White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 329 
found ‘outside employment .. . on the railroad which f{was] under 
construction from Bernalillo to Jemez’’ (Halseth, 1924 b,p.75). And, 
as Halseth observed, ‘‘a little money in the pueblo means improve- 
ment of conditions.”” Some Sias had outside jobs for years while 
this study was in progress. In 1957 there were 11 men and 5 women 
who were continuously employed outside the pueblo, in Albuquerque, 
Santa Fe, or on ranches or construction projects. Outside employ- 
ment increased considerably after World War II. 
Outside employment affects Sia culture in many ways. It removes 
men and women from the pueblo for a very large part of the time. 
No Sia was commuting daily to his job in 1957 as some Indians in 
other pueblos were doing. Some employed Sias return to their 
homes on weekends; some stay away at their jobs for weeks or even 
months on end. ‘These absences expose the men and women intensely 
to outside cultural influence, and at the same time deprive the pueblo 
of their services in all capacities—religious and ceremonial as well as 
social, political, and familial. 
Outside employment has been substituted for farming in some 
instances. Some land has gone uncultivated because its owner found 
wage labor more profitable. No doubt, stock raising has been af- 
fected, also. Agriculture, the age-old basis of pueblo culture, is 
being undermined by wage labor. 
Employment outside the pueblo tends to foster a money economy, 
with its accompanying attitudes and values, which is radically differ- 
ent from the traditional customs of mutual aid and sharing of food 
and services on a kinship basis. I believe it would be difficult to 
exaggerate the importance of this factor. 
And outside employment accelerates the introduction of foreign 
things and ways: concepts, attitudes, values, foods, medicines, peri- 
odicals, utensils, tools, household appliances, radios, television sets, 
automobiles, and many other things that affect Sia culture in varying 
degrees and for better or for worse. 
GENERAL IMPACT OF EURO-AMERICAN CUITURE 
We might sum up the whole situation by saying that Sia culture is 
giving way under the impact of the culture of the White man gener- 
ally. It is the attrition of White man’s culture upon that of the 
Sias at every point that is wearing it away. Sia culture is being 
extinguished by erosion. I might cite one very interesting instance 
of how White man’s culture in general is affecting profoundly the 
culture of the Sias at particular points: 
In the early years of this study I was working with a Sia informant, 
an elderly man, in a room in a hotel in Albuquerque. Great pre- 
cautions had been taken to make sure that no Indian, especially a 
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