Constructing Masculinity, Negotiating Rule

Abstract

In the preceding chapters, we have seen that the Dominican southwest’s most important institutions and practices were not in a contradictory relationship to the state-building project. On the contrary, the appearance and the construction of the state in this part of the country both depended upon and strengthened the region’s well-tried cultural forms and practices. The building of the postcolonial state in the southwest consolidated and reinforced basic institutions like the extended family and compadrazgo. The same applies to the region’s forms of patronage and clientage. The state was produced precisely by means of these institutions.