INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBUCATION NO. 1 1 



form two distinct ethnic and economic areas. 

 Since accurate work can be done only leisurely 

 and on foot, lack of time prohibited our covering 

 the three Tarascan lake villages. The lack of 

 complete coverage does not affect the validity of 

 our studies, since the normal municipio does not 

 include such divergent elements. Actually, the 

 boundary between the lands of the Villa de 

 Quiroga and of the Pueblo de Santa Fe is locally 

 as important as the limits between the municipios 

 of Quiroga and Erongaricuaro or Tzintzuntzan. 



One other hope we have for this report: that 

 it may help the inhabitants of the area involved. 

 We have incorporated a number of practical sug- 

 gestions which occurred to us while living in 

 Quiroga. These vary all the way from means for 

 reducing denudation and erosion, and suggested 

 new species and strains of plants and animals, to 

 methods for assuring a better water supply. 



In conclusion of this Introduction, there are 

 many acknowledgments that should be made. 

 Nearly all of the inhabitants of the Quiroga area 

 aided us in one way or another. However, certain 

 people were of outstanding help to us. Among 

 these should be mentioned our postmaster friend 

 Don "Pepe" Medina, who was never too busy to 

 help us in any and all matters; the various munici- 

 pal officials, especially the two presidentes, Heli- 

 odoro Anita and Jose Encarnacidn Medina, the 

 secretary of the registro civil, Rafael Huape, the 

 treasurer, Justo Campuzano, the municipal secre- 

 tary ^Jberto Tovar, and the secretary of the 

 juzgado menor, Carlos Sanchez; Father Jose Jesiis 

 Olivares (curate since 1936) ; the recent past 

 presidents, Indalecio ChagoUa, Amador Pena, and 

 Onesimo Chagolla; the director of the Quiroga 

 school. Prof. Andres Natividad Rios, and the 

 various teachers; the collector of taxes, Antonio 

 Castellanos; many merchants, especially Diego 

 Fuentes Ayala and sons, Manuel Torres, Agustin 

 Ponce, Manuel and Salvador Barriga, Roberto 

 Barriga and sons, Ausencio Pantoja, Pablo 

 Herrera, Ezequiel Medina, Ram6n Fuentes, and 

 Manuel Arias; the one resident physician. Dr. 

 Arturo Rasc6n; Dona Josefina Dominguez, niece 

 of Dr. Nicolds Le6n; and last but not least, our 

 good provider of meals Dona Julia Rivera. 



Many others, chiefly officials and scholars in 

 Pdtzcuaro, Morelia, and Mexico City, were of 

 great help in providing introductions, making 

 available books, records, maps, and archival ma- 

 terial, and in identifying various items of our 

 collections of plants, animals, rocks, and soils. 

 There should be mentioned especially Lie. Alfonso 

 Caso (one time director of the Instituto Nacional 

 de Antropologia e Historia and now a cabinet 

 member), Ing. Ignacio Marquina (present director 

 of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e 

 Historia), Dr. Daniel F. Rubin de la BorboUa (the 

 then director of Escuela Nacional de Antropologia 

 e Historia), Mr. Eduardo Noguera (then director 

 of the Museo Nacional), and many other mem- 

 bers of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia 

 e Historia who were most helpful with letters of 

 introduction, advice, loans of books and maps, etc. 

 The scientists who aided us in laboratory, museum, 

 and the field have been mentioned specifically in 

 the various sections of the report. Others in 

 Mexico City to whom we owe our deepest thanks 

 include Ing. Alfonso Gonzalez Gallardo, under 

 secretary of agriculture; Dr. Josue Saenz, director 

 of the Direcci6n General de Estadistica, who made 

 available to us the 1940 census of Quiroga; Dr. 

 Isaac Ochoterena, director of the Instituto de 

 Biologia, and the librarian of the instituio Mr. C. 

 Vega; and Ing. Teodoro Flores, director of the 

 Instituto de Geologia, and the librarian of the 

 instituto, Mr. Martinez. In Morelia we received 

 many courtesies from the Governor of Michoacdn 

 and his secretary of government, from his emi- 

 nence the Archbishop of Morelia and his secretary, 

 from Ing. Jesus Medina Mayorga, president of the 

 Com. Agraria Mixta and delegate of the Depto. 

 Agrario, and from our good friend Lie. Antonio 

 Arriaga Ochoa, dii-ector of the Museo Michoacano. 

 The director of the Estaci6n Limnologica de 

 Pdtzcuaro, Mr. Jose Zorilla, made available to us 

 the museum and publications of the station. 

 There are many others who helped us in numerous 

 ways, some of them as importantly as a number 

 of those mentioned by name above, but the list 

 would be entirely too long should we attempt to 

 name them here. 



December 194-8. 



