184 



THE LEVEL AND COST OF LIVING 



Table 74. — The balance of payments 

 a. RECEIPTS 



Item 



Plant gathering 



Hunting, fishing, etc -- 



Net from agriculture -. 



Net from animal husbandry .- 



Net from arts and professions — 



Labor for outsiders 



Net from merchandising nonlocal 

 produce 



Total -- --- 



Total 



! $40. 50 



50, 00 



23, 2S9. 79 



3-14. 50 



777. 05 



' 1, 060. 00 



60.00 



25, 627. 84 



Consumed 

 within 

 commu- 

 nity ' 



$40.60 



46.00 



! 3, 834. 43 



176.00 



Sold 

 outside 



sio.on 



19, 455. 36 



168. .50 



777. 05 



1, 060. 00 



60.00 



4, 096. 93 



b. EXPENDITURES 



Housing 



Clothing. 



Food... 



Supplies, furnishings, etc 

 Ceremonies, fiestas, etc.. 

 Personal and legal, etc... 

 Markets and travel 



Total... 



$80. 00 



4, 1>«5 62 



15,220,28 



1, 394. 93 



1,901.80 



691.00 



322. 80 



23, 676. 43 



Produced 

 within 



commu- 

 nity I 



$4. 132. 25 



nought 

 outside 



$80.00 



4, 065. 62 



11,088.03 



» I, 394. 93 



1,901.80 



691.00 



• 322. SO 



18, 644. 18 



c. BALANCE 



Balance received from outside the community In 1936 $1,986.73 



' The value of the labor of members of the community is not included; the 

 totals should he the same in sections a and 6 of the table. 



» This sum ftbe total of the herbs produced in the community— table 67, c) 

 is chosen rather arbitrarily. Some of the herbs are not entirely wild, and 

 other plants gathered— such as medicinal plants— are not included; but the 

 total figure is still probably not far from the truth, and in any case the total 

 of the table would not be affected by a shift of a few dollars from agriculture 

 to plant gathering or vice versa. 



• The difference between this figure and the total of $.5,409.15 of table 38 

 is the value of the onion seed produced for planting. This seed is planted to 

 produce onions, hence represents a cost as well as a receipt and does not 

 figure in the net from agriculture. 



* Including both agricultural labor (about $1,010) and domestic and other 

 labor. 



' Tools used mainly in agriculture have been subtracted from the total of 

 table 68. 



fl Based on careful calculations made on the basis of data in the section on 

 outside markets. (Market taxes, $110.80; bus fares, $112; launch and canoe 

 -'ares to outsiders, $40; posada privileges, $10; and eitra food and refreshment 

 on the road and in markets, $60.) 



greater or less difficulty and accuracy, cannot be 

 very far from the truth. There is sufficient reason 

 to believe, first, that the balance is in fact favor- 

 able rather than unfavoralile; otherwise the 

 Indians' lands would be lost or sold to outsiders at 

 a greater rate than is the case, or the Indians 

 would be leaving the community or working much 

 more for outsiders, or the population v.ould be 

 decreasing rather than increasing. It seems 

 unlikely, second, that the balance can be much 

 more than about $2,000; for there is evidence 

 neither of a great rise in the standard of living nor 

 of the piling up of cash reserves. 



THE STANDARD OF LIVING 



The "average" wealth, or income or expendi- 

 tures, in the community gives a very imperfect 

 picture of what conditions among the Indians are. 

 Discussion in Land Ownership and Practices 

 (pp. 57-85) of the distribution of Indian land has 

 already shown the inequalities of the wealth of 

 the various families, and inclusion of other assets 

 besides land makes very little difference in the 

 conclusions drawn. A few families are, by local 

 standards, very rich; and many more very poor. 

 When two informants were asked, independently, 

 to grade all 157 families' wealth on a scale of from 

 1 to 100, the dividing line between "rich" and 

 "medium" was set at 70; one informant graded 

 12 families 70 or over and the other, 2.3 families. 

 The line between "medium" and "poor" was set 

 at 30; the first informant placed 96 families below 

 that grade; the second, 76 families. Actually, 

 there is quite a difference in wealth between the 

 very richest family and the next, but after that 

 differences are gradual; division into classes is 

 arbitrary, and if proof of that were needed, differ- 

 ences in opinion between the two informants sup- 

 plies it. The results of the informants' grading 

 are shown in Appendix 3. Discussion of these 

 differences are a main subject of the section on 

 the Significance of Wealth Differences (pp. 191- 

 204). 



COMPARISONS 



It seems to me unprofitable to say much in 

 evaluation of the Panajachel standard of living. 

 The fact appears to be that the average family 

 consumes $160 worth of goods in a year, including 

 the value of the labor required to produce some 

 goods, but that does not mean that the standard 

 of living is necessarily a fifth that of a community — • 

 say in the United States — where the average 

 family consumes goods with a value of $800. 

 Three other factors in the difference might be 

 mentioned : First, there is a purely book-keeping 

 matter. The cost of housing in Panajachel has 

 been given as about $1.70 per family, the annual 

 cost of building and repairing houses, including the 

 value of labor. But the rental value of the houses 

 of a family (if they were rented) would be closer 

 to $10 a year and perhaps much more. Likewise 

 the clothing costs have been calculated on the 

 basis of actual cost to the Indians. Pursuing 

 another method of bookkeeping, the value of goods 



