Two Cities of Latin America: A Comparative Description of Social Classes

156 pages with 44 plates, drawings and bibliography. Octavo (9" x 6") bound in original publisher's pictorial wrappers. Inscribed by the author to George Foster. First edition. This monograph is the fruit of anthropological research in Mexico and Colombia which was carried out by the author and by students under his direction at various times between 1947 and 1957. While it has never been any secret that there are marked social class differences in Latin America culture this work is somewhat of a trail blazer in that it come to terms with those differences in specific but the same time generalization terms. The monograph consts of parallel presentations, illustrated by a series of excellent photographs, on the cities of Queretaro and Popayan. Both cities date back to Colonial times when they wee inhabited by aristocratic persons of Spanish origin and by all levels of the "lower orders." Both, in other words , have been representative of the preindustrial city in peasant-type cultures. George McClelland Foster, Jr born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on October 9, 1913, died on May 18, 2006, at his home in the hills above the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as a professor from 1953 to his retirement in 1979, when he became professor emeritus. His contributions to anthropological theory and practice still challenge us; in more than 300 publications, his writings encompass a wide diversity of topics, including acculturation, long-term fieldwork, peasant economies, pottery making, public health, social structure, symbolic systems, technological change, theories of illness and wellness, humoral medicine in Latin America, and worldview. The quantity, quality, and long-term value of his scholarly work led to his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1976. Virtually all of his major publications have been reprinted and/or translated. Provenance from the executor of Foster's library laid in. Condition: Inscribed to Foster on title. Edge wear else very good.