Taso‘s Life: Person and Community

Abstract

Oral and life history, two subfields of historical inquiry, have proved their usefulness, and merit wider acceptance. As part of that claim, the paper argues that Taso Zaya‘s life history betokened a significant broadening in the scope of anthropological inquiry. Together with The People of Puerto Rico, Taso‘s story marked anthropology‘s readiness to deal with all forms of cultural variety, rather than solely with the peoples called "primitive."