ABSTRACT
In his 1925 report on the third expedition of Tulane University's Department of Middle American Research, Director Frans Blom wrote that he and Oliver La Farge were sitting on the Plaza of Comitan in Chiapas, Mexico and speaking with "a leading citizen". Blom's description of the Jacaltenango fieldwork that resulted is worth quoting at length: Here in an isolated mountain valley the Indians had apparently retained many of their ancient ceremonies, and there was not only an opportunity to make a study of the greatest value, but one might find explanation for obscure passages in the Maya ceremonies described by early Spanish writers. Therefore an expedition was organized in 1927 and sent out under the auspices of the Tulane University Exploration Society. The seminal work of ethnology, the first on Jacaltenango, in order to "unpack the baggage" taken along on a particular ethnographic trip and to show how it contributed to the containment of the Jacaltecos.
