Acculturation in the Guajira’ 
By Raymonp E. Crist 
Research Professor of Geography 
University of Florida 
[With 8 plates] 
In A PREVIOUS PAPER (“The Land and People of the Guajira Penin- 
sula,” Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Institution, 1957, pp. 839-355) the au- 
thor discussed the physical setting and some significant features of the 
cultural geography of the Guajira Peninsula. It is the purpose of this 
paper to present the results of a study of the process whereby those of 
Guajiro culture accept or reject the cultural values of modern Vene- 
zuela. For this study, intensive, on-the-spot investigations were made 
in La Gloria, a tiny Guajiro settlement 100 kilometers north of 
Maracaibo. 
CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS 
It is a matter of historical record that the rich and extensive Indian 
cultures of Mexico and of Peru collapsed like the proverbial house of 
cards under the impact of a mere handful of Spanish Conquistadores. 
In striking contrast, the Indians of the desertic, isolated, and inhos- 
pitable Guajira Peninsula—a kind of dead end of Nature—who were 
a much less numerous and more primitive group, living by hunting 
and fishing, with perhaps occasional raids on the weaker or less war- 
like neighbors within their range, were able not only to survive but to 
enrich their culture and by those tokens increase their numbers. They 
adopted into their scheme the domestic animals introduced by the 
Spaniards and created a pastoral society that has persisted over the 
centuries, despite unfavorable conditions, down to the present day. 
The Guajiro social organization of the present time includes an 
assortment of elements. Polygamy flourishes along with matriliny, 
+The field and library work on which this paper is based was made possible by a grant 
of the Creole Petroleum Corp. Various departments of the organization cooperated in 
every way to further the undertaking. Thanks are due the ministries of the Venezuelan 
and Colombian Governments that helped to facilitate fieldwork involving movement back 
and forth across the frontier; also Prof. Lorenzo Monroy and WD. J. Lamb, who were of 
assistance at every step throughout the author’s stay in Venezuela. To Drs. Woodfin L. 
Butte and Guillermo Zuloaga, directors of the Creole Petroleum Corp., the writer is es- 
pecially grateful. 
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