The Folk Culture of Yucatán. By Robert Redfield.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, Social Anthropology-
Series, 1941. Pp. xxiii, 416. Illustrations, map, index. $3.50.

The basic culture of Yucatán represents a fusion of two
strong parent streams of culture--Spanish and Maya Indian.
In recent years this hybrid culture has been undergoing changes
due to contact with Western urban civilization; such a situa-
tion is very attractive to social anthropologists who are inter-
ested in the processes of cultural change, particularly those
involved in the transition from tribal to modern urban life. In
The Folk Culture of Yucatán Redfield describes and analyzes
these changes that have occurred in Yucatecan culture in recent
years. The book is based upon a decade of cooperative research
sponsored by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Several
monographic reports on this work have already been published,
and others are scheduled to appear soon. Redfield's volume
embodies the results of all this work.

The method of investigation used in the Yucatecan field by
Redfield and his associates is a novel one. Four communities
were selected for study. These lie on a line extending from
the more heavily populated northwestern part of the peninsula
to the thinly settled jungle area of the southeastern interior.
The four communities include every type present in Yucatán--
a city (Mérida), a town (Dzitas), a peasant village (Chan
Kom), and a tribal village (Tusik). By proceeding in a north-
westerly direction from Tusik to Mérida it is possible to follow
the gradual transition from the culture of a Maya tribal group
to modern Spanish or Mexican civilization. The ethnic compo-
sition of the population shows a corresponding transition from
native Indian to Spanish white.

Essentially Redfield's book deals with the contrast between
tribal and modern society and the transition from the former
to the latter. Tusik is small, isolated, ethnically and culturally
homogeneous, and the customary ways of life are well organized
and have internal consistency. Group behavior predominates,
and religion--now as much Catholic as pagan--is still a vital
and cohesive element in the social structure. Mérida, on the
other hand, has all the characteristics of a modern urban com-
munity--heterogeneity, mobility, disorganization, individualized
behavior, and a high degree of secularization. The communi-
ties of Chan Kom and Dzitas occupy an intermediate position,
both spacially and culturally, and show how Mérida must have
developed out of a tribal community.

In his preface Redfield states that he has attempted to do
two things at the same time -- namely, to summarize facts
about present-day folk culture in Yucatán, and to set forth
some general ideas about the nature of society and culture.
He admits that these two may be incompatible, and this re-
viewer is inclined to agree that there are difficulties. The method
of presentation leaves something to be desired. There are special
chapters on economics, the family, religion, medicine, and
magic, etc., and in each of these there is a constant shuttling
back and forth from one Yucatecan community to another.
Thus some readers are likely to be confused and fail to get
a unified picture of the folk culture of Yucatán. Nevertheless
this comparative method does give admirable insights into the
nature of the changes that have taken place.

This volume will be of interest not only to anthropologists and
sociologists, but also to historians, political scientists, and even
to Mexican politicians. In regard to the latter group, for in-
stance, Redfield is able to show why the ejido is not accepted
by the jungle communities of Yucatán. This book cannot be
ignored by those who wish to keep abreast of important social
changes now taking place in Mexico.

The University of Texas.

T. N. Campbell.

How to cite:
"Folk Culture of Yucatan", Volume 45, Number 4, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v045/n4/review_DIVL6980.html
[Accessed Tue Nov 24 3:03:08 CST 2009]