498 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1958 
“Latin American,” or Criolla, are in a transitional stage between the 
two; they are in the process of selecting those elements and adopting 
those attitudes in the two cultures with which they feel physically and 
psychically most at home, most comfortable, and which they at the 
same time feel give most prestige and offer the best possibility of 
making a living within the framework of the newly adopted prestige 
structure. There are many valid values in Guajiro culture for both 
Indians and Latins, and the reciprocal process of acculturation pro- 
ceeds gradually. The Guajiros in La Gloria are fortunate in having 
a zone in which they can maneuver their cultural forces, as it were, 
and slowly sort out the values that seem suitable. 
In spite of droughts, hard work, and lean days, life in La Gloria is 
interesting and dynamic; everyone feels to a greater or less degree the 
pull of the two cultures, and the responses often depend on wholly 
intangible factors. One man will prefer monogamy because he is un- 
ashamedly in love with his wife, another because he always felt that 
his mother—one of the several wives of his father—did not have a 
fair deal, while still another will marry several wives a la Guajiro 
because he simply likes variety; one woman will give up painting her 
face black as a protection against the sun after once seeing Latin 
women of Maracaibo without black paint, while another will continue 
to paint her face, and that of her daughter, no matter how many times 
she goes to Maracaibo, because her mother before her always painted 
her face, and her mother always knew the right thing to do! And 
so on, and so on, with each individual case. It is impossible to predict 
beforehand which element of material or nonmaterial culture will be 
seized upon and held fast. Reason and logic are seldom invoked by 
human societies to determine what is decent or indecent, clean or un- 
clean, valid or invalid, good or bad; the members of each society feel 
that what they do is decent, clean, valid, and good, “for thinking makes 
it so.” 
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Agustin, José pDE BARRANQUILLA. 
1953. Asiesla Guajira. 2ded. Bogota. 
ARMSTRONG, JOHN M., and M&Traux, ALFRED. 
1948. The Guajiros. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 148, Handbook of South 
American Indians, vol. 4, pp. 369-383. 
BENITEZ, RAFAEL. 
1957. La Guajira en 1874. Ed. Marco Aurelio Vila. Maracaibo. 
CHAVES, MILCIADES. 
1946. Mitos, leyendas y cuentos de la Guajira. Bol. Arqueol., vol. 2, No. 4, 
pp. 305-332. 
1951. Emigraci6n Guarija. Bol. Soc. Geogr. Colombia, vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 5-28. 
Crist, R. B. 
1958. The land and people of the Guajira Peninsula. Ann. Rep. Smithso- 
nian Inst. for 1957, pp. 339-355. 
