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Show 108 Mexico among the Tzeltal and Tzotzil Indians. The Inter-American Indian Institute, as well as the Mexican Northamerican Institute of Cultural Relations are working to obtain the collaboration of scholarship students specializing in ecology, anthropology, medicine and biology, sociology, economy, and agronomy. A linguist also, if possible with a knowledge of the idiom of the group under investigation, and who will act as a link between the natives and the investigators. These students will have a short training in which the Director of the Institute will discuss the methods of teamwork to be put in practice. Following this they will be established in the region of the group under study, holding periodical meetings to talk over and change opinions on the subjects of their special investigations. Once their fieldwork is ended, writing and publication of each special study will take place as well as a synthesis linking and compiling all. The publications of these investigations as well as suggestions given, will be forwarded to the Governments of the Continent and the institutions working for the welfare of the Indian population. Manuel Patino, Victor. "El Maiz Chococito," America Indigena, XVI No.4 (October, 1956), pp. 309-346. English Summary: A race of corn called "Chococito" is the only one cultivated in all the western coast of South America from approximately the Equator to 8° North latitude, in Ecuador, Colombia and Panama. This region of the Pacific coast and of the Rio Atrato is one of the most humid in the world, with more than 240 inches and 300 days of rain a year. This race of maize, which has small ears and small seeds, suckers regularly and the suckers bear normal ears. The grain may be pop, flint or flour and white, yellow, purple, black in color. Cultivation methods are unusual; there is no preparation of the land, the seed being broadcast over secondary growth vegetation which is then cut down. The seed remains on the surface of the ground. The stand of corn plants, as a result of the broadcast sowing, is very dense, but no cultivation or thinning or any other operation is given. When the ears have formed, a Watch is set to prevent damage by birds or other animals. This system of cultivation differs radically in the way mentioned, and in the absence of the use of fire, from the traditional |
