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Show 82 and the new diseases brought along by the conquerors, wiped out large segments of their population. Today, the relationship between the remaining Indian population in these latter areas and western civilization, are channeled through intermediary groups of mendicant and amoral natives who constitute, unfortunately, a bridge between the two worlds. It is now accepted that cultural change in Indian communities must be achieved through internal action and not by external coercion; it is also accepted that Indian cultures have greater fertility and moral strength than was supposed to, and also, an extraordinary staying power. Indianism aims at keeping the positive values of native cultures and eliminating the negative ones; as well as furthering the recognition of the dual cultural background of Latin-American Republics. Indian cultures will probably lose their particular characteristics and will form a new culture, to which the tribal tradition of socialization will probably be a fundamental contribution. 1956 Editorial, "Los Indigenas y Sus Antecedentes Historicos," America Indigena, XVI, No. 1 (January, 1956), pp. 3-6. English summary: An essential task of the Inter-American Indian Institute and in general of governments, official departments and individuals concerned for the native population of America, is to satisfy their needs and legitimate aspirations . There are many definitions of what an Indian is. One of them propose that from a quantitative point of view, they may be considered to be those groups and individuals who still have a considerable proportion of economic, cultural, psychological and linguistic traits surviving from pre-Hispanic times. This definition does not take into account surviving racial traits, since they affect the development of those making up this population little, if at all. The hard thing is to determine what the size of that proportion of pre-Hispanic surviving traits should be. However, it can be agreed that we call Indians those who have high percentages of surviving traits, whereas the rest are called mestizos. Whatever the percentage of pre-Hispanic surviving traits in Indians and mestizos is, we should keep and encourage those that are useful and valuable, such as those of an artistic nature, and correct or do away with those that are dangerous and harmful, such as certain practices of magic and witchcraft. 1957 Comas, Juan, "Principales Contribuciones Indigenas Pre-Colombinas a la Cul-tura Universal," America Indigena, XVII, No. 1 (January, 1957), pp. |