Historia general de América Latina. Vol. 1. Las sociedades originarias

Since the sesquicentennial of European arrival in the Americas, there has been a florescence of very useful multivolume histories of Latin America. Many of these have adopted a long-range perspective, from the first human habitation of the continent to the present. Societal changes and transformations over time are covered with different emphases on details and points of view depending on the series, as well as on new data and research not easily accessible to readers elsewhere. They are usually oriented toward students and specialists. UNESCO’s projected nine-volume Historia general de América Latina is a welcome addition. Six hardbound, well-illustrated, and well-presented volumes have already been released. What distinguishes this series from others is that it has been conceived and executed by Latin American scholars and published in Spanish, with the inclusion of authors from the United States, Canada, and Europe. The Venezuelan scholar Germán Carrera, president of the Latin American UNESCO History Committee, states that the underlying principle of the series is “to contribute to the renewal of historical awareness of Latin America’s multiple ancestries” (p. 23).The first volume reevaluates the particular histories of the multiplicity of Latin American societies, from both their own vantage points and a world historical perspective. In the process, works by Latin American scholars who have not received the attention due them outside of their own countries are brought to light. The volume under review, the first in the series, deals with human societies from their early beginnings in Meso- and South America to the sixteenth century. Nineteen of the authors are Latin American, five are from the United States, and three are from France. The work offers a comprehensive perspective on the sociocultural history of the entire area. Following a very brief description of Latin America’s complex ecology and a chapter on the peopling of the Americas, two more general chapters set the conceptual framework for each of the volume’s two major divisions: Mesoamerica and South America. South America is divided into ten geocultural areas, and authors cover the development of human societies since their early beginnings to the sixteenth century. There is a brief chapter on the Inca Empire. Similarly, Mesoamerica is covered, although the Mexica (Aztec) Empire is only treated very briefly in the chapter on the Post Classic. One nevertheless gets a very good overview of the regional, site-specific and societal sequences. In contrast to many other such volumes, treatment of the two major sixteenth-century empires does not overwhelm other information, historically or regionally.The regional introductions offer very good overviews and serve as introduction to the essays that follow. However, the volume lacks an overarching introduction integrating the specific studies and does not address societies of the Caribbean, where the first encounters with Europeans took place. Although the last chapter deals with the archaeology of island native settlements, there is no further information that brings us closer to the sixteenth century. The 24 case studies are short, but their brevity does not detract from their learned presentation and their value as guides to areas in which readers do not have expertise.The volume raises issues of interpretation that will not be resolved for some time. The antiquity of the peopling of the Americas (12,000? 17,000? or even 33,000+ years?) is still hotly debated, as is the adequacy of Amazonian zones for the support of complex societies. We also have much to learn about the numerous politically complex fifteenth-and sixteenth-century societies that we know existed but are not yet well documented. There is a close relationship in puzzle-solving between large questions and the quality of material collected. Although this volume’s regional approach is not geared toward debate, it adds to the development of potentially productive inquiries in a general frame-work that I consider very valuable. Focusing on local and regional data—artifact by artifact, stone by stone—we have rescued sites and peoples from oblivion, even if only in our recognition of them. But, as the volume points out, there is still a great deal of work to be done, both in the field and in the archives. It is my hope that ethnohistorians, intrigued by information presented in this and other recent volumes, will expand our knowledge of specific groups and of more widespread social, political, and economic systems as they sift through the surviving reams of unexplored documents

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