22 



TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMY 



European items with the teclinology of the Ladino 

 population of Guatemala, the striking faet emerges 

 that every item is still an integral part of Ladino 

 culture. New items have been added, but nothing 

 (of the list given "') has been lost. Since Ladmos 

 and their culture are important in western Guate- 

 mala, this European technology is therefore part 

 of the regional technology that I am describing. 

 All of these items, similarly, are known in Pana- 

 jachel, and are part of the culture of at least the 

 Ladinos of Panajachel. The question is, which of 

 these items are also part of the Indian culture of 

 the region, and of the Panajachel Indian tech- 

 nology in particular. 



Complementary questions need to be asked 

 about the survival of pre-Columbian Indian tech- 

 nology. With the exception that stone tools and 

 aU items speciiicall}' connected with warfare (such 

 as the bow, shields, etc.) have utterly disappeared, 

 every item listed in the Indian inventory is still 

 part of the Indian culture of the region. Again, 

 the Indians have added new items but (with small 

 exceptions such as those noted) they hav^e lost 

 nothing. Therefore again, since Indian culture is 

 ubiquitous in western Guatemala, the pre- 

 Columbian technology is also part of the regional 

 technology, and of that of Panajachel. 



But, with one exception, every item of the pre- 

 Columbian technology that survives in Indian 

 culture is also part of the Ladino culture of the 

 region. The exception is the use of the spinnhig 

 whorl and the backstrap loom, confined (as far as 

 I know) to Indian women. Indian agricultural 

 and cooking techniques, and crops and foods, are 

 as much part of Ladino culture as of Indian. The 

 Indian technology is therefore general in the 

 region ; and at least the Ladinos have combined it 

 with the old-Eiu-opean. 



The questions reduce themselves to one: the 

 degree to and the waj's in which traits of old- 

 European technology have entered Indian culture. 

 Therefore, we may now check the items of the 

 European inventory to see which have, during 

 these four centuries, become part of the Indian 

 technology of this region of Guatemala. 



Only two European complexes are as much a 

 part of Indian culture as they are of Ladino: 

 chicken culture, and wool technology. The chicken 



i« Wint^ is not made— grapes arc rare — but it is kuown; beer is brewed only 

 in the city and largest tnwus. Neither the European nor the Indian "in 

 vcntorics" pretend to be more th-in exemplary. 



is more important than the aboriginal turkey; it 

 enters importantly into ritual and social life as 

 well as economic. True, Indians do not eat much 

 chicken or many eggs, but only because of their 

 poverty, for these are salable lu.xiu-y goods eaten 

 by the Indians chiefly on special occasions. 



Wool technology in the higher highlands to the 

 northwest of Panajachel is more important to 

 Indians than to Ladinos, and is thoroughly part of 

 Indian culture. The whole complex includes the 

 raising of sheep (and their use in fertilizing hill- 

 sides), the shearing and washing of wool, the use of 

 metal carders, the spinning wheel, and the foot- 

 loom — all strictly European. The men of many 

 Indian communities earn most of their livings at 

 wool spinning and weaving, and occupy the time 

 of the women as well in the technical processes 

 involved. 



Otherwise, domestic animals are not fully part 

 of Indian culture. Horses and mules are used 

 more in some regions than others, and the more 

 Ladinoized Indians sometimes use them for pack- 

 ing. But in general Indians do not have pack 

 animals, they almost never breed them, and they 

 so rarely ride them that one can be virtually 

 positive that any man on a horse is a Ladino. 

 As for women — 1 do not recall a clearly Indian 

 woman on a horse. 



Pigs are much more common in Indian com- 

 munities; but again they are on the edge of, not 

 really part of Indian culture. Some communities 

 breed and raise swine, and there are even Indians 

 who icnow how to geld them. In other com- 

 munities they are only bought to be fattened and 

 sold again. But only rarely, that I know of, are 

 they processed by other than Ladinos or pretty 

 Landmoized Indians. Pig butchering is typically 

 a Ladino trade. Nor do the Indians typically 

 use the lard — for that matter beef is preferred 

 to pork, too; the frying techinque is still by and 

 large confined to Ladinas and to Indian women 

 who have worked in Ladino homes. Indians 

 do use the soap made of the pork fat ])y the pig 

 butchers. 



Cattle, similarly, have been only in small part 

 adopted into Indian culture. Beef is commonly 

 eaten, and if the Indians coidd afford to, they 

 would eat much more. Usually they buy the 

 meat in Ladino butcher shops, but there are 

 Indian butchers — usually in or from towns where 

 there are no Ladinos or where there were none 



