CONSUMER GOODS 



133 



CONSUMER GOODS 



Although by far the greater part of goods con- 

 sumed, especially materials for food and clothing, 

 and all utensils, axe purchased from outside the 

 community, about a third of all time devoted to 

 production is devoted directly to consumption 

 goods. Prices and purchase are thus of para- 

 mount concern; but the final processing of pur- 

 chased foodstuffs, textile materials, and the hke is 

 done at home, and a few important items such as 

 houses and firewood are almost entirely home- 

 produced. Therefore this section describes both 

 buying and making. 



BUYING FOR USE 



In a specialized community like Panajachel, 

 which does not produce more than a few of the 

 necessities of hfe, shopping is a very important part 

 of daily, or weekly, life. In general, Panajachele- 

 fios, like members of other specialized commimi- 

 ties, do not buy from each other, since they all 

 produce about the same things. For this reason 

 retail buying and selling tends to be consummated 

 in markets where Indians of different communities 

 gather to exchange goods. Nevertheless, the 

 Panajachel Indians procure their necessities in 

 several other ways: 



Very occasionally Indians buy from each other 

 at home; and Panajachel merchants sometimes 

 sell house to house their merchandise from other 

 towns.'" Much more important, Ladinos and 

 Indians from other towns very frequently sell 

 their wares from house to house. Thus almost 

 daily Santa Catarina Indians sell fish and crabs 

 at the houses; "^ many of them regularly spend 

 early Sunday mornings at this pursuit, before 

 going to the local market."^ Ladino or Sololateco 

 pork butchers or their wives frequently sell from 



>" For instance, Rosales noted on March 16, 1937, that the merchant who 

 buys cheese on the coast was selJkig It house to house, including Ladino houses. 

 On February 21, 1937, he also noted Indians selling huslicherries that had 

 grown where their com had been harvested. 



»»3 Rosales noted them frequently in his diary, and they often came to our 

 house. One reason is that fishing was illegal during the period of study and 

 the flsh had to be sold surreptitiously. Another is that fish caught at night 

 must be sold the next day even if it is not a large martet day. Some Catari- 

 necos also sell house to house In SololS if unsuccessful in Panajachel. Occa- 

 sionally they bring other things besides fish and crabs— tomatoes and eggs, 

 for example. One Friday Rosales noted one who stopped on the way to the 

 S0I0I& market to sell some corn " because his load was too heavy and would 

 ke©p him from reaching S0I0I& until too late." 



'" The reason for this seems to be a wish to avoid paying the market tax. 

 As one expressed it, the tax would buy him a pound of com. 



house to house their lard, cracklings, and so on."* 

 There are other regular vendors like the woman 

 from San Jorge who in 1936 came every 3 days to 

 sell cooked foods, "° and many more who came 

 sporadically.'" 



Lumber is regularly purchased on the road into 

 town from Indian sawyers of Concepci6n, Pata- 

 natic, and especially Chichicastenango. (Lumber 

 and thatch are also frequently "ordered" in 

 advance.) Furniture is also occasionally bought 

 on the road from the backs of merchants traveling 

 through town, particularly by Ladinos. Indians 

 usually wait to buy such items in the large markets 

 that come a few times during the year, when the 

 selection is best and the price presumably less. 



More important is buying in the Ladino-owned 

 stores. There were in 1936 three fairly large 

 general stores in Panajachel, and a number of 

 smaller ones (map 3), as well as several taverns, 

 two pharmacies, and three beef-butcher shops, 

 two of them Indian-owned. They cater to both 

 Indian and Ladino trade, and to people of other 

 towns passing through or coming in to market. 

 Solola has a number of large stores of all kinds 



'" On October 27, 1936, a Sololateca offered lard from pigs butchered at her 

 moMe home. She said that on a previous trip she had taken orders for lard, 

 but that now some of the people had no money and she had had to extend 

 credit. She promised to bring pork the next Saturday for the tamalcs of All 

 Saints' Day, and to sell it 1 cent a pound under what the local butchers 

 charged. On February 20, 1937, the woman came with pork, and at Rosales' 

 house asked to heat her breakfast. While she ate, the town patrol came to 

 take her to the juzgado to show her license. They let her finish her breakfast, 

 and she had told Rosales that this was the work of a Ladina competitor 

 angry because she was being undersold. She said she sold sausages to a 

 Ladina on the road and she must have told her competitor. Or possibly, 

 she thought, her accuser might be another Sololateca in the same business 

 who followed her to Panajachel. She said that she came to Panajachel 

 because in SololS there are nine vendors, Indian and Ladino. She also claimed 

 to have all the necessary papers but to have left them at home. 



Competition sometimes is apparently bitter. On August 3, 1936, Rosales 

 reported that an Indian woman selling beef belly had told him that she would 

 quit her bushiess. She explained that a Ladina had started in the same 

 business, and that when they had met on the road that day, this Ladina 

 angrily told her that if she continued selling from house to house, she would 

 have her bewitched. The woman added that she was already bewitched 

 since her stomach was growling and would soon burst open. 



1" She reported to Resales that she spends all her time on the business: 

 each day she buys enough corn, and in the afternoon and part of the evening 

 she grinds and cooks. Early in the morning she sells to the Indian travelers 

 at the lake ports; they know her and await her. What is left over she sells 

 house to house. She gives credit when she must, and is paid little by little. 



Another day she sold Rosales some tamales-with-pork. Breaking them, 

 he saw that the meat was spoiled, and he gave them back. She ate them, 

 said they were perfectly good and that it was a sin to give them back. She 

 went away angry. 



>'» Momostenango blanket sellers; MaxeBos with pitch wood or spices 

 and panela or dry goods; Indians from Cerro de Oro with com, reed mats, 

 or coast fruit; Ooncepcioneros with baskets or grass for roofs; Nahualenos with 

 grinding stones, have all been noted. In addition, Rosales reports that on 

 various days a poor Ladina neighbor came with a chicken; a Sololateco 

 oflered 4 pounds of onion seed; a Ladino brought a stem of bananas; another 

 tried to sell a gun, and still another a cow; and that a Oatarlueoo came oflering 

 bis land for sale. 



