ETHNOLOGY 915

NY: Cornell University Press, 1973. xxii + 234 pp., figures, plates, bibliography, glos- sary, index. $12.95 (cloth).

Reviewed by SANDRA L. SCHULTZ University o f Arizona

Nancy Munn’s past work on central Australian art is outstanding (Munn 1962, 1964). The present work is equally note- worthy. Walbiri iconography is Munn’s primary concern; she presents a structural analysis of Walbiri totemic designs, or, the Walbiri visual symbol system. Specifically, she shows a connection between the internal structure of the Walbiri design system and Wal biri religio-cosmological and social systems. Her work is authoritative and is relevant to a revived anthropological interest in symbolism. Munn demonstrates that analysis of visual representation systems can offer insights into social and cultural proces- ses.

Munn collected visual data of three kinds during her 1956-58 fieldwork in Australia’s Nor the rn Territory: paper drawings, sketches of sand drawings and sketches of designs painted during ritual. She analyzes these representatives of the Walbiri graphic system from two perspectives: (1) formal structure (representational structure), and (2) significance to Walbiri society and cosmology (sociocultural symbolism).

Munn’s analysis indicates that the Walbiri graphic system comprises masculine and feminine graphic subsystem components. Male versus female economic roles (and hence, differential knowledge) are extra- graphic factors effecting symbolism within the visual representational system. Munn demonstrates the complementary nature of visual and verbal communication and relates the internal structure of the Walbiri design system to Walbiri ritual construction. She states that totemic design iconography is im- portant in “casual uses” and may be viewed as a visual language.

Munn’s many interesting and informative line drawings and photographs acquaint the reader with the Walbiri visual symbol system. The illustrations themselves may serve to stimulate interest in comparative symbology .

My only criticism is one which Munn her- self acknowledges, that data on color

symbolism are absent from her study. On the whole, Munn’s book is excellent, striking out in the relatively little traveled direction of symbolic anthropology. The interplay be- tween culture, cognition, and perception as revealed in visual representation will be more deeply understood as a result of this book and the works it will surely stimulate.

References Cited Munn, Nancy D.

1962 Walbiri Graphic Signs: An Analy- s i s . Amer ican Anthropologis t

1964 Totemic Designs and Group Con- tinuity in Walbiri Cosmology. In Ab- origines Now. M. Reay, Ed. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.

64:972-984.

Relaciones in te rh icas en Otavalo: g n a na- cionalidad india en formacion? GLADYS VILLAVICENCIO RIVADENEIRA. Edi- ciones especiales, 65. Mexico: Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, 1973. xxiv + 315 pp., photographs, tables, bibliography. $4.00 (paper).

Reviewed by ANTONIO UGALDE University o f Texas

The deprivation and discrimination under which a large majority of Indians live in Latin America is a topic of increasing re- search interest. In her monograph, Dr. Villa- vicencio vividly brings forth the plight of the Indian in her native Ecuador. The eight chapters of this book follow the traditional format of ethnographic reporting covering the history, the geography, the economic, social, political, and religious systems of the town of Otavalo and its hinterland in the province of Imbambura. The ethnographic materials are descriptive and contain inter- esting information, but they are used as a lengthy preamble to the last chapter in which the relations and interactions between Indians and mestizos are studied in detail. Here the reader is presented with a classical situation of exploitation and racist discrimi- nation: from birth to death the Otavalo Indian is segregated, kept subservient, abused and ridiculed by mestizos; Indian education is notoriously inferior in quantity

916 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [ 76,19741

and quality, rural and urban health services do not reach him, recreational and trans- portation services are segregated, mixed mar- riages are not tolerated, police and govern- ment authorities do not apply the law equal- ly, catholic religious services are de fact0 separated as are burial places. Indians are fre- quently cheated in commerce and trade, and the land tenure system reflects the unequal distribution of power among the two groups.

Perhaps the most important contribution of the book is a recommendation addressed to Indian affairs policy makers in Ecuador: the solution of the Indian problem cannot be solved by programs directed only at the Indian population, it must include programs to change the attitudes of the mestizo popu- lation as well (p. 307). Dr. Villavicencio strongly urges the Ecuadorian government to take firm steps to integrate the Indian in the mainstream of national life although she is careful t o emphasize that integration can and should be achieved without destroying their cultural identity and heritage.

While one must commend Dr. Villavicen- cio for exposing the cruelties and injustices inflicted upon the Indians of her own country, one must also comment on the many limitations of this monograph. In her efforts t o portray the dismal conditions of the Indians she often falls into common- places (for example, migration leads to social disorganization, p. 62); generalizations (for example, the rural labor force supports the entire population of Otavalo county, p. 78); simplifications and obvious exaggerations (for example, rural income is so low that it very frequently does not satisfy the basic needs of biological subsistence, p. 96). Data supporting the many assumptions are lack- ing, and poor definition of terms leads to contradictions (for example, the Indian economy is a subsistence economy, p. 77, and at the same time it produces wealth to satisfy the needs of the mestizos, p. 92). It can be suggested that one of the basic weak- nesses of this book is to have chosen the wrong approach to study a social problem in race relations. Instead of grounding her field- work and analysis of data in stratification and ethnic relations theory, the author has followed a descriptive ethnographic ap- proach and, as a result, much of the materi- als presented are not related to the major theme of the investigation, while basic com-

ponents of the social structure remain poor- ly explored and frequently confusing.

Changement et continuit6 chez les Mayas du Mexique: Contribution a I’btude de la situa- tion coloniale en Amerique latine. HENRI FAVRE. Paris: Editions Anthropos, 1971. 352 pp., charts, maps, tables, glossary, bibli- ography, n.p. (paper). [Available in Spanish translation, Cambio y continuidad entre 10s mayas de Mexico. Mexico: Editorial Siglo XXI, 1974.1

Reviewed by ROBERT WASSERSTROM Harvard University

Future historians of American anthropol- ogy may someday inquire into the lack of interest which anthropologists in the United States and Great Britain have shown toward those questions of Indian policy which for many years have engaged their Mexican col- leagues. Indeed, like the Indian population of Mexico itself, this question has not diminished in importance with the passage of time, nor has it become subsumed within general discussions of human culture or ex- perience. On the contrary, in a country where indigenous peoples increase in number at the rate of about a million and a half souls every decade, foreign investigators, whose training and competence do not necessarily include a concern with Mexican indigenismo, often run the risk of isolating themselves both from their professional associates and from the subjects of their study. Briefly, then, what have been the terms of this de- bate?

In general, we may distinguish two schools of thought among Mexican special- ists in Indian affairs. First, there exists a view, associated for the most part with Ghza lo Aguirre Beltran (currently Sub- secretary of Education) and Pablo Gonzalez Casanova, which holds that Mexico’s in- digenous peoples suffer from a system of ex- ploitation and oppression which has per- sisted since Colonial times in isolated regions of the country. This conception of ethnic relations, upon which official policy toward Indian communities is at present based, recognizes the culpability of non-Indians within such “refuge regions” (as Aguirre has denominated them) in maintaining the