Donald Stewart, Shirley Gamble de Stewart, edited by Instituto Nacional Indigenista, Secretaría de Educacion Publica
Primer and workbook for Mazahua
Americas, Mexico
1973
Paper, printer
Werner Hartwig (Ethnologist) acquired the books on a study trip to Mexico between 1975–77
Donated to the museum by Hartwig in 2005
MAm 8918 a, b
These books were produced for teaching Mazahua, the language of Indigenous communities along the border of the Mexican states México and Michoacán. In 2010, there were some 137,000 speakers of this language.
Leipzig ethnologists Werner and Vera Hartwig visited Mexico on a study and teaching fellowship in 1975–77. They were particularly interested in cultural change and the socio-economic development of Indigenous communities, as well as the country’s policies on ethnic minorities. The Hartwigs collected these teaching materials to document state-sponsored support for, and the growing cultural self-confidence of Indigenous communities in Mexico.
This interest aligned with the Marxist approach to ethnological research, and especially with the research tradition practiced at Leipzig, focusing on the historical development of class structures in global history as well as social and economic issues in history and ethnology.
Frank Usbeck