The Tarahumara, an Indian tribe of northern Mexico

Description:

A scholarly work describing the second cultural anthropological and ethnobotanical study of the gentle Tarahumara Indians of the Sierra Madre over a period of over 9 months. The first study was by Lumholtz at the beginning of the century. Zingg writes the first half of the book on cultural anthropology, and is arguably the more important contributor, although junior to Bennett, and so Zingg seldom appears in citations. The book is an important classic, describing conditions that have changed somewhat in the intervening 80 years. [The second (printed) edition is a magnificently bound volume by the Rio Grande Press in 1976 with color photos added.] Zingg's chapters are a fascinating description of a people with a very simple lifestyle adaptation to the rigorous climate and enormous canyons of the Sierra Madre, including their social organization, agriculture, the elements of social glue that unite the scattered Tarahumara communities (especially the importance of shared labor and frequent corn beer drinking parties after communal labor and on festive occasions) and the partial integration of Catholicism into traditional beliefs among some Tarahumara communities. The authors learned some of the Tarahumara language and were generally hospitably received. However, the research reflects very little understanding of the very uniqe world-view and philosophy of the Tarahumara (who prefer to be referred to as Raramuri - the fleet-footed ones), perhaps due to the language barrier. I have not yet read the chapters by Bennett. See also Zingg's Behind the Mexican Mountains, ed. and compiled from an unpublished manuscript written by Zingg and Howard Campbell et al. U. Texas Press, Austin, 2001. (Ignore the spiteful and in my opinion, unjustified criticism in the Introduction by Campbell). The book is a very readable account of the scientific expedition and the arduous conditions the researchers endured, as well as important background and both hair-raising and hilarious incidents. This book provides many anecdotal accounts of the Tarahumara and their life, and is a valuable foil to the book reviewed. I recommend it for those who don't want to tackle the more formal "The Tarahumara, an Indian tribe of northern Mexico", itself a remarkable work. The subject work was originally published in 1935, but this original edition is not listed here. CEG 5/29/2010.

subjects: Culture,  Description and travel,  Indians of Mexico,  Raramuri Cultural Anthropology,  Social life and customs,  Tarahumara Ethnography,  Tarahumara Indians,  Tarahumara social life and customs

People: Tarahumara,  alias Raramuri Indians

Places: Mexico

Times: This study is of the cultural anthropology of the Tarahumara (Raramuri) Indians,  performed in 1930 in their homeland,  the Sierra Madre Occidental in Chihuahua Mexico