PREFACE 
The present monograph, based primarily upon a 
thesis completed at the University of California for 
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in geography in 
1940, is the result of field research which extended 
over many years. The work was made possible by 
the assistance and cooperation of a number of institu- 
tions and persons both in the United States and in 
Guatemala and several other American republics. 
Experience in this field began in 1927-28, when I 
accompanied Mr. Frans Blom on a trip of archeolog- 
. ical reconnaissance for Tulane University through 
the almost uninhabited Maya country of Chiapas, 
Guatemala, British Honduras, and Yucatan. This 
expedition was a memorial to John Geddings Gray, 
of Lake Charles, La., and was financed by the Gray 
family. In 1932, as a Fellow at Clark University, I 
took part in the program of Maya research of the 
Carnegie Institution of Washington, and made an in- 
tensive field study of Solola, Guatemala, a major mar- 
ket center in a region of diversified and active native 
commerce. This work, supported by both Clark 
University and the Carnegie Institution, projected 
into the modern period historical studies of Mayan 
trade which I began the previous year while a Fellow 
at the University of Colorado. The field notes were 
prepared for publication at Tulane University during 
the following year. It is hoped that many of the 
errors in that preliminary report (McBryde, 1933) 
are corrected in the present monograph. 
From October 1935 to November 1936, as a Pre- 
Doctoral Fellow of the Social Science Research 
Council, I conducted a study of regional economic 
specializations among the present-day Maya of Guate- 
mala. My wife, Frances Van Winkle McBryde, ac- 
companied me and made water-color sketches of the 
Indians. I am indebted to the Department of Middle 
American Research of Tulane University, the United 
Fruit Company, and the International Railways of 
Central America for helpful cooperation, and to 
Captain and Mrs. Richard B. McConnell, of New 
Orleans, for financial assistance on this trip. 
Between 1937 and 1940, on periods of leave from 
Ohio State University, I supplemented field informa- 
tion with further historical material from the Bancroft 
Library and from the Sauer Collection of photo- 
copies of Spanish Colonial manuscripts made in 
Madrid by Dr. Sanford Mosk. The historical and 
field data formed the basis of the doctoral disserta- 
tion, ‘““Native Economy of Southwest Guatemala, and 
its Natural Background,” which is deposited in the 
University of California Library. 
The thesis was augmented and revised in the light 
of material gathered in 1940-1941 in Guatemala, 
Oaxaca, and Chiapas, when I made field studies pri- 
marily of native crops, agriculture and ethnobotany, 
and collected seeds of economic plants, especially 
species of Phaseolus. This trip was made possible 
by a National Research Council Fellowship in the 
Natural Sciences supplemented by a grant from 
the Graduate Division of Ohio State University, in 
the form of a graduate assistantship for my wife. 
Other material assistance and courtesies were ac- 
corded by the Institute of International Education in 
administering a Pan American Airways Travel 
Fellowship; the United Fruit Company; Tulane 
University ; the Carnegie Institution; the Bureau of 
Plant Industry of the United States Department of 
Agriculture; the Botanical Museum of Harvard Uni- 
versity ; Mrs. R. Maury Sims, of Berkeley, California, 
who accompanied us into the field; Mr. Robert D. 
Feild, director of the Art School of Newcomb Col- 
lege; and Mr. Giles Healy, of New York. 
During the research periods outlined above, Dr. 
Carl O. Sauer, Chairman of the Department of Geog- 
raphy, University of California, has been my main 
source of inspiration and guidance. Mr. Frans Blom, 
a veteran of jungle archeology and exploration, has 
also been extremely helpful and encouraging. Others 
who have taken an active part in furthering my field 
excursions are Dean Alpheus Smith and Dr. Eugene 
Van Cleef, of Ohio State University; President 
Samuel Zemurray, of the United Fruit Company ; 
Dean Robert Redfield, of the University of Chicago; 
Prof. W. W. Mackie, of the University of California, 
who experimented with the beans collected in Guate- 
mala; Prof. J. W. Gilmore, University of California ; 
Dr. P. C. Mangelsdorf, curator of the Botanical Mu- 
seum of Harvard University, who studied my maize 
collections from Guatemala; and President W. W. 
Atwood, of Clark University. 
In all my field seasons in Guatemala, the mem- 
bers of the Carnegie Institution of Washington have 
been extremely cooperative and helpful. These in- 
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