CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 97 
turally very similar to Guatemala. Except on 
market days, when it teems with life, this village 
resembles a “ghost town,” having rows of vacant 
houses with grass even on the walks between them. 
Great fluctuations in town populations are very 
general in the Maya Indian regions of Guatemala 
and Mexico, especially in market towns. 
Though Indians may live near the center of a 
town or village, more often they are to be found on 
the outskirts (map 21) and scattered over the sur- 
rounding country where the terrain permits. Such 
dispersed settlements are common in the Quezalte- 
nango-Totonicapan region. As a general rule, 
Indians are more dependent upon agriculture than 
are Ladinos, and even traders, craftsmen, and arti- 
sans among them plant cornfields. 
NUCLEATING FACTORS IN SETTLE- 
MENTS AROUND LAKE ATITLAN 
Certain salient geographical as well as purely 
cultural 747 factors encourage the agglomeration of 
Indians into villages and towns, some of them ex- 
tremely compact, such as Santiago Atitlan (map 20; 
pl. 47). Site limitations, in terms of water supply 
as well as steepness of slope in such rugged regions 
as the Lake Atitlan Basin, are chiefly responsible 
for condensed settlements which have little “rural” 
population (outside of the villages). 
On the other hand, in an area like the open valley 
between the towns of Quezaltenango and Totonica- 
pan, or the dissected plateau region around Santa 
Cruz del Quiché and Chichicastenango, there are 
many Indian dwellings scattered widely over the 
countryside. These people, being agriculturists pri- 
marily, and needing space for cornfields, pastures, 
and woodlots, tend to spread out widely, if possible, 
in establishing their dwellings or minor groups of 
dwellings near their fields (pl. 38, a, f). Small 
administrative and commercial villages and towns, 
surrounded by far-flung rural habitations, wherein 
live the majority of the municipio population, repre- 
sent much the commonest type of settlement in 
Indian Guatemala. These are the “dispersed-settle- 
ment” municipios mentioned earlier in this section. 
The principal nucleating factors are: (1) Perma- 
nent water supply; (2) site or surface features 
“7 No attempt was made to study and analyze such cultural factors 
as addiction to alcohol and religious fiestas. Overemphasis upon these 
two traits by Indians of Santa Catarina Palopé was pointed out by Sol 
Tax (1937, p. 443) as a major reason for the small amount of land 
owned by the Catarinecos, since they have sold much of it to pay for 
their expensive indulgences. (Had their lands been abundant and 
Productive to begin with, perhaps they would not have had to sell them.) 
654162—47—_8 
which limit settlement possibilities; (3) situation, 
including nearness to arable lands, markets, trade 
routes, and sources of supply of goods of all sorts, 
as well as general climatic and edaphic conditions ; 
(4) specialized occupations, commercial, industrial 
or agricultural, which are supplementary to the basic 
milpa economy, and which may depend in turn upon 
certain ‘specific advantages in the natural environ- 
ment; (5) availability of remunerative employment ; 
(6) historical precedent. 
SANTIAGO ATITLAN 
Santiago, the largest village (map 20; pl 47) on 
Lake Atitlan, is an excellent example of a clustered— 
settlement municipio and illustrates the operation of 
the six nucleating factors. 
Water supply.—The Lake is the only source of 
permanent water in the higher, more desirable por- 
tion of the municipio; that is, the part which is at 
Lake level or above, rather than in the warmer lower 
levels. Streams on the slopes of the three volcanic 
cones are intermittent, flowing only during the rainy 
half year, except on the lower, coastal versant, where 
abundant springs, many of them percolating through 
from the Lake, irrigate the coffee fincas. The penin- 
sula of Santiago has a full kilometer of water 
frontage, greater than that of any other equal area 
along the shore, so that no Atiteca has far to go to 
fill her tinaja, or water jar (pl. 25, f). This avail- 
ability of Lake water, then, is a critical factor in 
limiting the location of settlements to within a short 
distance from the shore. 
Surface features.—The lava terrace town site, 
which has been described in a previous section 
(p. 86), presents the largest area of moderately level 
surface adjacent to the water, and is safe from flood- 
ing by streams or by the fluctuating Lake. This 
hazard of inundation exerts a major influence upon 
the choice of sites for the location of settlements. 
Situation.—Lying in the gap between volcanoes 
Toliman—Atitlan and San Pedro on a natural cor- 
ridor connecting the Highlands with the Pacific Low- 
lands, Santiago is on a major ancient trade route.1#$ 
148 One branch of the colonial Camino Real passed through Santiago, 
and this was an important dry-season alternate route to Mexico from 
Guatemala, via Lowland Soconusco. It was followed by Alonso Ponce, 
who found, however, that it was often impassable in rainy weather, be- 
cause of swollen rivers and swamps: ‘‘One cannot go to Guatemala by 
that road during the rainy season, when you must go by the province of 
Chiapas” (op. cit., vol. 1, p.. 294). The other branch, from the junction 
at Godines, went by Panajachel, Solola, Argueta, Totonicapan, Huehue- 
tenango, and Chiapas, keeping to the Highlands. I had reports of re- 
mains of an old stone ‘‘highway” near Argueta, and the same year 
(1932) saw five well-preserved old stone bridges while mapping the 
ancient trail just south of Solola. 
