148 



CONSUMER GOODS 



or canes either suspended from the roof or resting 

 on the beams of the house. The fireplace consists 

 of three large stones used as they are found. The 

 permanent fixtures are usually made when the 

 house is built, and repaired and replaced as needed, 

 usually by men. The amount of time consumed 

 in making them is negligible — probably no more 

 than fifty or a hundred days a year in the entire 

 community, or a day or two in any household. 



Virtually all utensils and tools are purchased 

 readymade. But some time (also of the men) is 

 consumed in making traps and deadfalls, hafts for 

 hoes and axes, staffs, slingshots, etc. The grind- 

 ing stones that are bought must be prepared for 

 use by the women; pottery must also be "cured," 

 but this is done incidentally to cooking. Some 

 toys are made by the children, or by their parents, 

 for their use. However, the time consumed in 

 the making of tools, utensils, toys and the like, is 

 again too unimportant to be calculated in detail. 

 One day per household probably covers it. 



FIREWOOD 



Women frequently gather faggots, but for the 

 chief supply of firewood for the kitchen, men are 

 responsible. In rare cases loads of firewood are 

 bought by the few landless professional "foreign" 

 residents from Indians of the higher country who 

 carry it down to supply the Ladinos. Otherwise 

 every Indian family "makes" its own firewood 

 throughout the year.'^' 



If they do not own trees to fell, they either 

 cut trees on the communal land (or collect faggots 

 on anybody's land) '" or else buy trees from their 

 neighbors for the piu"pose.'^* A hired laborer may, 

 of course, be given the task. The tree is felled 

 with an ax, the branches cut off with a machete. 

 The trunk is cut into sections and spUt section by 

 section as needed, unless the tree has been pur- 

 chased or is far from the house, when all is fre- 

 quently cut into firewood at once and stored. 



"• Most frequently on Sundays, according to information from various 

 informants. 



'" One informant said In 1940 that he usually gets his firewood on the 

 public land of the west hill or else gathers It where he finds It, on private 

 lands. He is a poor Indian. 



1" I have at least two notes indicating that this practice is not uncommon. 

 The informant of No. 24 told me that he sometimes buys a big old ilamo, avo- 

 cado, or cross-sapodiila tree for about 40 cents to cut up Into firewood. From 

 such a tree he gets 2 tareas, or 16 loads. The work Involved, Including carry- 

 ing, comes to 4 days. Resales bought an old silk -oak tree from a Ladino for 

 16 cents and agreed not to damage the coflee grove In which it stood. In the 

 felling he damaged a Spanlsh-plum tree, and he agreed to pay half the value 

 of the harvest; this came to another 16 cents. 



Six to eight loads of firewood can be prepared in 

 this way in 1 day by an able-bodied man, unless 

 long cartage distance adds to the time. 



The amount of firewood used in a household is 

 usually constant. Informants say that one load a 

 week is standard, but large households and those 

 which feed laborers of course use more than smaU 

 ones. The fire is fed with three pieces of wood 

 continually pushed closer to the center as they 

 are used, a method both economical and universal. 

 The amount of time used in the cutting and carry- 

 ing of firewood is easily estimated at about 2,700 

 days by the 90 percent of the households making 

 their own. This figure neglects the faggots col- 

 lected by women, for the most part casually while 

 on other errands. It assumes a per family con- 

 sumption of 60 loads a year, more than half of the 

 total of 9,000 loads collected piecemeal and in the 

 hills. '^' Many of the 2,700 days represent Sunday 

 time. A few poor and landless households are 

 said to be too poor to buy firewood, and depend 

 entirely upon their women to gather faggots along 

 the roadsides and in the woods; a few others buy 

 most or all their firewood from their neighbors, or 

 hire laborers to cut it on their land. But the men 

 of most families cut their own firewood on their 

 own land, devoting from 10 to 30 man-days a year 

 to the purpose. 



COOKING AND WASHING 



The major share of the work connected with 

 the kitchen, is done by women. Conclusions drawn 

 here (table 58) are based largely on reliable infor- 

 mation concerning a household (No. 49) in the 

 middle range of wealth, consisting in 1940 of man, 

 wife, two daughters, 19 and 9 years old, and a 

 5-year-old son, which is "normal" in household 

 composition. The family is also typical in its 

 mode of life, its members wearing traditional 

 costume and so on. Where there are more than 

 one woman in the house they have more time for 

 pursuits such as weaving, gardening, and selling in 

 the market, and the adult time consumed by 

 kitchen work remains relatively constant. 



Water for kitchen uses is carried in pottery jars 

 from the lake, the river, or from the nearest large 

 irrigation ditch, whichever is most convenient. 

 The jars vary in size, the largest of the type used 



>" Two Informants figured that their supplies, one load a week, cost them 

 each a half day weekly. In the three families whose budgets were obtained, 

 the average time spent was 22 man-days a year. 



