To the Mountain and Back: The Mysteries of Guatemalan Highland Family Life

The author of "To the Mountain and Back" is an anthropologist who did field work in highland Guatemala during the 1970's. She lived in and studied life in two villages, one Ladino (Zaragoza) and the other Cakchiquel Mayan (Patzún). The book is a narrative account of the author's life during her fieldwork, both the challenges and the joys. The style is extremely straightforward and accessible. And the stories she tells have the ring of truth. Moreover, the explanations of her research tasks serve as a basic introduction of how to do field work, including sampling and interviewing. I will definitely recommend this book as an introduction to highland Guatemalan culture to my students and to others who are coming to visit us here. As a researcher myself, I was left with some unanswered questions, however. What did Glittenberg's own children glean from the experience? What did her surveys reveal about the reasons for having children in the two towns? But, overall, this is a readable and informative book.