e FOREWORD 
the natives ceased to be “Indians.” In the High- 
lands, which are unsuited to these cash crops and 
which lack important mines and other resources of 
interest to Europeans, the Indians have retained a 
large number of their aboriginal ecological patterns, 
while their inaccessibility has spared them many 
acculturating influences. And here, local cultural 
variation is more or less commensurate with geo- 
graphical variation from one locality to another. 
Clarification of the ecological limitations on cul- 
tural variability clears the ground for identification 
of the precise historical factors that bring about 
acculturation. When the ecological and historical 
factors have been identified, it is of value to examine 
the processes of acculturation in detail, focusing 
attention on the individual through recording case 
histories, analyzing personality structure, and re- 
vealing attitudes that expedite or inhibit change. 
Such analyses are important in two respects. First, 
individual conflicts and resistance to new patterns of 
behavior affect the rate of change. Second, psycho- 
logical orientations determine the direction of change 
where ecological patterns allow a choice of alterna- 
tives. The general trends of acculturation in the 
New World, however, have had little reference to 
the Indians’ feeling about them. While new ecological 
adaptations have broadened the range of socio- 
economic possibilities, persistent acculturational 
forces have actually narrowed the choice. Economic, 
social, and even religious influences have all been 
fairly compulsive. But so long as the Indian remains 
agrarian, the primary need is to understand the 
potentialities of his land-use systems. This means 
that cultural studies must be made in conjunction with 
analyses of the type that McBryde so well presents 
in the present monograph. 
