Three generations after the Mexican Revolution, the Mexican aristocracy maintains a remarkable awareness of itself as a social class. In The Wages of Conquest, anthropologist Hugo G. Nutini sets out to study this social institution, which has shown an unparalleled continuity in structure, form, and content since its beginning with the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

The first part of the book gives an outline of Western social stratification from Greco-Roman times, through the Dark and Middle Ages, to the transition from estate to class after the French and American Revolutions. Focusing on social mobility, expression - the behaviors and practices that identify members of different groups - and various combinations of social, ruling, and political functions, Nutini demonstrates that Western aristocracies constitute a unitary system.

In the second part, Nutini explores the particular case of the Mexican aristocracy, giving a detailed description of its inception, development, flowering, and decline. As he explores the transformation of Mexico throughout Colonial and Republican times he clarifies why despite its loss of political and economic power the Mexican aristocracy is still an institution to be reckoned with.

This volume will interest sociologists, historians, political scientists, and anthropologists who study Latin America, where several local aristocracies have played powerful roles until recently.