This monograph is a partial report on field research in the region of Marbial, Department de l’Ouest, Haiti, during a period of some eighteen months between April 1948 and April 1950. The fieldwork, carried out under the direction of Dr. Alfred Metraux, was planned and executed in preparation for a pilot project in fundamental education under the joint auspices of the Government of Haiti and the United Nations Educational, ScientificandCulturalOrganisation. I myself was not a member of the field team working in Marbial and, in fact, have never been in Marbial.
My participation in the study was limited to the work I did with Dr. Metraux in drawing up the original program; later, when I was in Haiti from December 1948 to May 1949, I took part in discussions of field problems and collborated in the writing of interim field reports.