Teotilan del Valle: a typical Mesoamerican community

Taylor, Robert Bartley

Book

Teotilan del Valle: a typical Mesoamerican community

University Microfilms • Ann Arbor • Published In 1979 • Pages:

By: Taylor, Robert Bartley.

Abstract
This dissertation presents an intensive in-depth study of the ethnography of the Valley Zapotec town of Teotitlan del Valle. The stated purpose for collecting this ethnographic material on Toetitlan was '...to provide a basis for more specialized studies in that community over a period of years, particularly studies of change' (p. ii). Tied in with this general purpose is the question of whether or not the data gathered at Teotitlan is 'typical' of the Mesoamerican area as a whole, particularly with reference to such community studies as Ruth Bunzel's on Chichicastenango, Robert Redfield's on Chan Kom, Elsie Clews Parsons' on Mitla, Oscar Lewis' on Tepoztlan and Ralph Beals' on Cheran. After a detailed presentation of the data, which makes up the bulk of the document, the author compares 226 cultural traits which he calls 'typical characteristics' in terms of their presence or absence in the communities listed above. In his fianl tabulation of these comparisons the author found that Teotitlan exhibited '...184 or 81 per cent of the total number of characteristics as compiled from Redfield and Tax's paper. This high proportion indicates that the assumption that Teotitlan is a typical Mesoamerican community is correct' (p. 332). The cultural data presented in the document are generally well organized and highly detailed in nature, but do lack coverage of kinship relations and social structure.

Towns

Organized ceremonial

Rest days and holidays

Sickness

Cereal agriculture

Normal garb

Woven and other interworked fabrics

HRAF PubDate