94 



LABOR 



times tailor shirts of bought material, they also 

 sew their own skirts (of bought material), the 

 largest operation. They also do most of the 

 mending. 



Women do virtually all the laundry, and have 

 regular wash days. Men are ashamed to be seen 

 washing clothes (especially young men who have 

 no female relatives they can ask), but they do it. 



HOUSEKEEPING 



On the road men do all work necessary to sus- 

 tain life — building fires, making coffee, cooking 

 meat and soup, washing dishes, etc. But at home 

 such tasks are done by the women. Cases of 

 temporarily womanless households in which men 

 have done their own grinding and even tortilla 

 making are not only aberrant but provoke mirth. 

 Women usually rise first and build the fire; a man 

 at home might do this if his wife were ill, but 

 rarely otherwise. Grinding and cooking are (with 

 weaving) the most definitely women's tasks. Such 

 others as curing utensils, preparing leaves for 

 tamales, washing dishes, etc., are included. Men 

 do virtually nothing in the kitchen. 



Except that a cofradia house is swept by the 

 men officials, all interiors (including Saint's houses) 

 are cleaned by women and children. But men 

 and boys — not women — normally sweep the patio. 



Marketing is the subject of special discussion 

 in the following sections. Briefly: Panajachcl 

 men do not patronize the local market; both 

 women and men buy and sell in nearby markets; 

 and usually only men go to distant markets. 



LO.\D CARRYING 



Men and boys never carry loads on the head, 

 as women and girls carry produce (in baskets) or 

 water (in earthenware vessels). Men and boys 

 rarely carry any other way than with the tump- 

 line.*' Locally, women sometimes carry as much 

 as 100 pounds — with the help of two others, to 

 get the basket onto the head; the usual maximum 

 is 50 or 75 pounds, and women carry as much 

 as 50 pounds uphill to Solola or San Andres (5 

 miles). The normal load of a man is roughly 

 double that of a woman. 



Women (never men) carry babies on their backs 

 in a cloth slung over a shoulder. Men do not 



* There is a Totonicapefia married into the local community. Following 

 the custom of her community, she sometimes carries with a tumpline. The 

 local Indians were heard to remarlj about this. The Indian women of Pata- 

 natic (also originally Totonicapeflas) frequently bring firewood to town on 

 their backs. 



ordinarily carry babies, but if a child tires on the 

 road, and the wife is carrying an infant, her hus- 

 band may place the child on his load. 



Only men (but not very many), and sometimes 

 boys, paddle canoes. I have heard of a woman's 

 helping only in one extraordinary case. Women 

 simply do not "know how." Once when an 

 Indian brought home his corn harvest by canoe, 

 accompanied by another man and bj^ his mother 

 and sister, the north wind blew them off course. 

 "The women wanted to help, but of course they 

 didn't know how," the man told me later. 



SUMMARY 



Table 20 reduces the total time distribution to 

 hours in the day, showing how the "average" man, 

 woman, and child spend an "average" of those 

 which include every day of the year: week days, 

 Sundays and holidays; sunny days and rainy days. 

 It is seen that on the average a man spends 8% 

 hours working in the fields. With less work on 

 Sundays and during festivals, and in periods of 

 sickness and of rain, this means that most days 

 of the year the average man works well over 9 

 hours a day in Indian or Ladino fields; and with 

 artisans, officials, and the aged in the fields much 

 less, it is apparent that for this average to main- 

 tain, most men actually work in the fields close to 

 10 hours on a normal weekday. 



Women, on the other hand, average 5 hours in 

 the kitchen and in clothing manufacture and care 

 and 2% hours in the fields. These averages are 

 less meaningful than corresponding statements 

 for men because relatively few women spend 

 whole days in the fields while relatively more 

 devote themselves more exclusively to domestic 

 tasks. As might be expected, children of both 



Table 20. — Average day of average Indian 



Activity 



Hunting, fishing, etc 



Agriculture in Indian fields - 



Animtil husbandry 



Special occupations- - 



Agricultural labor for outsiders 



Domestic and other labor for outsiders-. 



Domestic production 



Marketing 



Community work 



Personal and social 



Eating, sleeping, etc - 



Not accounted for. - - 



Total. - 24 00 



Hours and minutes 



Man Woman Child 



;/r. A/in. 



02 



8 03 



10 



10 



26 



07 



23 



33 



35 



32 



12 56 

 03 



Ht. A/in. 



2 38 



.... 02 



.... 12 



.... H 



.... 03 



4 59 



.... 53 



... 02 



1 05 



12 59 



.... 54 



24 00 



Ht. A/in. 

 02 



2 39 



16 



04 



05 



02 



2 43 

 47 



1 20 

 13 00 

 3 02 



