"Inga Clendinnen has written a remarkable book about the encounters of Spaniards and Maya peoples of the Yucatan Peninsula during the sixteenth century. Like the self-conscious categories used by the actors, separate halves of the book are devoted to the Spaniards and the Mayas, but at nearly every point Clendinnen connects the two histories and shows their interrelationships. People on both sides were changed, even transformed (when they were not destroyed) but she shows that in fun-damental perceptions and boundaries, they remained true to their past. Book jacket.