Andean Culture History: An Apology and Clarification

Extract

Wendell C. Bennett was kind enough to call attention to an error in my recent review of his and Bird's Andean Culture History (American Antiquity, Vol. 16, No. 2, October, 1950, pp. 170-172) which I would like to correct. In discussing the spatial division of the Central Andes I tried to reconstruct the sequence of Bennett's ideas on the subject and made the assumption that order of publication reflected order of composition. This assumption is always dangerous and, in making it in this case, I overlooked the preface date of the work under review. The fact of the matter is that the manuscript of Andean Culture History was completed and submitted to the American Museum of Natural History before the Viking Fund symposium of July, 1947 was held. Hence, Bennett's contributions to the symposium volume (SAA-M No. 4, 1948) represent a later and not an earlier stage in the development of his ideas. Herewith my public apology for the misrepresentation.