Mexico: The Binary Narrative of the Performance of Self-Defense Groups in Tierra Caliente Michoacán

Abstract

Social symbolic action is interpreted through binary narrative as a discourse constructed by motives, relationships, and institutions. This discourse is based on a distinction between the pure and the impure, the good and the bad, and the sacred and the profane, and it is linked with the cultural imaginary that lends a particular meaning to social acts. In this case, the analysis of the binary narrative of self-defense groups in Tierra Caliente (Michoacán) allowed interpretations to be made regarding regional armed social action in a national setting, shaped by the government discourse that blames organized crime for national public insecurity.