culture and ethnic identity in a contemporary Aztec Indian village /
First Statement of Responsibility
by Alan R. Sandstrom
EDITION STATEMENT
Edition Statement
First edition
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
xxvii, 420 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates :
Other Physical Details
illustrations (some color), maps ;
Dimensions
24 cm
SERIES
Series Title
The Civilization of the American Indian series ;
Volume Designation
[v. 206]
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
Series numbering from jacket
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 389-401) and index
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Entering the field. -- The village in its setting. -- Amatlán and its people. -- Social organization and social action. -- Amatlán household economic and production activities. -- Religion and the Nahua universe. -- Ethnic identity and culture change
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Almost a million Nahua Indians, many of them descendants of Mexico's ancient Aztecs, continue to speak their native language, grow corn, and practice religious traditions that trace back to pre-Hispanic days. This ethnographic sketch, written with a minimum of anthropological jargon and illustrated with color photographs, explores the effects of Hispanic domination on the people of Amatlan, a pseudonymous remote village of about six hundred conservative Nahuas in the tropical forests of northern Veracruz. Several key questions inspired anthropologist Alan R. Sandstrom to live among the Nahuas in the early 1970s and again in the 1980s. How have the Nahuas managed to survive as a group after nearly five hundred years of conquest and domination by Europeans? How are villages like Amatlan organized to resist intrusion, and what distortions in village life are caused by the marginal status of Mexican Indian communities? What concrete advantages does being a Nahua confer on citizens of such a community? Sandstrom describes how Nahua culture is a coherent system of meanings and at the same time a subtle and dynamic strategy for survival. In the 1980s, however, the villagers presented themselves as less Indian because increased urban wage imigration[sic] and profound changes in local economic conditions diminished the value of the Indian identity. Long-term participant-observation research has yielded new information about village-level Nahua society, culture change, magico-religious beliefs and practices, Protestantism among Mesoamerican Indians, and the role of ethnicity in maintaining and transforming traditional culture. Where possible, the villagers' own words are used in telling their history and culture
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Nahua mythology
Nahuas-- Ethnic identity
Nahuas-- Social life and customs
Villages-- Mexico-- Veracruz-Llave (State), Case studies
GEOGRAPHICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Veracruz-Llave (Mexico : State), Social life and customs