MEXICO CITY.- Historians, anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists from different Mexican academic institutions gathered at the seminar "Fin de siglos: ¿fin de ciclos?" ("End of Centuries: End of Cycles?"), coinciding that by the end of the last centuries (18th, 19th and 20th) several historical aspects have repeated in a cyclic way; these aspects were analyzed with the objective of defining the present historical moment, to determine if we are “entering another end of cycle”.

Specialists compared facts considered characteristic of the end of 18th and 19th centuries, which apparently repeat every 100 years as historical cycles, and observed how these facts, expressed in revolutions, opened the following centuries.

According to Leticia Reina from the National Institute of Anthropology and History Direction of Historical Studies, coordinator of the academic encounter, one of the most characteristic coincidences is modernity, in which a spectacular economic growth but little development occurred, generating great social inequality.

Along with economic modernity, ankylosis of political structures added up. On the other hand, subordinate classes appreciated ideological and philosophical change paradigms: Liberalism in the 18th century and Socialism, Anarquism and Communism in the 19th.

Organized by the National Institute of Anthropology and History and the Center of Investigations and Superior Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS), with participation of scholars from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Colegio de Mexico, and Colegio Mexiquense, the encounter took place in Wednesdays of January, February and March 2010.

Facts that unchained the Independence and Revolution were analyzed too. “In both periods a rupture of the pact between elites, middle and subordinate classes occurred and there was a need of returning to legality, of legitimating again the social pact. This was an important aspect that occasioned the revolutions’ outbreak”, declared Leticia Reina.