Mesoamerican Community Studies: The Past Decade

TLDR: For more than 50 years, Mesoamerica! has provided the field for an impres- sive amount of anthropological research as discussed by the authors, and the overwhelming bulk of the work has been reported in the form of community studies; however, the actual amount of work that has been done over the past 10 years is underrepresented.

Abstract: For more than 50 years, Mesoamerica! has provided the field for an impres­ sive amount of anthropological research. The overwhelming bulk of the work has been reported in the form of community studies. To date, there are more than 100 published book-length studies of Mexican and Guatema­ lan communities; more than half of these have appeared during the past decade. Our concern in this essay is to review the work published in book form within the decade 1967-1977. The sheer quantity of available material evidences the discipline's continued interest in the peoples of Mesoamerica. In spite of the number of studies cited in this essay, the actual amount of work that has been done over the past 10 years is underrepresented. Only a few studies by European scholars are discussed here; we have ignored almost totally the wealth of journal articles; we have made no attempt to trace the numerous relevant dissertations;2 and we have only touched on the