TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMY 



21 



way in importance to the cultural and linguistic 

 one. Now it must be pointed out (Tax, 1942) 

 that the Ladino population is recruited from the 

 Indian communities. That is, over the course of 

 time individual Indians learn Spanish, and become 

 acculturated to Ladino ways, and leave their local 

 Indian societies and come to form part of the 

 Ladino population. In some regions of Guatemala 

 this process has already destroyed the Indian com- 

 munities; all of the people are Ladinoized and 

 recognized by most people as Ladinos. In west- 

 ern Guatemala this is not the case; most Indians 

 live in easily distinguishable Indian communities. 



When I speak of Indian culture I speak of the 

 culture of communities that are still identifiably 

 Indian. When I say that such and such a Eiu-o- 

 pean trait is not part of Indian culture, I mean 

 that it does not enter into the normal life of the 

 Indian connnunities. Wlien I say — and I shall- — 

 that certain European techniques are practiced by 

 Indians who are partly Ladinoized — who have 

 entered European culture in some degree, it may 

 seem that I am arguing in a circle by saying that 

 knowledge of the European technique makes a 

 man a Ladino. What I shall mean, however, is 

 that such an Indian is partly Ladinoized in that 

 he has in some degree departed not only from the 

 practices of his local Indian culture, but he has 

 in doing so left his local Indian society to enter 

 in some degree Ladino society. For example, I 

 shall point out that some Indian men make pottery 

 on the wheel, but that they do so in shops in the 

 towns where the Ladino wheel potters live, and 

 that they lead lives that are in many respects 

 like those of the Ladinos. They are not full 

 members of typical Indian societies. 



In this discussion of which traits of European 

 technolog}' arc shared by Indians, I am therefore 

 thinking of Indian culture and of Indians defined 

 as participating fully Ld Indian culture. 



What, then, are included in the technologies of 

 the two layers that I call "primitive" and "pre- 

 industrial European" and how are their traits now 

 distributed in Indian and Ladino cultures? 



Sixteenth-century Europe, which sent its sol- 

 diers, missionaries, and colonists to the New 

 World, had a material culture little different from 

 that of classical times. The chief domestic ani- 

 mals were horses and mules, cattle, sheep, swine, 

 and chickens and other fowl. There was a com- 

 plex of dairjang — milk, butter, cheesemaking, and 



so on; of leather tanning and soap and tallow- 

 candle making; of the use of animals for draft and 

 fertilizer. The important grains were wheat, rye, 

 barley, and oats. Rice, of course, came in some- 

 where. There was a technical complex in agri- 

 culture that included beast-drawn circular 

 threshers and round millstones, powered by water 

 wheels. There were brewing and wine making 

 and bread making; there were baking in an oven 

 and frying in animal fat. There was metal work- 

 ing, especially in iron. Guns and gunpowder 

 supplemented metal swords and knives as weapons 

 of war and the chase. There were carts and plows 

 drawn by animals. There were spinning wheels — 

 cotton, wool, flax, and silk were woven on upright 

 foot-pov\^er looms with continuous warps. There 

 was also tailoring of garments and of leather 

 shoes. There were brick baking and some ma- 

 sonry, and bouses with windows. And so on. 

 There is no point in extending a list that is obvious 

 in our own culture. 



Now let us note what the Indians in Guatemala 

 had when the Spaniards arrived. Besides the 

 dog, the only important domestic animal was the 

 turkey, whose meat and possibly eggs were used. 

 As in Europe there were bees, honey, and wax. 

 The skins of wild animals were cured and used. 

 With no beasts of burden, and no vehicles, loads 

 were carried on the head (women) or the back, 

 with the tumpline. The only gi-ain was maize; 

 there were, as in Europe, a number of vegetables 

 such as beans and squash and chile. Corn was 

 planted with a sharpened stick; there was no im- 

 portant preparation of the soil. Tools were pre- 

 sumably stone and wood, for although copper and 

 bronze as well as gold were known in some parts of 

 America, they were not used in common imple- 

 ments, certainly not in Guatemala. The weapons 

 of war were stone-pointed arrows and lances. The 

 techniques of cooking were barbecuing, toasting 

 and baking on the griddle, and boiling in pots. 

 Cotton was grown, and spun with the hand whorl. 

 It was woven on the backstrap loom, one end 

 attached to a tree or post. There was a minimum 

 of tailoring, and the footgear consisted of a leather 

 sole attached by leather thongs round the foot. 

 Stone masonry was of course known, but domestic 

 architecture probably used walls cither of canes or 

 wood or of unbaked mud bricks or daub, and 

 without windows. 



If one compares the uiventory of imported 



