Wolf essentially discusses the various cultures and people that have inhabited central and southern Mexico and Guatemala, going back as far as they had archaeological record for in 1959 (when this was published), and moving forward from there.
It's broad strokes, and not so much interested in specific historical events as what where the important social units, who were the movers and shakers, over time. The era of hunters and seed-gathering nomadic groups, until the seed-gatherers begin to truly farm and settle in one place to do so (becoming what Wolf calls "seed-planters".) People staying in one place means the formation of villages. Some villages begin to cooperate, or else are consolidated beneath the control of one particular village. For a time, it's priests that control things across the different peoples, and later it's warriors. And then the Spanish show up.
Like I mentioned, the book was published over 60 years ago, so I don't know how accurate it remains, but there were several things I didn't know or hadn't really considered. Just how relatively short a time the Aztecs (or Mexica) were a big deal. For that matter, that there were other, I don't know if empires would be accurate, it almost feels more like city-states, in Mexico at the same time that were at least strong enough to resist conquest. We learn about Cortes getting help (a lot of help) from peoples who weren't big fans of the Aztecs, but I guess I assumed they were conquered peoples, rather than rivals.
Or that the Toltec may have been undone in a similar manner to the Romans, as they tried to incorporate some of the nomad hunter people as mercenaries, which gave those people access to better tools for war or hunting, which they could turn against the Toltecs once their government's hold weakened sufficiently (which would, in turn, weaken it further.)
Or that the version of Spanish culture established in Mexico was a selective one. Wolf states that of all the different types of plows used in Spain, only one was brought to Mexico. That's a little hard to believe, but I guess if you think of it from the shipping or supply side of things, it would be easier to keep things simple. And the people most in need of a plow, probably aren't toting enough influence to make someone ship a more rare type they want.
Wolf's also an expressive writer. Sometimes that's good, as he can
really bring alive the psychology behind keeping time, or how people
perceived their roles in the struggles of their gods or all creation.
Other times, it's feels verbose just to be verbose.
I think I would have gotten more from it, if I started with something with a more historical bent, rather than sociological. I didn't always feel I had a strong grasp on where these different cultures were in relation to each other in time or space. There were also some broad generalizations that I balked at. Especially in the last chapter, when Wolf goes on at length about all these things mestizos are like as a result of not being accepted into either Spanish culture or Indian community culture.
Maybe Wolf's right about the drive for a power as an individual goal, or making the community serve the individual rather than vice versa, but that hardly seems like a character trait you could pin solely on a single group of people. I'm also not sure about his statement that racial prejudice didn't exist prior to Europeans enslaving Africans, because prior to that all prejudice was on social or religious grounds (social prejudice being what he argues is held against the mestizo.)
'But even societies contemplate the infinite silence of cosmic space and time with fear and uncertainty. Calendar systems serve to bind this cosmic time, to domesticate it, as religion domesticates other aspects of the universe, and men derive comfort in visualizing the passage of cosmic time reduced to the mere sequence of cycles of social time.'
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