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found the tools of description and analysis employed in thisstudy extremely powerful for representing Andean reality, butultimately was frustrated with the book. For me, it reads toomuch like a first-class doc toral dissertation while I suspect itcould easily be made into a classic study for undergraduatestudents of change, gender, ethnicity, and the Andean areaamong other topics. Of course, it is not fair to fault a work fornot being a work the author never intended. The audiencesI think it best reaches now are, not surprisingly, graduatestudents and those interested in thegeographic area. Althoughthe first chapter lays the theoretical stage for what comesafterward, it less draws a reader in than demonstrates to himor her that the author sufficiently understands that area ofscholarship to be able to proceed . The theoretical materialcontained in the three final chapters, particularly Food inDiscourse, flows much more naturally and eloquently. keptimagining both more elegant and concise scholarly articles,and another book, one that was designed to lure the lesssophisticated intothedelightsof anthropological understandingwith thisf ascinating and very human account. Let me reiterate

that I wish this excellent ethnographic account had beenwritten for a broader audience, because I found the work asit was written so admirable adepictionof Ecuadorian indigenouslife.

In the Eyes of the Beholder: Leadership and theSocial Construction of Power and Dominanceamong the Matsigenka of the Peruvian Amazo n.DAN ROS ENGR EN. Ethnological Studies, No. 39.Gothenburg, Sweden: Goteborgs Etnografiska

Museum , 1987. 231 pp. n.p. (paper). ISBN 91 -87484-04-8, ISSN 0374-7530

WILLIAM T. VICKERSFlorida International University

According to the author, the two primary goals of thismonograph are to provide a detailed description of thesociopolitical organization of the Matsigenka Indians of thePeruvian montana, and to analyze the impact of an expandingnational society on their culture. Rosengren is largely

successful in meeting these aims. The study is organized asa standard ethnography, with chapters on history andgeography, subsistence activities, gender, and social andpolitical organization. Special attention is given to thedefinition and analysis of traditional and modern leadershipstatuses among the Matsigenka, including shamans, severalforms of headmen, ct/racas (selected by foreign missionaries),and presidentes (selected by popular vote within the moderncontext of government recognized comunidades nativas).Rosengren believes that imposed statuses such as those ofthe curaca and presidente often fail because they do not meshwith the subtle and consensual processes that establish

legitimate Matsigenka leaders. This discussion of the principlesof Matsigenka leadership is quite sophisticated and forms themajor contribution of the study.

Rosengren is to be commended for his clear and honestdiscussion of the research conditions, including his limited

ability in the Matsigenka language, the intracultural variationsin myth, social organization and settlement that came to hisattention, and the sources of his informa tion. He gives verycareful attention to the literature , particularly as it relates to hismajor focus on social and political organization. At times,however, the theoretical discussion becomes overly rhetoricaland seems to take precedence over the presentation of fielddata. The discussion of the subsistence economy is weak inspecifics, and contains many unreliable statemen ts about theflora and fauna (e.g., quinine is confused with sarsaparilla,peccaries are called rodents, and guans are called ducks ).

The English text is generally well written, although a fewawkwardly phrased sentences can be found. This monographshould be of interest to all anthropologists who specialize inthe indigenous cultures of lowland South America, as well asmany Andeanists and other scholars concerned with patternsof leadership in simpler societies. It is worth the extra effortrequired to order it from an overseas m useum.

Enfermedad Daflo e Ideologia: Antropo logia m dicade los renacientes de Pindilig. CARMEN MUNOZBERNAND. Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones Abya-Yala,1986. 213 pp. n.p. (paper).

LYNN HIRS HKINDIndependent Researcher

This book is an impressive achievement and adisappointment at the same time. It offers the results of

detailed ethnographic and archival research, and brings avery broad command of relevant literature in French, Spanishand English to bear on the analysis of the social, cultural,historical and psychological bases of illness in the village ofPindilig, in highland Cafiar Province, Ecuador. The centralpoint is that illness as a cultural phenomenon is closely tied todiverse political, economic and environmental conditions.Structural analysis is used to make a certain sense of localknowledge regarding health and disease.

The authordazz les with meticulous ethnographic reporting.She notes the subtle intent of enigmatic verbal expressions aswell as principal cultural themes, and places both in relation

to medical knowledge and practice. Ethnomedical datainclude an extensive list of local medicinal herbs and theiruses, and entire chapters on the major local disease e tiologies,including those based on witchcraft. The author illuminatesher analysis with many verbatim testimonies from herinformants, and in this way amplifies the em ic description ofillness. As thick description this book is admirable andinformative on a subject and a region not widely known.

It is because the overall quality of this work is so high thatthe conceptual muddles, and ethnographic errors upon whichthey are based, are so unsettling. The most serious problemconcerns the ethnic identity of thepeopleof Pindilig. Accordingto Munoz Bernand, they are descendants of a native Indianpopulation that she labels naturales or indigenasinterchangeably, and who have become deculturated, lostthe Quichua language and acquired Spanish cultural traits.From having lived in this area for eight years, I believe that

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Pindiligenos would cha racterize themse lves otherwise. Theyparticipate in the national peasant culture, w ith its mixture ofnative American and Spanish sociocultural traditions. Theynever spoke Quichua and would probably find insulting thereference to themselves as Indians. M oreover, if Pindiligenosare indigenous in a broader sense than that of simply havingbeen born there, then who are the neighboring populations ofQuichua speaking, costume w earing, phenotypically native

people of Huairapongo, Colepato and central Cafiar?Another basic emic concept misunderstood is renaciente.

The author defines this term as referring to one born in or after1960 (p.12), and goes on to attribute this sector of thepopulation with a series of diagnostic traits associated withdeculturation: residence in a marginal and forgotten village,proliferation of d isease, s terility of the soil, and dissolution ofkin and social ties. In fact, renacientes are the youths of eachgeneration, defined not with reference to a specific da te, butto each successive adult generation.

A second type of error is scattered throughout the book,revealing the author's uncritical acceptance of informants'

testimony. In need of correction are certain place names{Huangra, not Huangras, p.12 , alleged differences between indigenous and white beliefs (p. 138), the statement that diseases of the countryside affect only the indigenous(p.137), and that the high grassland (pa/on) is unused forlivestock and agriculture (p.154). This last erroneous statementleads the author to define the pajon as savage space, aready-made vehicle for the Levi-Straussian exercise shepractices upon local ideology.

These problems raise some doubts about fieldwork as aresearch procedure. Despite two years residence, functionalintegration into the community, cooperation of the main

authorities, a native command of the field language, ademonstrated sensitivity to cultural nuance, and diligent work,Mufioz Bernand still failed to grasp major and minor facts andcultural concepts. This failure undermines the logic andcredibility of her argument, and consequently diminishes thestrength of her conclusions. The implications for fieldwork arethat thorough technique is not enough to ensure accurateethnography. Technique must be combined with long fieldresidence and with a concerted effort to discover one's owncultural blinders.

Al Futuro Desde la Experiencia: Los PueblosIndfgenas y elManejo delMedio Am biente. LESLIEANN BRO WN RIGG. Quito, Ecuador: EdicionesAbya-Yala, 1986. 243 pp. n.p (paper).

LYNN HIRS HKINDIndependent Researcher

This book is a revised and expanded translation of a reportdone for the World Wildlife Fund, entitled The Once and uture Resource Managers^ 980). Its basic argument is thatdevelopment strategies and projects in Latin America shouldtook to pre-Colum bian subsistence systems for models toguide project planning and execution. This argument issupported by a large amount of ethnographic data drawn froma wide variety of indigenous econom ic systems. Described at

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length are agrarian techniques and technologies, togetherwith the cultigens and livestockthat evolved in native Americansettings. The final chapter deals with native land tenure anduse patterns, and specifies the information needed to plandevelopment projects in accord with the principles suggestedin this book .

Pre-Columbian subsistence techniques are described ashaving been ecologically sound, productive and efficient, in

contrast to many present day agrarian practices. Taking afacile temporal and logical leap, the author claims thatcontemporary indigenous Meso- and South Americansinnately strive to live in ecological harmony w ith nature and toconserve natural resources. Native peoples are taken to bemodern noble savages, now refashioned as eco-savages.Brownrigg states this position clearly when she sets out herpremises that natives' knowledge of natural resources issuperior to that provided by western science, and that most natives want and are able to preserve and manage theirhabitats in non-destructive ways (p. 133). Thus sherecommends that, for ancient techniques and technologies,

native management models be rehabilitated, and that m odernmodels be actively reinforced . She also emphasizes thatnatives be enlisted as the advisors and administrators of suchprograms. She does not address the problem of defining whois a native.

The author summarizes her recommended approach thisway: A new science should be created that demands closecollaboration between natives and scientists, in order to attainjustice and a wise use of the environment (p. 181, mytranslation). While these aims are uncontestable, the proposalsin this study reveal a disturbing lack of attention to realproblems of development in Latin America. The author does

not reckon with such obstacles as the interests of local andnational elites, hierarchies of power, and bureaucratic thickets.In sum, this book prescribes a currently popular approach

to development by calling for local level participation in theplanning and carrying out of projects, the assessment ofsocial and ecological impact, the use of appropriate technologyand the encouragement of traditiona l subsistence techniqu es.I recommend the book as an ambitious and detailed attemptto project this vision onto Latin America . However, while thetwo goals of creating balanced, renewable resource-basedeconomies, and including local populations indecision-makingand implementation of development programs are surelynecessary, this book is not a practical or realistic guide tothese ends.

Return to Aztlan: The Social Process of InternationalMigration from Western Mexico. DOUGLAS S.MASSEY, RAFAEL ALARCON, JORGE DURAND,and H UMBERT O GONZA LEZ. Berkeley: Universityof California P ress, 1987. x + 335 pp., maps, figures,tables, bibliography, index. 37.50 (cloth). ISBN 0-520-06079-2

LEIGH BINFORDMichigan State University