”, which is reported from the first
years of the Colonial times in Yucatan, appears primarily with the
characteristics of a personal service, although later it is hidden like a benefit
to the king, and later on like a public load. However, at anyone of the
denominations it hid in an open way the usufruct that was made of the
work of the natives. This distribution service has not been considered up to
now in the studies of the personal service in Mexico.