The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 55, July 1951 - April, 1952 Page: 431

Book Reviews

original, but he has also preserved the "flavor," and this is the
mark of a true translator.
To a trained historian the excellent work of research done in
annotating this translation is obvious. The evidence of pains-
taking research is clear, and it is worthy of a true Franciscan
scholar. To the untrained reader, it should be pointed out that
this work-the notes, the translation, the biography, and the
bibliography-is fascinating reading. One learns much history
and many facts from these well-written lines and between the
lines.
J. VILLASANA HAGGARD
Bowling Green State University
Life in a Mexican Village: Tepoztldn Restudied. By Oscar Lewis.
Urbana (The University of Illinois Press), 1951. Pp. 512.
$7.50.
As the title indicates, this book reveals the life and culture of
Tepoztln as of the present and as of approximately a generation
ago. Dr. Lewis, with several assistants, studied this community
for ten or twelve months during the period 1943-1948; Dr. Rob-
ert Redfield studied this same community some seventeen years
before. In the interval between these two studies, a paved high-
way and other developments had had their effects upon this
community of 3,500 population. Lewis set out to study both the
community and its individual inhabitants with special emphases
upon the changes experienced since these important innovations.
These goals, in themselves, fully justified the project.
An even more important aim, however, in the reviewer's opin-
ion, was the re-examination of Redfield's findings of two decades
earlier. While this was not the first restudy of a culture to be
undertaken, it did involve one of the better known studies by
a leading social anthropologist whose field techniques, in certain
respects, were developed in this particular community. Further,
the book illustrates the value of such restudies. Undoubtedly, it
will greatly advance the field of anthropology if it serves to
encourage similar follow-ups elsewhere throughout the world.
Also to be commended is Redfield's personal endorsement of the
project and his acceptance of certain points found by Lewis

431