146 



CONSUMER GOODS 



are completed with vertically set canes, sometimes 

 daubed with mud. 



The doorway is a rectangle of poles, one side 

 often a post of the house, the door frequently 

 canes lashed together with crosspieces; a wider 

 crosspiece in the center serves as a stationary bar 

 to keep the door in place at night. Wooden doors 

 are made by carpenters. The smaller structures 

 such as chicken coops are more simply made, and 

 with less thatch on the roof; annexes are often 

 made of the same materials as the house, but also, 

 frequently, adobe houses have mass-adobe annexes 

 and mass-adobe houses cane annexes. 



Despite the variety both of kinds of houses and 

 special features, and of ways of obtaining various 

 materials, sometimes purchased and sometimes 

 collected in whole or in part, one may draw fairly 

 reliable conclusions on their cost in money and 

 labor (table 55). 



Smaller structures are usually made with home- 

 gathered materials or left-over adobes, and this 

 cost is small, and almost entirely in the labor of 

 their owners. A mass-adobe annex to a house 

 probably costs about $2, a cane-wall annex $1.50, 

 and a brick-adobe annex $4. Galeras and gran- 

 aries cannot come to more than about $1 in mate- 

 rials and labor cost, and chicken coops and other 

 animal houses probably require an average of 2 

 days' work. A sweat bath, even if old stones are 

 re-used, probably costs about a dollar to build. 



The various parts of houses have different life 

 spans. The heavy lumber, if of good hardwood, 

 may last as long as 50 years; in one case informants 

 said the lumber was re-used for the houses of three 



successive generations of a family and is still in 

 use. If kept in repair, the walls of a mass-adobe 

 house last 25 years or more; reliable information 

 on the point is difficult to obtain, but I have seen 

 houses reputedly older than that. Thatch, on the 

 other hand — even if of good quality and well 

 laid — ^does not last beyond 18 years; and in one 

 case recorded, where the thatch was in part of the 

 local variety, it had to be replaced after 10 years. 

 Such an item as a cane door has to be replaced 

 after from 1 to 3 years. 



Table 55. — Average cost of Indian houses, 1937 



' In the 1 case with complete data, a little tinder $6. 



' Based on data in table 5fi. 



> Compare with 4 cases where complete data are available; 



(1) House 2 by 3 varas, $6.99. 



(2) a little larger, $7.51. 



(3) 4 by 5 taras, $10.48. 



(4) a little larger. $11.59. 



* Includes $6 for adobe bricks. 



s Includes $6 for 10 man-days of time of a mason, 20 of common labor. 



• Based on personal experience in building, checked with other informa- 

 tion. One general check: in 1941 an Indian required $15 to build a new tile 

 roof, including the carpentry. 



^ Includes $6 for tiles, $1 for additional lime for roof. 



* Includes both time masonry and carpentry. 



• In the only case for which information is available, the sheet metal cost 

 $52.50. 



"• Requires less sawed lumber and carpentry than a tile roof. 



Adobe brick appears to last indefinitely, with 

 good care; on the other hand, houses with cane 

 walls have a relatively short life, estimated by one 



Table 56. — Malerials and time used in building a mass-adobe house 



I Wauchope, 1938, says that 14 man-days were needed to build a small kitchen bouse In Panajachel (p. 166, n.). 



