FUNCTIONS OF WEALTH 



201 



table would appear more orderly if family 58 were 

 placed between 13 and 15 and if the positions of 

 families 37 and 49 were reversed. If the 1944 and 

 1936 data were collected at the same time, one 

 might question either the wealth order or the con- 

 clusion that nutrition is correlated with wealth 

 differences. I believe that the correlation is there, 

 in general, and the discrepancy due in part to 

 changed circumstances and in part to individual 

 peculiarities. The fact is that from 1936 family 

 58 became much wealthier owing (may I believe ?) 

 to the fact that in 1937 I "staked" them to 5.5 

 acres of hill milpa land; that land would have 

 brought them virtually equal in land wealth to 

 family 15. Another reason why family 58 was 

 becoming rapidly wealthy, even beyond the land 

 it o\vned, was that its sons were maturing, but 

 were still part of the household. Particularly, the 

 eldest son had come back from military service 

 with strong progressive ideas, literacy, and great 

 ambition. For a year or two he successfully 

 supervised the farm of a nearby plantation, and 

 learned much. I would not be surprised to leam 

 that by 1944 the family had become one of the 

 wealthy. Both families 15 and 37 were probably 

 slightly atypical in food habits because of personal 

 peculiarities — for one thing the men liked business 

 better than labor and probably did less physical 

 work than anj^ others of the sample. In some 

 degree family 58 was also atypical, for the son was 

 married to a somewhat Ladinoized woman. Since 

 the last family in table 74 is "foreign" altogether 

 (husband from Totonicapan, wife from San An- 

 tonio) it is evident that the sample is both too 

 small and too peculiar to permit the drawing of 

 statistical conclusions. Yet, if one moves family 

 58 to second position, it is evident enough that 



peppers, tomatoes, and many other common items. No deductions In nu- 

 trients were made for losses in cooking or in preparing food. 



" The daily intake of calories and nutrients was computed on both a per per- 

 son and a per consumption unit basis. Because the number of families in a 

 diet survey is often small, diflerences in the age and sex distribution of the 

 samples and the general population may be great. In the tadino group in 

 this instance there were 69 males per 100 females, and in the Indian group. 111 

 males per 100 females. The tadino families were smaller, with an average of 

 5.4 persons, compared to 5.8 persons per Indian family. 



"The consumption units employed for calories and nutrients were based on 

 the 1045 'recommended allowances' of the National Research Council, Wash- 

 ington, U. S. A. On the basis of the field data, 5 percent of the adults were 

 classed as very active, 76 percent as moderately active, 13 percent as seden- 

 tary. The remaining 6 percent were lactating women. The number of 

 caloric consumption units per 100 persons in the Indian group was computed 

 as 81, and in the ladhio group, as 79. 



" The smaller body size of Guatemalans was not taken into account. It was 

 felt that, as regards energy expenditure, the strenuous life imposed by the 

 environment would tend to offset the diflerence in size. The country is 

 mountainous, trails to fields are long, bin"dens heavy and life unmechanixed." 



wealthy families do get more calories, protein, 

 iron, thiamine, riboflavin, and niacine than poorer 

 families, and that the very poor (foreign) family 

 gets a poorer share of about everything. The 

 distribution of vitamin A is the most peculiar from 

 this point of view. 



Table 84. — Seven-day food intake (1944) of 6 families ' per 

 nutrition unit per day '' 



Number in family 3 



Calorics... 



Protein (mg.l 



Calcium from food (mg.) 



Total calcium (mg.) 



Iron (mg.) 



Vitamin A value I. XJ 



Ascorbic acid (mg.) 



Thiamine (mg.) 



Riboflavin (mg.) 



Niacin (mg.) 



Family (wealth order No.) 



13 15 37 



3 



3,552 



88.1 



282 



1,289 



26 



9,613 



102 



3.94 



1.15 



17.1 



10.9 



2.766 



69.5 



319 



826 



25 



6,162 



366 



3.31 



1.02 



14.4 



3.9 



2,569 



75.4 



265 



735 



22 



2,599 



74 



2.92 



.86 



16.1 



49 58 106a 



6 



2,920 



67.3 



277 



956 



23 



11,223 



96 



2.99 



.98 



12.9 



5 



3,532 



84.6 



380 



1,257 



29 



1,544 



21 



4.24 



.97 



16.7 



6.3 



2,686 



53.2 



131 



692 



18 



6,268 



28 



2.74 



.68 



10.6 



■ From tabulations supplied by Miss Emma Reh of Institute de Nutricion 

 de Centro -\merica y Panama. 



> " Family units are expressed as nutrition unit equivalents of the moder- 

 ately active male, according to the 1945 National Research Council's recom- 

 mended allowances for specific nutrients by sex, age, and activity," (quoted 

 from note to table 2B in unpublished F. A. O. report by Emma Reh). 



3 This is not the number of nutrition units, but the number of people who 

 partoolv of the family food during the week, subtracting fractions for meals 

 missed and adding fractions for guests. 



COSTUME AND WEALTH 



The costumes worn by the Indian present a 

 special case of the relations of material goods to 

 wealth. As far as I know, only in matter of cos- 

 tume is there any suggestion of the material 

 symbolization of wealth, class, or security that is 

 so important in our society. Table 85 shows how 

 the different styles of costumes are distributed in 

 the various wealth levels of Panajacheleno society. 

 The costumes differ in value (table 64), but other 

 factors besides ability to pay enter into their dis- 

 tribution. These apparently are: 



(1) Loss of costume particularly with acculturation. — It 

 will be noticed that from 8 to 18 percent of the men and 

 boys and from 1 to 10 percent of women and girls discarded 

 Indian costume, for the male "city" attire or the female 

 "Totonicapdn" costume, both of which are nonregional 

 Indian costumes. Virtually all these men have been in 

 military service outside of Panajachel, and when soldiers 

 return to Panajachel they rarely if ever revert to their old 

 costume. Some boys grow up in trousers and never wear 

 the local costume, and these, not called upon to serve in the 

 Indian organization, are destined also for military service. 

 The "sophisticates" who come from or have lived in other 

 towns, speak Spanish, and so on. In cases of intermarriage 

 this is frequently a clothing solution, for if the husband 

 does not like the costume of his wife, she may change to 

 Totonicapan clothes. Men's "city" costume and women's 

 "Totonicapiin" frequently go together in a family. 



