Heading: (Mexico)
Author: Muses, Charles
Title: Collection of 44 b&w Polaroid photographs of Lacandon Indians, plus related material
Place Published: Mexico, etc.
Publisher:
Date Published: 1956
Description:

Each image approx. 6.7x8.5 cm (2¾x3¼") including margins. All but two of the Polaroids with Muses' annotations on the back, including a caption and the date the image was taken (either June 16 or 17, 1956).

Historically valuable photographs of Lacandones, their houses and living situation, artifacts, etc. The Lacandon are one of the Maya peoples who live in the jungles of the Mexican state of Chiapas, near the southern border with Guatemala. Their homeland, the Lacandon Jungle, lies along the Mexican side of the Usumacinta River and its tributaries. The Lacandon are one of the most isolated and culturally conservative of Mexico's native peoples, and verged on extinction in 1943. They have rebounded since, and their population has grown significantly, yet remains small, at approximately 650 speakers of the Lacandon language. The photographs by Charles Muse, taken on his 1956 trip into the region, provide a unique ethnological and societal record. Also included is a 17-page typed report by Robert D. Bruce, sent to the Barth Foundation in 1957, describing his expedition undertaken to the Lacandons the preceding year.

Bruce's report is comprised of detailed descriptions of his activities and efforts in building the confidence of the Lacandons in order to learn about their religion. Bruce writes about administering medicines such as penicillin, antibiotics, aspirin and iodine; interactions with Tzeltal brujos; meeting Wolfgang Cordan and subsequent altercations with Cordan and Mexican authorities, including hiding in a woven laundry basket to elude capture by local authorities; etc.

Also included are:

• 28 mounted enlargements of selected images, measuring approximately 7½x9½" with the mats
• La Selva Lacandona, by Frans Blom & Gertrude Duby, in Spanish. 448 pp. Illustrated from photographs; large folding map. Signed by Duby. Original wrappers (a little foxed and soiled). Mexico: Editorial Cultura, 1955.

The Polaroiod photographs can be briefly described:

• 5 images of Lago Naha, the area where the Lacandon tribe lives.
• 2 images of Muses with Chieftain Chank'in and two children
• 1 image of Chieftain Chank'in with a Tzetal local
• 1 image of "Mateo" (a Lacandon Indian) with a Tzetal local
• 14 images of the Lago Naha Lacandons, including: Chieftain Chanki'n; Mateo, including his wife, his children and his hut; Kintin, a Lacandon women
• 12 images of a religious ceremony, which is identified by Muses as the "ceremony of the first corn" (although other sources call this the ritual of the god pots). The images depict various stages of the ceremony including: the hut where the ritual takes place; "Mateo" blowing the ritual horn; "Jose" tending to the 8 fire pots (god pots); drinking pozole (or posol) after the ritual. - Muses' writes the following on the back of one image: "The ritual is so arranged that the 8 fires are on the west (closed) side of the hut which opens to the east, to the sun. The fire-blessed posol is then offered to the [gods]"
• 4 images of posed subjects, including two pictures of Muses, and one image of one of the editors of Muses' Falcon's Wing Press, John Harju.
• 5 images Muses' travelling group preparing to leave via prop plane, including a shot of the plane landing, on the back of which Muses' has written: "Paco [Francisco Villaneuva]l anding the first time at Lago Naha."

Overall in very good condition.