LABOR 



91 



companies either parent to the field. A rliild of 

 S or 9 (assuming he is not in school) still works 

 both around the house and in the fields, caring for 

 younger siblings, sweeping and doing other choies 

 in the house, and helping in the fields. But now 

 the sex distinction is more important. A boy will 

 have a small hoe, and when in the fields will help 

 his father make garden beds, while a girl will have 

 a small water jar and will be sent for water for the 

 kitchen. The boy is now liomc much less fre- 

 quently than the girl; more and more he accom- 

 panies his father to liis work. The girl may still 

 go with her father, or her mother, to the fields. 

 But she is much more closely attached to her 

 mother and hence to the kitchen. By now she 

 is frequently setting up toj^ looms with coarse 

 fibers. 



At the age of from 10 to 12 the sex division of 

 labor is virtually complete. Now a boy will not 

 stay home to help in the kitchen. He goes as a 

 helper with his father to the fields; if he goes with 

 his mother, he goes as a coworker. He does the 

 kinds of work liis father does, even if on a smaller 

 scale. He uses the tumpline to carry small loads 

 nearby, but when he accompanies his parents to 

 a market outside he is more apt to carry the lunch 

 in his bag. A girl of 10 or 12, on the otiier hand, 

 no longer goes with her father to the fields: at 

 home and in the fields she is under her mother's 

 direction. She now helps very considerably in 

 the house. She may make the fire and is expected 

 to be able to make coffee; of course she carries 

 water. She also can weave small things of limited 

 usefulness because the work is defective. vShe 

 alone, and not her brother of like age, cares for 

 the younger cliildren and sweeps out the house. 



At 14 or 15 the young man is more a man than 

 a boy- He enters his first municipal office and 

 tends to do a man's work. He now smokes and 

 begins to drink. He carries medium loads with 

 his tumpline and goes to nearby towns. He fre- 

 quentl}' accompanies his father or an older brother 

 to more distant markets. He does all kinds of 

 heavj' agricultural work. The girl of similar age 

 has not quite to the same degi-ee reached woman's 

 estate. She now grinds, and can prepare the meal 

 of the family if it is small ; l)ut her tortillas are far 

 from perfect. If she has been taught to weave, 

 she makes only small things, neither very speedily 

 nor very well. But of course she now dedicates 

 her time more and more to such tasks, while her 



mother is freer to work longer in the fields and to 

 sell more frequently in the market. If the gu-1 

 goes to market, as she docs, it is usually in the 

 charge of an older woman, if not her mother, who 

 helps her. 



At the age of 18 a youth is a man or a woman, 

 and may be expected to do all of the work of his 

 sex. The young man may go alone to the most 

 distant markets, he will work for others by the 

 day at a man's wage, and will carry full loads. 

 The young woman can do every kind of house- 

 work well, and can do the women's work of the 

 fields for the family or for hire. If she does not 

 go freely to market to sell, it is only because young 

 women should be protected from escapades. She 

 is ready for marriage. 



There is normally no age limit for work. Ex- 

 cept that sickness tends to take a greater and 

 greater toll of one's time with advancing age, the 

 old work side by side with the young, earning a 

 living by the same means. In practice, it is rarely 

 true that an old man works as much as a young 

 man. If he is not enfeebled by sickness, the cus- 

 tom of prolonged drinking acquu-ed during his 

 public career takes his time and saps his strength, 

 or he has acquired sons enough to make his own 

 hands less necessary, or has become wealtlw 

 enough to hire hands so that he himself undertakes 

 more the direction of work than the work itself.** 

 By the time a man is old — say 60 — he has usually 

 completed all of his civil and religious obligations 

 which were in the past a very significant expense, 

 and now he requires less and is hence richer. By 

 this time, too, he frequently is little interested in 

 accumulating more land, and is apt to live off his 

 capital. Hard and steady work is therefore fre- 

 quently not necessary. 



The same may be said, in general, for women. 

 Since women outlive men, there are more old 

 women than there are old men. They continue to 

 the end of their tlavs to do the work of women, but 



M A rich old Indian (now deceased) who was at least 75 at the time, said in 

 casual conversation, "1 personally no longer do any work because my arms 

 cannot stand it, hut my son Ratael is the one who does everything necessary, 

 or I send moios and only direct them. But I still sometimes take up my ax 

 or my hoe to do a simple task because I am ashamed to be always sitting in 

 my house watching my (third) wUe work in the fields. Sometimes I tell 

 her to get herself mosos to clear the onion patches and other fields, but she 

 answers me that she too is ashamed not to do anything because my children 

 (her step-children) and neighbors might think that she wanted me only for 

 the advantages. And so it is that we are both ashamed to do nothing. Look 

 now. for e.xample, she has gone to the Sololi market to sell and to buy the 

 necessary things, and I remain to watch the house; but I always go out to my 

 fields." 



