Land, livelihood, and civility in southern Mexico : Oaxaca valley communities in history /

Oaxaca is one of the poorest and most indigenous of the states of Mexico. Peasant farming has been the mainstay of the state's economy for centuries. But not all rural folk are farmers, and not all farmers can support themselves entirely from agriculture. Zapotec Indians of the valleys of Oaxaca engage in deep, active traditions of artisanal and commodity production, yielding products dispersed through weekly markets and into international tourist networks. For over a half century, anthropologist Cook (emer., Univ. of Connecticut) has studied this aspect of Oaxaca's indigenous economy. Cook has published much before, but this present book is both summary and retrospective of his investigations in five Oaxacan communities, each with its own craft specialty. Cook weaves documentary and oral historical data together with his own ethnographic observations from the 1960s on to paint a moving and intricate picture of the ever-changing struggle to live and prosper in this part of Mexico. An important work from one of today's leading economic anthropologists, and an indispensable reference for students of the indigenous economies of Mexico. --Paul R. Sullivan, independent scholar