PREFACE 



xin 



perous condition often bestow gifts — of maize, 

 soap, or some other useful article — on distant rela- 

 tives in poorer circumstances. The Totonac are 

 real people ; they are clean, self-respecting, eager 

 for knowledge, friendly and warm. Although 

 they are in immeasurably better economic condi- 

 tion than are most native groups in Mexico, obvi- 

 ously, their situation could be much improved, 

 through judicious reforms and planned assistance. 



Our interests are not limited to modern problems 

 and their possible solutions. At the same time, we 

 are genuine^ interested in cultural survivals, and 

 in an understanding of general historical back- 

 ground, without which no culture can be seen in 

 perspective. A summary of available historical 

 data has been prepared, so that the reader may 

 view the modern culture in its proper setting. 



With respect to the reconstruction of culture 

 history, little can be attempted without fuller com- 

 parative material from other parts of Mexico. 

 Ethnological investigation has lagged and rela- 

 tively little is known of native peoples; the in- 

 formation at hand is both spotty and sparse. 

 Many culture traits found among the Totonac may 

 have a significant distribution. But for want of 

 comparative data, we cannot guess whether they 

 are old, widespread, possibly generic Mesoameri- 

 can elements, or whether their presence in Taj in 

 is the result of influences from the highlands in 

 relatively recent pre-Conquest times. There are 

 suggestions of circum-Caribbean resemblances and 

 even vaguer clues to what might be an essentially 

 Gulf coast complex. But distributions are so im- 

 perfectly known that we can do little but mention 

 the possible existence of such ties. Nevertheless, 

 at the end of the second part of this report, we 

 shall attempt to place the culture of Taj in, inso- 

 far as the data permit. 



Concerning the immediate neighbors of the low- 

 land Totonac almost nothing has been published. 

 A large block of Mexicano and highland Totonac 

 peoples lies to the west and southwest (map 2), 

 but we know virtually nothing of their culture. 

 The Tepehua and Otomi, farther west, and the 

 Mexicanos to the northwest, are little more than 

 names. Although the Huasteca — the great ethnic 

 zone north of the lowland Totonac — has been 

 studied exhaustively by G. Stresser-Pean, his re- 

 port is unpublished. In the course of a brief 

 conversation, he has been kind enough to provide 



a few comparative data, but until his monograph 

 appears, the Huasteca will continue to be vir- 

 tually unknown ethnographically. 



We made a hasty week-end jaunt to the most 

 accessible portion of the Huasteca, 2 merely to ob- 

 tain some general impressions. The natural back- 

 ground — terrain, climate, and vegetation — are 

 very similar to Taj in. House types and furnish- 

 ings also seem pretty much the same, and agricul- 

 tural problems must be roughly parallel. There 

 are, however, some suggestive differences in econ- 

 omy. Although the Totonac raise yellow corn only 

 incidentally and spurn it as human food, it appears 

 to be the preferred maize in the entire Tamazun- 

 chale-Tancanhuitz zone (ftn. 69, p. 147). More- 

 over, in the part of the Huasteca we visited, vanilla 

 is negligible or lacking. Perhaps in this area, cash 

 income is derived instead from cattle. When 

 Stresser-Pean's report is published, we should be 

 in a position to appreciate more fully the differ- 

 ences and the resemblances between Totonac and 

 Huastec. 



The present volume (Part 1 of the report) opens 

 with a series of chapters designed to give back- 

 ground for the Totonac as a whole, followed by 

 a detailed discussion of economy, housing, and 

 technology of the Tajin Totonac. Appendix A 

 presents basic information concerning population 

 and speech; B treats of the ancient Mexican con- 

 quests, with particular reference to Totonacapan ; 

 C is dedicated to vegetation; and D gives an in- 

 formant's description of local birds. Appendix C 

 contains our herbarium catalog. Many of the 

 plants there listed are used medicinally ; as a con- 

 sequence, in part, this appendix anticipates the 



2 That is, the Tamazunchale-Tancanhuitz stretch of San Luis 

 Potosf, along the international highway. By local residents. 

 Tancanhuitz is considered Huastecan par excellence. The town 

 itself appears to be essentially mestizo with, moreover, a gen- 

 erous sprinkling of gachupin merchants. However, on Sunday, 

 people from small neighboring communities pour into town, and a 

 fair proportion of the business transactions is In the Huastecan 

 language. 



Tamazunchale, at the southern end of the stretch, is not of 

 Huastecan speech today. Both here and in nearby Matlapa, we 

 are assured that the rural hinterland is predominantly Mexicano, 

 with a scattering of Otomf. Presumably, this indicates a shift 

 in speech since the middle of the sixteenth century, for then 

 Tamazunchale lay in the province of Panuco (Suma, No. 616). 

 Dra. Eulalia Guzman suggests that this replacement has resulted: 

 from colonization by Tlaxcalans along the route followed by 

 Cortes in the course of his conquest of the Panuco. Our feeling 

 is that a good many Huastecan cultural elments have survived 

 the shift in speech : for example, house type and a preference for 

 yellow corn. However, until we know more of Huastecan culture, 

 we are scarcely in a position to recognize possible survivals. 



