Producer unknown to us
Field hoe
Americas, Mexico, Chiapas, Simojovel
Mid-20th century
Iron, forged and formed
Werner and Vera Hartwig (Ethnologists) acquired this tool during a teaching and research trip to Mexico 1975–77
Donated to the museum by Werner Hartwig in 1977
MAm 7831
This wrought-iron field hoe has an almost semi-circular blade. According to the collector, these tools had a wooden handle approximately 1.3 m long and were used by Indigenous farmers for weeding and tilling the soil on the ejidos (communal farmlands) of the Highland Maya of Chiapas.
Werner and Vera Hartwig collected this item during their research trip to Mexico 1975–77. One of the focal points of their trip was to study the living and social conditions and the acculturation of Indigenous groups in Mexico. This idea was in line with the Marxist disciplinary interest of GDR ethnology, but especially with the research outline in Leipzig, which focused on the development of hierarchies and class societies in world history and on economic and social issues in history and ethnology.
Frank Usbeck