Since Time Immemorial

“Rejecting an older bibliography that romanticized Native customs as ancient and autochthonous, Yanna Yannakakis studies how customs were formulated, how they changed, and how they became central to both law and politics during the colonial period. Rather than conserving a past, she astutely points out that customs enabled a host of different actors to adjust to a present and dream of a better future.” - Tamar Herzog, author of A Short History of European Law: The Last Two and a Half Millennia

“Since Time Immemorial is a compelling study of how Indigenous communities in colonial Mexico adapted European concepts of custom to their own communal lifeways. It shows how they advanced those reformulated versions in Spanish courts of law, responding strategically to global changes and challenges in the name of local custom, ironically. As with her first book, The Art of Being In-between, Yanna Yannakakis has written a classic in the field of Latin American history.” - Kevin Terraciano, Professor and Robert N. Burr Chair of History, University of California, Los Angeles

"Aimed at a scholarly audience, Yanna Yannakakis' Since Time Immemorial explores how Spanish authorities and indigenous elites navigated the ambiguous boundary between custom and law in16th-century Mexico. Deeply reasoned and argued, this book should be of interest to both history majors and experts interested in the legal framework of Spanish Mexico." - Noah Zachary, World History Encyclopedia

"Over the last decade, one of the most striking developments in scholarship on colonial Latin America has been the study of what might be called Indigenous legality. Yanna Yannakakis’s rigorous, imaginative, and well-written new book testifies to the vibrancy of this trend and shows how much remains to be done." - Brian Owensby, Hispanic American Historical Review

"Yannakakis has written a sophisticated and eminently readable text that could serve as an introduction to legal historical methods as well as a longue-durée study of Mexican Native communities. It is an exemplary model for thinking about law from the bottom up without losing sight of imperial foundations or a historically romanticizing a Native past." - Karen B. Graubart, Colonial Latin American Review

"Since Time Immemorial shows persuasively how preconquest custom shaped the laws governing the Indigenous world of postconquest Mexico. But it equally demonstrates the complex ways that traditional customs were manipulated to refect new realities as well as how new customs contributed to the evolution of legal practices in colonial society." - Jeremy Baskes, Estudios Interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Caribe

"Since Time Immemorial, a meticulously executed ethnohistorical study of law in colonial Mexico, will quickly become a classic in studies of colonialism, empire, and Native survivance." - Amber Brian, American Historical Review

"Since Time Immemorial contributes to and expands the literature on the normative power of custom or tradition. . . . Since Time Immemorial is an expansive historical narrative. Its magnitude and scope demonstrate the breadth of Yannakakis’s expertise. . . ." - Luis Sierra, Journal of Global South Studies

"A must-read for scholars of Mexican history, both those studying colonial times and others interested in the ongoing legal struggles of Indigenous communities in Mexico today. Since Time Immemorial is an appropriate text for graduate students and deserves a place in the bibliographies of all researchers interested in the globalization of legal history." - Jason Dyck, Mexican Studies

". . . There is much to commend Since Time Immemorial. Its nuanced history of custom in Mexico’s indigenous communities will be of interest to both ethnohistorians and legal historians, but it also offers much beyond this. It operates as a primer on a broad range of topics involving indigenous-Spanish relations in the colonial era. Students and instructors in large survey classes will find the text useful. . . ." - Nora E. Jaffary, Journal of Social History