LABOR 



93 



COFFEE 



Division of labor in the coffee nurseries follows 

 the usual garden pattern. Only men transplant 

 coffee bushes from the nursery bed, work which 

 involves digging holes; pulling, binding, and set- 

 ting both coffee and shade trees. Again, only 

 men clean the grove. Both sexes harvest coffee, 

 and women as well as men are hired for the pur- 

 pose. In Indian groves women probably harvest 

 more than men, for small groves are often picked 

 over by the women and children of the house. 

 Men exclusively use the depulping machine, 

 women the grinding stone. Men do more than 

 women washing and sunning the beans, especially 

 if the quantity is large; on the other hand wlien 

 the parchment is removed from the beans before 

 use or sale, it is done on the grinding stone, by 

 women," and roasting and grinding coffee is 

 women's work, done in small quantities for daily 

 use in connection with other kitchen work. 



FRUIT 



Planting vegetable pears and harvesting their 

 root are peculiarly men's tasks, involving some 

 ritual. Otherwise the work of the "orchard" is 

 little differentiated by sex. Fruit harvesting that 

 requires climbing is done by men, but most fruit 

 is collected by other methods, and by both sexes. 

 Quantity is a factor: a man (perhaps helped by 

 his wife) is apt to strip a whole tree of its fruit, 

 but a woman usually brings down the fiiiit that 

 she plans to take to market. In this work (chil- 

 dren are of special assistance. 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 



The few horses, cattle, sheep in town are cared 

 for by men and boys who lead them to pasture, 

 move them occasionally, and lead them back in 

 the evening. Women may feed such animals at 

 the house, but their care is the responsibility of 

 men. Pigs and fowl, on the other hand, are the 

 province of the women (and children) of the 

 house. Though men may and do handle them, 

 women generally do all the chores connected with 

 them. "Chicken raising is the woman's work; the 

 man has nothing to do with it," is the usual view. 

 Pigs are killed by professional butcliers, but the 

 housewife usually kills a chicken for the table. 

 Turkeys are killed only for fiestas, when usually 



*^ A 12-year-oId boy w:is once observed heli)iiig his mother at this, bat he 

 was not Krinding. 



men have charge of their ceremonial slaughter 

 together with that of roosters. Men also clean 

 and dismember the fowl used ceremonially, women 

 those for the house. 



FIREWOOD 



Firewood in quantity is prepared by men and 

 boys. Women never cut down trees, though they 

 frequently chop branches into kindling. Women 

 and children perhaps more than men, collect fag- 

 gots in the river bed and in the fields. The 

 distinction is between "making" and "collecting" 

 firewood. 



HOUSING 



Building of all kinds is in the province of the 

 men, assisted by boys. Women do not help. 

 Materials which are not purchased are obtained 

 generally in the hills, systematically by the men. 

 Setting up the house is heavy work, but women 

 do not participate even in building small structures 

 like chicken coops, or thatching low roofs; prob- 

 ably they lack the techniques. Nor do they mix 

 mud for mass-adobe walls, which is neither heavy 

 nor skilled labor. 



CLOTHING 



The little cotton spimiing still done in Pana- 

 jachel is strictly women's work. Men rather than 

 women twist maguey fibers for special uses, and 

 when maguey textUes were made, the men did it 

 as they still do in other towns. Women, never 

 men, do weaving. Exceptions are two men who 

 have learned a non-Indian belt-weaving tech- 

 nique."' A few men (no women) have also learned 

 to make fish nets. But textiles for common use 

 and by the usual processes are strictly in the 

 female sphere. 



Men usually tailor their own cloaks from woolen 

 cloth that they buy, though women somtitimes 

 do this for their husbands. They also repair tlieir 

 own clothes, especially if they are unmarried. It 

 is no shame for a man to use a needle. Yet women 

 do virtually all sewing done in Panajachel; they 

 fashion the textiles that th(!y weave (for them- 

 selves, the menfolk, and the children) and some- 



"* Once a boy of about 10 learned to wt^ave cotton belts when his (nther 

 was in prison in Sololiiand he took food to him and stayed all day; ho watched 

 the prisoners making belts and went home and began making them for sale 

 to Ladinos. Since then he has earned a few dollars n year; he also has learned 

 to make nets. 



