Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.

This book offers ten chapters dealing with Costa Rican traditional knowledge. Each chapter presents a transcription from a talk given to an interdisciplinary audience at Universidad de Costa Rica. The chapters address the links between knowledge and culture in a variety of cases, including black, indigenous and "white" knowledge in both rural and city contexts, with an emphasis on gender issues. This book is the first of its class and its transcriptions have been annotated for easier reading. All social scientists interested in Latin American culture or in cognitive topics in general will benefit from reading it.