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Show DEFINITION, IDENTIFICATION, LOCATION AND DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION CONCERNING INDIAN GROUPS AND INDIVIDUAL INDIANS 1942 Gabriel Garces, Victor. "La Sociabilidad del Indio," America Indigena, II, No. 1 (January, 1942), Mexico, DF, pp. 63-66. English summary: Indices must be established as criteria for determining when a concentration of dwellings can be treated as an administrative unit and enjoy political status. The absence of such indices makes arbitrary the legal recognition of groups, and the elevation of the status of those already officially recognized. Thus, hundreds of groups in Ecuador which are now capable of serving the government, in terms of indirect administration, do not play their full roll in the national community. Indianist terminology must distinguish the terms "village, hamlet and town" in the purely demographic sense from their usual social or urban connotation. The rural Indian feels a closeness to the land above all else; the family, which is the biological and psychological extension of the individual, does not form a part of an integrated society. The agricultural Indian makes his living, but does not interact in such a way as to create social patterns. The Indian merchant or craftsman who lays aside his disdain for other than a solitary life and enters into broader social relationships by economic necessity facilitates the formation of new social cells; this explains the gradual integration of villages in Ecuador which will later display characteristics of ur-banism. Indian centers near Quito demonstrate a fervor for association - "sociability on the march." Thus there are degrees of sociability and complexity of society, which require that indices be devised for social, cultural and economic evaluation. As a stimulus to farmers, prizes and agricultural equipment should be distributed. (Ecuador, in regard to the administrative determination of "Comunas.") The sociability of the Indian is more freely expressed among his own people, rather than in a different cultural and economic setting. Gamio, Manuel. "Consideraciones sobre el Problema Indigena en America," America Indigena, II, No. II (april, 1942), Mexico, DF, pp. 17-23. English summary: Dr. Gamio points out the following aspects of the Indian problem which require immediate attention: 1) Knowledge is needed of the number of persons in the continent which can be correctly classified under the generic term "Indian." Neither the linguistic or purely biological basis of demographic classification has proved acceptable for practical purposes. The author considers that our effort should be directed toward satisfying the biological, economic and cultural needs of those groups which live in the primary stages of evolution, "without consideration as to their racial type whether they are pure Indians or mestizos of whatever degree." |