Special Symposium of the American Anthropological Association

This consists of five papers presented at a symposium in 1955. Three (N. A. McQuown on linguistics, P. Carrasco on ethnography, and J. Gillin on ethnological theory) are reviews of recent literature; the other two (H. Aschmann on subsistence, and A. Caso and G. Aguirre Beltran on applied anthropology in Mexico) are summaries of material. Two discussants provide comments on each paper. The literature summaries are still useful although the ethnography and theory papers are visibly dated. Aschmann provides alternative hypotheses on historical ecology that contrast with a trend of thinking at that time. The applied paper repeats material that has appeared in a number of other places. The usefulness of the volume is materially hampered by the delay in publishing; the bibliography on linguistics is especially worthwhile.