160 



THE LEVEL AND COST OF LIVING 



There remain four men, three women, and thirty- 

 odd boys and girls whose costume I cannot guess ; 

 to complete the picture, I simply add a numerically 

 proportionate amount to costume costs to take 

 account of these unknowns. Then combining 

 tables 61 and 62 and including 24 of the "still 

 unknowns" of table 62 in the infant's costume 

 classification, it is possible to calculate the number 

 of garments of different kinds worn by Panajachcl 

 Indians in 1936 and the amount of time and 

 money that they cost (table 63). Data on the 

 length of time a garment lasts, or number bought 

 in a year, come from household budgets (described 

 below) and miscellaneous information. The prices 

 of items not made in Panajachel are from the 

 price list. Appendix 2. 



Table 62. — Probable costmnes of those on whom census 

 information is lacking 



Individual garments of "foreign" Indians are 

 not itemized except for trousers, shirts, belts, 

 Totonicapan garments, and the San Andres huipil 

 which are also worn by Panajachelcnos. Infor- 

 mation is too incomplete to itemize costs of Solola, 

 Concepci(5n, Atitlan, Santa Catarina, and Ladino 

 costumes, and the San Pedro costume except for 

 the woman's (Totonicap&n) shirt, and the San 

 Andres sash. To complete table 63, the cost of 

 these costumes was roughly calculated from 

 knowledge of costs of the Panajachel garments 

 (table 64) in the following manner: The Solola- 

 Concepcidn male attire consists of long home- 

 woven calsones and shirt, a Nahual^ or Chichi- 

 castenango rodillera and a woolen jacket. In 

 addition the men carry woolen bags that they make 

 (and that Panajachel Indians use only rarely). 

 The cash cost is probably slightly less than that 

 of the "old-fashioned" Panajachel costume: the 

 woolen cloth of the jacket is less than that of the 

 gabdn; the cotton for the shirt costs less than does 

 the bought shirt of Panajachel (especially since 



much more spinning is done in Solola) ; on the 

 other hand only the Sololi calzon takes more 

 material than that of Panajachel. It is therefore 

 probable that the cash cost of the whole S0I0I& 

 attire is about $4. On the other hand the labor 

 probably comes to twice that of Panajachel. At 

 the Panajachel labor rate, it would be $6. Boys' 

 costumes would then come to about $2.25 plus 12 

 days' work, or $3.45. 



The Solol&-Concepci6n female attire, on the 

 other hand, is certainly cheaper than the plain 

 Panajachel costume. The shirt and sash are 

 nearly the same, and the huipil is much like 

 the man's shirt. The woman's costume would 

 take but $6 in material and about 20 days' time 

 (or if the cotton is spun rather than bought, less 

 cash and more time) for a total of $8. The girl's 

 costume would cost $3.60 and 12 days' time, or 

 $4.80. 



The Ladino costume values are almost pure 

 guesses, based only on general knowledge; these 

 costumes are assumed to be bought for cash, 

 although there are tailors and dressmakers in the 

 Ladino community. 



The figures for the clothing of persons on whom 

 there is no costume information were obtained 

 by adding 4/255, 26/80, 3/272, and 4/67 to the 

 totals of the figures — excluding the unknowns and 

 infants for the men's, boys', women's, and girls' 

 garments respectively. From the total of 8,937 

 9-hour days (table 63) of time consumed in the 

 preparation of clothing in 1936 must be subtracted 

 some number of days of work that Indians outside 

 the community actually did. First there is the 

 work on Panajacheleno textiles let out to Indian 

 women of other towns, 3,000 man-days or $180 

 (calculated at 6 cents a day, since women's time 

 is worth less in the towns where the work is done 

 than in Panajachel). Second, probably 350 of 

 the 468 days reported in table 63 as time devoted 

 to "foreign" costumes were actually spent by 

 people outside of Panajachel. Since ready-made 

 clothing is more expensive than time-plus-mate- 

 rials, these 350 days to be subtracted should prob- 

 ably be translated into $40 spent outside the 

 community. Finally, to the cost of clothing must 

 be added that of repairing. One may guess that 

 in each household a total of about a day, at odd 

 moments, is devoted to sewing and patching, and 

 that a spool of thread is used by each, for a total 



