78 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 33 



14 pesos for going on a trip with an uncle ; a turkey hen, by a mother, 

 for tending Httle turkeys ; 2 pesos, by a brother, for helping to find a 

 horse ; 5 pesos for weeding the potatoes ; 5 firecrackers as a prize for 

 climbing to the top of a flagpole. Rewards received by girls were 

 candy from a brother for weeding the garden well ; chocolates from a 

 father for helping him weed the garden; a hen from a mother for 

 tending little turkeys; a turkey gobbler, a chicken, and a pup for 

 helping a mother ; a turkey gobbler from a mother for tending little 

 turkeys ; and a chicken from an aunt for tending her chickens. 



In general a child that has reached the age of complete comprehen- 

 sion, today as formerly, is coerced, when necessary, to conform to 

 behavior standards. Both parents do so by corrections in stern tones, 

 by scolding in angry ones, by deprivations, by slapping the child's 

 hands, and by spankings or whippings. A mother deprived her 8-year- 

 old son of his freedom because he fought with a boy in the neighbor- 

 hood. She isolated him in a room for a week ; not even for his meals 

 was he allowed to leave it. Since the mother would not relent, the 

 teacher sent his reader to him. By the time his mother released him, he 

 was not only able to read all of the book, but also a newspaper that he 

 had found in the room. "When he returned to school," said his 

 teacher, "he was able to read well, something that he was not able 

 to learn in school in two years." A father deprived a 14-year-old 

 girl of a trip as a punishment : "Because I told a lie, I had to stay 

 home when the others went to Villarrica." A 60-year-old father had 

 deprived his children, when they were young, of a meal, on occasions : 

 "Sometimes, when we sat down to eat, some of them complained about 

 the food. My wife would beg them to eat. But I would order them 

 to leave the ruka and forbade them to eat anything until the next 

 cooking." 



Regarding corporal punishment, all mothers agreed that a child not 

 yet able to walk should not be slapped or spanked; most of them 

 thought such corrections useless before the child had the ability to 

 comprehend. One mother thought that anything that could be ac- 

 complished by slappings and spankings could be accomplished by in- 

 structions or scoldings, but her husband believed that even a 2-year-old 

 child was helped by being slapped, but that always the mother should 

 do the slapping — never a man. Small children had been slapped by 

 mothers for soiling themselves after toilet habits had been established, 

 for playing in mud, and for refusing to be dressed. 



In general, parents objected to anyone but themselves slapping or 

 spanking their child. A mother told a non-Araucanian who had 

 slapped her son that the boy had a father and therefore needed no one 



