108 



THE BUSINESS OF AGRICULTURE 



they worked for each other, the Intendente did so. 

 In May of 1937 the Intendente examined the 

 books. There were immediate difficulties: some 

 of the Indians had no books at all; those who had 

 begun to use them in June or July learned that 

 they should have begun on May 15; and in general 

 many of the Indians had not worked for others 

 the required number of days. 



The Indians sought to settle matters first with 

 the local Intendente who however wished (as they 

 understood him) to enforce the law literally, 

 even suggesting that only work for Ladinos could 

 be counted. Threatened with jail, the Indians 

 then organized a committee to call upon the Jefe 

 Politico in Solola. Although this official prom- 

 ised them satisfaction, the Indians were left 

 without a decision. Since they were subject to 

 arrest for not having a properh' certified booklet 

 in their possession, they were impatient and 

 resolved to call upon the President Ubico. After 

 a series of meetings of the Principales called by the 

 Indian officials a commission was appointed and 



it did see the President. For this visit, the 

 Indians spent a day together preparing a docu- 

 ment designed to show how on their small parcels 

 of land local Indians were both kept busy and 

 made their living. This document (to prepare 

 which Resales acted as secretary) is translated 

 as Appendi.'? 1 ; it serves both as a basis for and a 

 summary of discussion of how the Indians use 

 their time. The President gave to his callers 

 from Panajachel an order to the local officials, who 

 eventually agreed to accept a shghtly smaller 

 land-unit and to admit to their booklets labor of 

 Indians done for one another. 



By 1941 it had worked out that the Indians 

 who had enough land to keep themselves busy 

 were not required to work for others; and those 

 who lacked sufficient land (and in any case would 

 have to seek work) could work for Ladinos or 

 other Indians as they wished and when they 

 pleased. Except for the bookkeeping — since most 

 of the Indians were required by law to have 

 certified the labor they did for others — labor was 

 now essentially free. 



THE BUSINESS OF AGRICULTURE 



AGRICULTURE 



As will be seen, the Indians do not quite measure 

 every economic activity by its money value. But 

 they come close. On this measure, the value of 

 land and of effort devoted to agriculture are 

 clearly demonstrable. Domestic animals, it will 

 be seen, are unimportant in Panajachel because 

 they are uneconomical. The same may be said 

 of some crops. In this discussion it is taken for 

 granted that since the community is near a sub- 

 sistence level, activities which take more time are 

 preferred to those which take less time and bring 

 correspondingly less return; and that time not 

 otherwise usable is economically spent even when 

 the return is small. 



THE MILP.\ 



Table 26 summarizes the money returned by an 

 acre of cornfield crops in 1936. The labor re- 

 quired varies not only between hiU and delta, but 

 (in hill fields) between new land and land previ- 

 ously planted; in small degree with the distance 

 from the farmer's home, the type of soil, the 

 weather, and the protection afforded from maraud- 



ing birds and animals; and (slightly) with different 

 practices of individual farmers and the quality of 

 the work they demand. Yet it is relatively uni- 

 form and knowledge of it is shared very generally 

 in the community. The labor is reckoned in 

 terms of tareas, each the unit of work that an 

 able-bodied worker is expected to do in 1 work day, 



Table 26. — Cost and gross and net return per acre of 

 milpa, 1936 



' In this and subsequent tables, the cost of labor is calculated at 16^ cents 

 per man-day. 

 3 Assuming that 90 percent grew on old land in 1936. 



