 | Early Scholars' Visits to Central America: Reports by Karl Sapper, Walter Lehmann, and Franz Termer Subjects: Indians of Central America -- Social life and customs; Indians of Central America -- Material culture; Ethnology -- Central America; Central America -- Social life and customs; Central America -- Description and travels; Sapper Karl 1866-1945 -- Journey; This volume presents translations of essays by three German scholars who were preeminent in the social and natural science study of Central America in the early part of the twentieth century. Their research areas included ethnology, archaeology, geography, linguistics, and epigraphy. Their detailed observations of traditional cultures and archaeological remains provide important primary data. Because their writings have been available only in the original German-language journals, the work of these scholars is unfamiliar to many researchers. The chapters report on specific visits to parts of Central America but also include more synthetic coverage of topics such as the influence of Bartolome de las Casas on Indian life in Guatemala and food and drink as well as religion of the Q'eqchi' in Guatemala. The visited places include Pacific coastal and highland Guatemala, the Pech area of Honduras, and zones of Costa Rica inhabited by the Guatuso, Chirripo, and Talamanca Indians. Marilyn Beaudry-Corbett is director of the Ceramics Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles's Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. Ellen T. Hardy is a research associate at The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. Translator Theodore E. Gutman was awarded the UCLA Institute of Archaeology's Golden Trowel in 1983. |
