INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 6 



28 



census of Tzintzuntzan as of February 1945.^ 

 This chart has been set up on a slightly different 

 basis from that used in the United States. When 

 the population was first broken down into the 

 standard age groups of 0-4, 5-9, 10-14, and 

 so on, it was found that children in the lowest 

 bracket were less numerous than those in the 

 5-9 category. This indicated that during the 

 last 5 years there had been a great drop in the 

 birth rate. Inspection of birth records, however, 

 showed that almost exactly the same number of 

 births had occurred in the period 1940-44 

 as in the period 1935-39. The explanation 

 turned out to be simple. In Mexico, as in 

 other parts of Latin America, ages are usually 

 reckoned at 1 year greater than in the United 

 States. Thus, a person who completes 25 years 

 is "going on 26." The "going on" is forgotten 

 and he gives his age as 26. Hence, the 0-5 

 interval in Mexico represents 5 years only, and 

 not 6 as would appear to be the case. Table 

 1 gives the numerical basis which was used 

 to form the pyramid of figure 1. 



Ages given for children appear to be ap- 

 proximately correct, as verified by birth regis- 

 trations. Ages given for adults have a possible 

 error of up to about 15 years. The most impor- 



The figure of 40,000 at the time of the Conquest is the 

 estimate of the early chroniclers. It includes all of the Lake 

 Patzcuaro villages which were considered barrios of Tzintzun- 

 tzan. The other figures which are above 2,000 obviously in- 

 clude neighboring villages such as Ojo de Agua, La Vuelta, 

 and sometimes Ihuatzio and Cucuchucho. It appears probable 

 that since the first years of the Conquest the population of 

 the village of Tzintzuntzan itself has fluctuated around 1,000 

 or a little more. This remarkable stability suggests that the 

 basic economy has changed little during these four centuries, 

 and that any significant increase in population will require a 

 considerable modification in modes of earning a living. 



tant thing to be gleaned from ages of inhabi- 

 tants is how completely unimportant age reck- 

 oning is in the community. A person is a child. 



Table 1. — Distribution by age and 

 sex of Tzintzuntzan population 



youth, adult, or an oldster. What more matters? 

 Compadre Guillermo Morales, we learn from 

 his baptismal certificate which he keeps, was 

 25 years old at the time of our census. When 

 his first child was born in 1940 he properly 

 gave his age as 20. In 1943 the second was 

 bom and, feeling his increased responsibilities, 

 he decided that he was 33. "And your mo- 

 ther, Compadre?" "Tendrd," he replies with 

 unconscious gallantry, "sus treinta y seis afios." 

 ("She must be about 36.") "But, Guillermo, 

 that would mean she was only 11 when you 

 were born!" "Yes, that's true. It must be that 

 she is 44," replies Guillermo, anxious to please, 

 but totally unaware of the inconsistency, and 

 puzzled as to why the age matters anjrway. 

 Jesus Peiia registered himself as 27 at the birth 

 of a child, and his wife as 30. He was about 

 35 at the time, though the age for her was 

 approximately correct. Two years later when 

 registering another child the two changed 

 places; he became 30 and she dropped back 

 to 27. In the records of marriages for 1944 

 one youth appears dozens of times as witness, 

 his age as low as 22 and as high as 30, with 

 most of the intervening years also given at 

 one time or another. 



