FUNCTIONS OF WEALTH 



195 



more land and become wealthier (or so that he is 

 not forced to sell land, hence to become poorer). 

 That may be why professionals are not found 

 (with one exception) among the poorest families 

 as they are counted by land owned. It is also 

 likely that in spite of the fact that shamans and 

 midwives are said to be "called" to their profession 

 (which they must then practice, lest they sicken 

 and die), there is an important economic motive in 

 the taking up of a profession. It may be true that 

 a curer accidentally comes to know how to treat 

 an illness and that then he is asked to assist, but 

 it is likely that members of wealth}^ families who 

 on the one hand have much land to take care of 

 and on the other do not need special sources of 

 income, resist gaining reputations as curers. It is 

 difficult to escape the conclusion that shamans 

 and midwives and curers and musicians become 

 interested in learning partly for the income 

 involved, that poorer people are attracted to such 

 professions, and that they tend to become wealthier 

 because of their profession. 



Weavers are found at all levels of the popula- 

 tion, but especially in the poorest half and, again, 

 in the richest quarter (table 78). In addition to 

 the 11 poorest-quarter families there are two 

 whose women may weave (information lacking). 

 It seems reasonable to suppose that the poor 

 people weave because they cannot afford not to, 

 and they also weave for others to earn money; 

 that the very poorest weave less than the next- 

 poorest because none of them are agricultural 

 laborers; that the people of the second-richest 

 quarter weave little because they can afford to 

 pay others to do it while at the same time they 

 have enough land to keep them busy in the fields. 

 Why families of the richest quarter weave is 

 explicable to me only on the grounds that they can 

 afford to hire laborers in the fields so that the 

 women can pursue the fine arts — but then I cannot 

 explain why none of the wealthy women are able 

 to put the designs into theii- hidpiles! Evidence 

 that in general these explanations are sound is 

 found in the fact that in the poorest quarter 6 of 

 the 11 weavers weave for others, for pay; only 4 

 of the 19 in the second quarter, only 2 of the 11 in 

 the third quarter, and none of the 37 in the richest 

 quarter weave for others. In the wealthy families 

 also, all of the women and girls tend to weave. 

 It is also interesting that the only recorded case 

 of a woman who knows how to weave, but does 



not do it, is found in the second richest quarter 

 where I have supposed the women keep busiest in 

 their fields. 



LABOR AND WEALTH 



It is evident that "laborers" are found only 

 among the poor. But it may be well to ask what 

 is the minimum land that a family may control 

 to (1) permit its members to work exclusively on 

 its own land and (2) to require it to hire outside 

 labor. At first sight several complications woidd 

 appear to make difficult, if not impossible, the 

 resolution of these questions: 



a. The size of the family, and its composition. A large 

 family, especially with grown men, can work more land 

 without outside assistance than can a small one, or one 

 with few men. Family A with an acre of truck land might 

 be able to work it without paid assistance and find that it 

 consumes all of the time of the family; family B might be 

 able to work the same land without assistance, but it 

 might also have to seek work outside; family C might 

 consume all of its time on the same acre and might require 

 outside help besides; family D, with a shortage or absence 

 of men, might require help on the land but in turn might 

 have to work for others to fill in the time and make ends 

 meet; and family E, with a shortage or absence of women, 

 might find it economical to work outside and hire cheaper 

 female labor for some agricultural processes. 



Table 78. — Distribution of Panajachel textile workers 



' The woman who does no thread twisting is included here. 



' On the scale of land controlled. 



* The number of households in which textile arts are practiced is not the 

 total of the numbeis in which each process is practiced because in 1 household 

 2 persons only sew while a third also weaves. 



6. The kind of land, and its use. Some crops require 

 much more labor than others. A family with most of its 

 land in coffee has both opportunity and need to hire out 

 to others, while another family with the same land, but 

 most of it truck, might be fully and profitably occupied 

 only on its own land. Likewise, some truck crops require 

 much more labor than others, and one family on an acre 

 might have to hiro labor, a second hire out, and a third — at 

 different seasons — do both. Furthermore, whether for 

 technical reasons or because of folk beliefs, cornfields are 



