The sixteen-volume Handbook of Middle American Indians, completed in 1976, has been acclaimed the world over as the most valuable resource ever produced for those involved in the study of Mesoamerica. When it was determined in 1978 that the Handbook should be updated periodically, Victoria Reifler Bricker, well-known cultural anthropologist, was selected to be series editor. This first volume of the Supplement is devoted to the dramatic changes that have taken place in the field of archaeology. The volume editor, Jeremy A. Sabloff, has gathered together detailed reports from the directors of many of the most significant archaeological projects of the mid-twentieth century in Mesoamerica, along with discussions of three topics of general interest (the rise of sedentary life, the evolution of complex culture, and the rise of cities).

Volumes 14 and 15 of the Handbook of Middle American Indians, published in cooperation with the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University under the general editorship of Robert Wauchope (1909–1979), constitute Parts 3 and 4 of the Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources. The Guide has been assembled under the volume editorship of the late Howard F. Cline, Director of the Hispanic Foundation in the Library of Congress, with Charles Gibson, John B. Glass, and H. B. Nicholson as associate volume editors. It covers geography and ethnogeography (Volume 12); sources in the European tradition (Volume 13); and sources in the native tradition: prose and pictorial materials, checklist of repositories, title and synonymy index, and annotated bibliography on native sources (Volumes 14 and 15). The present volumes contain the following studies on sources in the native tradition: “A Survey of Native Middle American Pictorial Manuscripts,” by John B. Glass “A Census of Native Middle American Pictorial Manuscripts,” by John B. Glass in collaboration with Donald Robertson “Techialoyan Manuscripts and Paintings, with a Catalog,” by Donald Robertson “A Census of Middle American Testerian Manuscripts,” by John B. Glass “A Catalog of Falsified Middle American Pictorial Manuscripts,” by John B. Glass “Prose Sources in the Native Historical Tradition,” by Charles Gibson and John B. Glass “A Checklist of Institutional Holdings of Middle American Manuscripts in the Native Historical Tradition,” by John B. Glass “The Botutini Collection,” by John B. Glass “Middle American Ethnohistory: An Overview” by H. B. Nicholson The Handbook of Middle American Indians was assembled and edited at the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University with the assistance of grants from the National Science Foundation and under the sponsorship of the National Research Council Committee on Latin American Anthropology.

Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources comprises Volumes 12 through 15 of the Handbook of Middle American Indians, published in cooperation with the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University under the general editorship of Robert Wauchope (1909–1979). The Guide has been assembled under the volume editorship of the late Howard F. Cline, Director of the Hispanic Foundation in the Library of Congress, with Charles Gibson, John B. Glass, and H. B. Nicholson as associate volume editors. It covers geography and ethnogeography, especially the Relaciones Geográficas (Volume 12); sources in the European tradition: printed collections, secular and religious chroniclers, biobibliographies (Volume 13); sources in the native tradition: prose and pictorial materials, checklist of repositories, title and synonymy index, and annotated bibliography on native sources (Volumes 14 and 15). Volume 12, which is Part One of the Guide, contains the following: “Introduction: Reflections on Ethnohistory,” “Introductory Notes on Territorial Divisions of Middle America,” “Viceroyalty to Republics, 1786–1952: Historical Notes on the Evolution of Middle American Political Units,” “Ethnohistorical Regions of Middle America,” “The Relaciones Geográficas of the Spanish Indies, 1577–1648,” “A Census of the Relaciones Geográficas of New Spain, 1579–1616,” and “The Relaciones Geográficas of Spain, New Spain, and the Spanish Indies: An Annotated Bibliography,” all the foregoing by Howard F. Cline. In addition it includes: “Colonial New Spain, 1519–1786: Historical Notes on the Evolution of Minor Political Jurisdictions” by Peter Gerhard; “The Pinturas (Maps) of the Relaciones Geográficas, with a Catalog” by Donald Robertson; “The Relaciones Geográficas, 1579–1586: Native Languages” by H. R. Harvey; and “The Relaciones Geográficas of Mexico and Central America, 1740–1792” by Robert C. West. The Handbook of Middle American Indians was assembled and edited at the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University with the assistance of grants from the National Science Foundation and under the sponsorship of the National Research Council Committee on Latin American Anthropology.

Ethnology comprises the seventh and eighth volumes in the Handbook of Middle American Indians, published in cooperation with the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University under the general editorship of Robert Wauchope (1909–1979). The editor of the Ethnology volumes is Evon Z. Vogt (1918–2004), Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Social Relations, Harvard University. These two books contain forty-three articles, all written by authorities in their field, on the ethnology of the Maya region, the southern Mexican highlands and adjacent regions, the central Mexican highlands, western Mexico, and northwest Mexico. Among the topics described for each group of Indians are the history of ethnological investigations, cultural and linguistic distributions, major postcontact events, population, subsistence systems and food patterns, settlement patterns, technology, economy, social organization, religion and world view, aesthetic and recreational patterns, life cycle and personality development, and annual cycle of life. The volumes are illustrated with photographs and drawings of contemporary and early historical scenes of native Indian life in Mexico and Central America. The Handbook of Middle American Indians was assembled and edited at the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University with the assistance of grants from the National Science Foundation and under the sponsorship of the National Research Council Committee on Latin American Anthropology.