The face of the sun kingdoms : the Indians of Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador and Peru, and their ancient lands
George Bunzl (Photographer), C. A. Burland (Writer of introduction)
To the American Indian at the time of the Spanish Conquest, the sun was the source of life and sun worship the most essential part of his religion. Indian civilization was held back by a shortage of metal, the late discovery of how to make bronze, and the lack of any kind of wheeled vehicle. Yet despite this, the achievements of the Indians were tremendous. In Mexico, when one of the touch Spanish veterans under Cortés first looked on the mighty city of Tenochtitlán with its clusters of palaces and brilliantly coloured pyramidal temples, tears came to his eyes, for it must have seemed out of fairyland. The Indians did not easily accept the ways of the foreigners who took over their lands, and the village elders taught the children to value the old ways of their own people. The Spanish Conquest meant some four hundred years of oppression and suffering for them and only the twentieth century has brought real improvement to their lives. Latin America is now in a ferment of development, but this book does not purport to show Indian life in the great cities, since one great metropolis is much like any other. Rather, it gives a vivid impression of the villages and hill towns where native culture has survived without aping in these remote highlands, where the Indian has changed little since the days before the Conquest, that most of George Bunzl's superb photographs were taken. 'The face of the sun kingdoms' is much more than a picture book, C.A. Burland, F.R.A.I., Membre de la Société des Américanistes de Paris, who, in collaboration with E.G. Beaumont, has written the sixteen-page introduction, immediately recognized Bunzl's work as an important social document--a theme amplified in the text, which, together with the notes on the illustrations, helps provide in these pages a unique record of a proud people. That the photographs will give pleasure for their artistry is certain. They are also a tribute--both to their subject and to the skill and insight of the man who took them.--Jacket flap
Print Book, English, [1969, ©1966]
1st American edition
A.S. Barnes, South Brunswick [N.J.], [1969, ©1966]