“The purpose of the present study,” writes the author, “is to give a picture of the manner of living and the way of thinking of the Talamancan in 1956-59.” Although the monograph is a welcome contribution to the literature on the Talamancan, I feel this particular objective was not fully accomplished. We have here a mass of carefully researched details, but somehow the whole thing fails to come to life. About half the monograph is a rather unrelated potpourri under the titles of “Religion, Magic, etc”; “Folklore”; “Myths”; “Linguistic Texts”; and “Lay Songs.”
Mrs. Stone has been studying the Costa Rican Indians for many years and is recognized as a foremost authority on them. She has brought together here a number of historical sources, and combined this material with her own researches and with information supplied by teachers, medicine men, and other informants. The resultant monograph will be of value to specialists on the Indians in this area.