ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the involvement of a group of anthropologists from universities in the United States with a federal development agency in Mexico--the Instituto Nacional para el Desarrollo de la Comunidad y de la Vivienda Popular (INDECO). During the Echeverria administration, INDECO was given the mission of helping alter the undesirable housing conditions suffered by many Mexicans because of rapid urban growth. The emphasis on experimentation and the use of social science theory to develop new and innovative projects meant that--unlike the situation often pertaining in the United States--the anthropologists never had to justify their discipline or "prove" they could contribute to project planning. The project marked a new phase in the relationship between the North American anthropologists and the National Institute for Community Development. The period of close on-site cooperation between the anthropologists and INDECO began when one of the anthropologists arrived in Oaxaca to begin a community study combining abstract with applied anthropology.
