Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1947 Feb
Contents
The National Geographic Magazine and exhibits interest. To the native the only possible reason for this must be that the stranger expects to profit from his excavations. The sensible explanation is that he is looking for treasure. Although we always tried to explain the purpose of our work, I doubt that our work men, and especially the other villagers, ever fully believed us. As a result, it was often difficult for us to persuade natives to reveal to us the locations of stone monuments. Often they would demand some ridiculous fee for doing so, since they assumed that we expected to locate a treasure. We made it a rule never to pay more than a very small bonus over a regular day's pay for such services, for, if once the precedent were started, no one but a millionaire would be able to do archeological work in the region. In this respect our schoolteacher was of great assistance to us. He explained clearly and intelligently the reasons for doing archeo logical research and that it was a nonprofit occupation (like schoolteaching). He made these explanations not only to his pupils but to their parents, and he was be lieved, where we might not have been. As a result, we were never up against the obstacle of extortion at San Lorenzo; but five miles away it was a different story. "They Are All My Wives" One day when we were working at the small village of Potrero Nuevo where we con ducted excavations for a week, one of the local men who had been very helpful to us asked Mrs. Stirling if she would take a picture of him with his family, as he had never been photographed. Going with him to his house, she found three women working around the place and a number of small children. "Which is your wife and which are your children?" she asked, as she prepared to pose them in front of the house. "They are all my wives," he replied, "and these are all my children." After taking the picture, Mrs. Stirling in quired if he didn't find it difficult to take care of so large a household. He shrugged. "What is there to do? There are more women in this village than men. Who would take care of them? Where would they live? Besides, in many ways it is ad vantageous. With their help I can grow more corn. With three, the household work is easier for all of them. If one is sick, the others are here to care for her and the work goes on. "Every man in this village has more than one wife!" At Potrero Nuevo the principal business is cattle raising, the stock feeding on the lush secate grass that covers the vast savanna which here stretches, level as a floor, for miles. Jaguars still are abundant in this region, and at the time of our arrival the men were jubilant over having killed a particularly large animal that had taken a number of their calves. Here we had one of the most enjoyable ex periences of our trip, when we were invited to the big annual roundup and branding. Everyone in the region is invited, and they come with their horses and cowpunching equipment to help in driving in the cattle to the big corral, where they are segregated and branded. The whole scene is lively and is con ducted much as were the big cattle roundups in our West. The work with the cattle winds up in a huge fiesta. The women are busy for days preparing barbecues and food of all descrip tions. The local orchestra furnishes music and there is dancing in the evenings. Dancing with a pair of spurs on, incidentally, adds considerably to the effectiveness of the hua pango. Dr. Drucker Rides Again Some of the boys rode calves for the enter tainment of the gathering, and Dr. Drucker, who at one stage of his career was a rodeo performer, turned out to be the hero of the occasion not only by participating in the corral roping and branding but by riding three wild bulls. Our reputations greatly enhanced by this performance, we rode back to our camp late that night feeling as if we had been projected backward in time to California before the gold rush. Our work at San Lorenzo continued to the end of April. During this time we com pletely cleared the central section of the site, mapping its mounds, courts, and plazas. We cut deep trenches through several of the mounds, revealing their growth and manner of construction. We also mapped the big mound site at Tenochtitlan and conducted excavations in the principal court there. We dug strati graphic trenches at various places at San Lorenzo and along the river bank below Tenochtitlan. From the excavations we recovered large quantities of pottery, clay figures, and other artifacts of the ancient inhabitants and were able to trace the changes in style and form with the passage of time as revealed in our trenches. 170
Links
Archive
1947 Mar
1947 Jan
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page