ETHNOLOGY
At the core of Chance’s book is a rethinking
of the relationship between race and social class
in colonial Mexico. The evidence from Oaxaca
suggests that some scholars have made too much
of the Spaniard’s penchant for arriving at racial
categories (such as evidenced by the elaborate
szstema de castas) and have paid too little atten-
tion to economic and status criteria of class. In
Chance’s view, the sistema de castas appears as
little more than an idealistic formulation
created on the part of the Spanish elite as an ef-
fort to retain in spirit, if seldom in actuality, a
system of social control based on easily trans-
gressed nuances of racial and ethnic identity.
With a Weberian twist, Chance suggests that
we may also be making too much of the dif-
ferences between colonial and modern Mexico
or, in his criticism of Sjoberg’s terms, between
preindustrial and industrial societies. Urban
modernity is indicated not by industrialization,
but by the development of a “competitive
capitalistic economy, a n unstable elite,
achieved status of various kinds, and a signifi-
cant degree of social mobility” (p. 200). All of
those elements were present in Oaxaca through-
out the colonial experience.
I can think of few books that so clearly
demonstrate, in a single sweep, the value of ac-
curate regional history and urban-based re-
search.
Anthropology and History i n YucatBn. Grant
D.Jones, ed. The Texas Pan American Series.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977. xxiv +
344 pp. $16.95 (cloth).
Robert Carmack
State University of New York, Albany
This collection of ethnohistory essays on the
lowland Maya developed out of a symposium
held at the annual AAA meetiygs in 1972. The
symposium was organized by Grant D. Jones,
who served as editor for the present volume.
Jones has performed his task admirably. The ar-
ticles are of high quality, without exception,
and the editing is excellent. The volume is a
major contribution to Mayan ethnohistory. One
of the main strengths of the book, in my opin-
ion, is the breadth of problems with which it
deals. One finds reconstruction of the prehis-
panic cultures, which will be of interest to ar-
chaeologists, detailed analysis of demographic
405
institutions and political matters of special in-
terest to historians, and studies of folklore and
history of ethnographic interest. I agree with
Jones that breadth of coverage is more useful at
this stage of our knowledge than more focused
synthesis.
I will make no attempt to summarize the ten
articles in the volume (by Sir Eric Thompson,
France V. Scholes and Sir Eric Thompson, 0.
Nigel Bolland, D. E. Dumond, Grant D. Jones,
James W . Ryder, Anne C. Collins, Victoria
Reifler Bricker, Allan F. Burns, Irwin Press).
Jones has done this in his useful introduction.
He has also pointed to the “common interest
that integrates” the articles:
. . . the conceptual and methodological inte-
gration of ethnographic and historical ap-
proaches and the dissatisfaction among some
lowland Mayanists with the static approach to
cultural differentiation utilized in Redfield’s
influential studies of the folk-urban con-
tinuum in Yucatan [p. xi].
My own reservations about lowland Maya
ethnohistory have centered on precisely those
issues, so 1 find the authors’ recognition of this
most welcome. I also share Jones’s interest in
trying to stress cultural continuities from the in-
digenous past in lowland history, although in
this he seems to differ somewhat with other
authors in the book. Jones concludes that “low-
land Maya society has maintained a remarkable
degree of integrity and autonomy in the face of
nearly overwhelming external pressure” (p.
xiii). It is claimed that this is part of a “Maya
propensity to absorb alien dominant societies”
(p. xiv). All civilizations appear to have similar
“propensities,” and the highland Maya have
been even more assimilative than the lowlanders
(although not because of any propensity).
Nevertheless, I think the emphasis by Jones and
several of the other authors is appropriate.
By far the most controversial article is the one
by Thompson on the central lowland Maya.
Thompson attempts to define an ethnic ter-
ritory and culture for the central lowlands,
which he refers to as “Chan Maya.” He marshals
an extensive array of ethnohistoric and limited
archaeological data in support of the thesis, in a
manner very reminiscent of his highly influen-
tial thesis about the Putun Maya. He admits
that his thesis is speculative, especially where it
ar,gues for ethnic and territorial continuities of a
thousand years. Personally, 1 doubt that it will
stand the test of time, but 1 am certain that it
406 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST
will stimulate much useful research. It will be of
interest for Mayanists to learn that Thompson
retracts his earlier claims that the Lacandones
were primarily post-Conquest migrants from
Yucatan. In this latest (and regrettably last)
reconstruction by Thompson, they form one
subdivision of the lowland Chan culture.
Many other reconstructions, theses, and clari-
fications in the several essays will be of interest
to Mayanists. I would like to mention in passing
a few that seemed most important to me: the ex-
tensive reconstruction of Maya culture history in
Belize, including relations between the Maya
and British; the clarification of the political and
economic structure of independent native chief-
doms during the 19th century (e.g., Chichan-
ha); further light on the nature of Chan Santa
Cruz political organization and history; the
reconstruction of the process by which the in-
digenous Yucatecan priesthood became linked
with the Catholic Church’s ecclesiastical struc-
ture; the descriptions of surviving prehispanic
and caste-war cultural patterns in present-day
Yucatan. I suspect many readers will be sur-
prised, as I was, to learn that “counsels” of
caste-war deeds are still recited in Quintana
Roo, along with readings from the books of
Chilam Balam.
This book is also valuable for the ethnohis-
toric methodology it illustrates. Scholes’s and
Thompson’s handling of a 17th-century Pro-
banza might serve as a model for using colonial
documents for cultural reconstruction. There is
innovative use of folklore, both written and
oral, especially in terms of how it might be in-
tegrated with more standard “externally” pro-
duced histories. Many Mayanists will find most
instructive the use made of British documents
by several of the authors, since the documents
are foreign to most Mayan ethnohistory.
Many specific interpretations made by the
several authors might be disputed; indeed, the
authors disagree with each other on some major
points. It could also be argued that the ethno-
graphic contribution was disappointingly skim-
py, even in cases where it might have been use-
fully exploited for historical purposes. Nor does
the book provide a n overall view of lowland
Maya sociocultural process, or even representa-
tive regional coverage. Also noteworthy is the
absence of any attempt to integrate the ethno-
historical sources with archaeological data. All
the same, none of those potentially negative fac-
tors can detract from the very positive accom-
plishments of this book. T h e editor can rest
assured that the book does signal a revival of in-
[81, 19791
terest among ethnohistorians in the lowland
area and that it will stimulate continuing re-
search in the future.
T h e Fiesta System a n d Economic Change.
W d d e n ~ u rR Snuth New York: Columbia
LJniversity Press, 1977. viii + 194 p p . $15.00
(cloth).
Stuart Plattner
University of Missouri
This book analyzes the evolution of the Meso-
american fiesta system in response to economic
and social development. Four very different
Mayan Indian communities in highland western
Guatrmala are described. T h e main hypothesis
is that individual sponsorship of expensive com-
munity rituals (the traditional system) depends
upon the exclusion of Indians from urban life.
their subjugated economic position, and their
independence in local community affairs. As a
case study and a point of view of fiesta systems,
the book is fascinating. T h e weakest part of the
study is its unspecified, unstandardized. and
unformalized methodo1o.q.
T h e most fascinating community Smith
describes is San Pedro, a n incredibly dynamic.
fast-growing Indian town of 10,000. These petty
tradesmen and cottage-industry manufacturers
are so imbued with the spirit of capitalism that
they would warm the heart of an AID consul-
tant. They have used the educational system to
produce one doctor. a handful of lawyers, and
hundreds of teachers, who have retained their
Indian identities. They control the transport in-
dustry and are gaining control of retail trade.
These progressive entrepreneurs have thrown
off the weight of the old cargo system in favor of
a committee-basrd fiesta administration.
San Pedro is compared with San Miguel Ixta-
h u a c i n , a tiny mountain township of poor In-
dians. T h e subsistence corn farmers of San
Miguel must migrate seasonally to coastal plan-
tations to sell their labor for meager wages. San
Miguel’s humble peasants have also overthrown
the burden of the traditional fiesta system. for
different reasons. T h e township is the arena of a
struggle between four religious groups: tradi-
tional syncretic folk Catholics. missionary ortho-
dox Catholics, missionary Protestants, and even
some Spiritualists. Smith shows how these com-
peting ideologies have dealt a coup degrcicr to a
traditional cargo system already faltering under
the pressure of impoverished conditions.