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CHOICE Review

A valuable contribution to the archaeological literature on West and Northwest Mexico. This collection consists of a brief introduction and selections on the archaeology of the Rio Lerma valley in southeastern Guanajuato and the highland valleys of Michoacan and Jalisco (four articles); Pacific coastal Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit, and Sinaloa (four articles); the northwestern Mesoamerican corridor from Queretaro and Guanajuato through San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, and Durango to Chihuahua and Sonora (seven articles); and the northwestern periphery of Mesoamerica (four articles). The 22 authors are, or have recently been, actively conducting fieldwork in the areas about which they write. The major weakness of the work results from the vast geographic area that the editors and their authors try to cover. Without a more extensive general introduction and section introductions to tie the individual articles together, the nonspecialist will find it difficult to place the data in their proper spatial, temporal, and cultural context. The bibliography is very good, especially through 1980; there is a useful index; and the printing and binding are good. The quality of the illustrations varies. Photographs did not reproduce well, but maps and line drawings did. Despite some typos, dropped lines, and uneven writing, this is an important acquisition for Mesoamerican specialists, their students, and comprehensive libraries.-E.B. Sisson, University of Mississippi