"Sophisticated study resting on a foundation of the analysis of postcontact indigenous language documentation ranging from notarial records to primordial titles. Author is interested in charting the persistence and evolution after the Spanish invasion of the Maya cahob, or self-governing communities, as well as the chibal, or extended family lineage. He does so with skill and aplomb, producing a major work of ethnohistorical analysis"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.