2 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 4 
quantities of exotic pottery, which is generally re- 
garded as having come in by trade from outside 
areas 
The ancient commercial significance of salt and 
cacao has been pointed out earlier. Another com- 
modity which was formerly of great value was 
feathers of the quetzal, which today, however, is 
protected, being Guatemala’s national emblem. The 
importance of the long, graceful green plumes of this 
trogon impressed most of the early chroniclers, who 
often referred to the methods of capturing the birds, 
as well as to the quantities of feathers handled by 
Aztec merchants. Of this industry in Vera Paz, 
Médel wrote, about the middle of the 16th century: 
“There is a kind of bird having very long and beauti- 
ful feathers, and adorned with many marvelous 
colors; which the native Indians of that province 
painstakingly capture alive with some little nets and 
other devices which they have for the purpose. They 
pull out three or four of the prettiest tail feathers 
and release the birds so that they may bear more 
of the same fruit the following year.”"° According 
to this author, traders from Mexico came to buy 
quetzal feathers in great quantities, to take them back 
that they might adorn idols worshipped by the Aztec. 
In addition to cacao, salt, pottery, turquoise, and 
feathers, the ancient Maya widely traded such things 
as foodstuffs, corn, beans, chile, honey, clothing, par- 
ticularly cotton textiles, and minerals, principally jade 
and obsidian. Toa lesser extent they dealt in gold in 
n4 See Lothrop, 1933, pp. 29, 45, 47, 57. Joyce summarizes Seler’s 
conclusions on this question as follows: ‘‘Seler has attempted to 
trace to some extent the wanderings of pottery from certain centers 
of manufacture; he calls attention to the finding in Guatemala of 
ware of Tarascan type; concludes that the ware of Huehuetenango 
and Chiquimula spread over the whole of south-western Guatemala 
and south-eastern Chiapas, while that of Jilotepec in the Guatemalan 
province of Jalapa was carried to south-eastern Guatemala and 
western El] Salvador’ (Joyce, 1914, p. 308). 
5 Médel, Ms., p. 36, f. 138. A somewhat later description of 
Vera Paz, anonymous and undated (probably written about 1575) 
gives a remarkably detailed account of the quetzal traffic, as follows: 
ete the long [quetzal] feathers sell very well, and there are 
obtained in this province annually more than 10,000. From here they 
are taken to other provinces, and they are very much in demand. 
The manner of hunting them is by means of sticks or strings with 
birdlime which is put on the drinking-places or in the trees where the 
birds feed, on small fruit well known to the Indians. These trees 
and watering places are privately owned by Indians, and may be 
sold or managed by them. Sometimes ‘they catch the birds on the 
nest and pluck the feathers The birds make their nests in 
the highest trees, in holes in the trunk It is impossible to 
raise them. This collecting of feathers is very arduous and difficult, 
even dangerous for the Indians, because in addition to spending many 
days on the trail and waiting during the hunt, they often fall from 
the trees and may break legs and arms, or be killed . . . but 
these natives despoil one saint to adorn another which is no saint 
. 2”? (Anon., Ms. 1574a, pp. 16-17, f. 83). 
Pineda writes (about 1570) of the quetzales of Vera Paz, [the 
Indians] catch them at a certain season of the year, take off the 
feathers and turn them loose to grow more” (Pineda, 1908, p. 448). 
the form of dust (in quills) and figurines, and copper 
cast into small bells and ax blades. From rock 
quarries they produced lime and metates. 
LOCAL SPECIALIZATION 
Great diversity of small adjacent areas in Central 
America has led to regional specialization, which has 
stimulated trade development to.a high degree since 
ancient times. The immense ranges of altitude in 
the high, dissected mountains and plateaus are 
reflected in marked climatic contrasts (map 6). In 
addition to this, there are extreme slope, soil, and 
hydrographic differences that determine natural 
vegetation forms, flora and agricultural products. 
The geologic structure is likewise highly varied, 
there being granites and limestones in sharp contact, 
in places buried by superimposed ejecta of recent 
volcanism (map 5). 
MINERAL AND FOREST PRODUCTS 
. (Map 18) 
The scattered distribution of essential trade articles 
based upon products of mines and forests is evident 
from map 18. 
Metates.— Metates are made in only three centers : 
(1) Nahuala (and its sister municipio of Santa 
Catarina Ixtahuacan, culturally almost indistinguish- 
EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS FOR MAP 18 
OBSIDIAN FURNITURE 
CS LIME OCOTE PITCH PINE 
[) satt (c= Cookea; CC CHARCOAL 
(3 = Sun-evaporated) 
——. TRIPOD GRINDING STONE PB LEAD 
(Metate) 
aeep LIMESTONE OUTCROPS S suLrur 
== LUMBER 
Arrows with cross bars indicate volume of 
trade, as in map 10 (bars same interval as barbs) . 
able from it), which supplies the eastern and south- 
eastern two-thirds of Southwest Guatemala; (2) 
Malacantancito, which supplies the Cuchumatanes 
Mountain villages and the region from Huehue- 
tenango southward through the town of Quezalte- 
nango (where Nahuala stones are also sold) and into 
the Lowlands as far east as Nuevo San Carlos; and 
(3) Tajumulco, which supplies the San Marcos re- 
gion, some metates reaching the town of Quezalte- 
