Indianerleben

A detailed ethnographic account records life among several indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco, combining chaptered field descriptions of houses, family and communal organization, subsistence, gendered division of labor, and material culture with examinations of ritual specialists, ceremonies, myths, and oral sagas. It surveys artistic techniques, tools, games, and trade, and discusses conflict, alliances, and contact with settlers and missionaries. Scattered anecdotes and translated legends illustrate cosmologies and moral ideas while systematic comparisons highlight regional differences in social institutions and daily practices.