Empire's Children: The People of Tzintzimtzan 



By George M. Foster 



INTRODUCTION 



This monograph is one of a series of ethno- 

 graphical and geographical studies carried out 

 by the Institute of Social Anthropology of the 

 Smithsonian Institution in cooperation with the 

 Escuela Nacional de Antropologia of Mexico in 

 1945-46. Dr. Donald Brand and I began the 

 work of the Institute of Social Anthropology in 

 Mexico simultaneously, giving geographical and 

 anthropological courses to students in the Es- 

 cuela Nacional during the fall term of 1944. 

 At the end of December of the same year we left 

 for Michoacan with six students, planning to 

 work together in the Tarascan town of Ihuatzio 

 on Lake Patzcuaro. 



In terms of origins our party was perhaps as 

 international as any small anthropological ex- 

 pedition has ever been. In addition to Dr. Brand 

 and me it included Gabriel Ospina, of Colom- 

 bia; Remy Bastien, of Haiti; Pablo Velasquez, 

 a native Tarascan; and Chita de la Calle, Ange- 

 lica Castro de la Fuente, and Jose Corona Nu- 

 nez, all Mexicans. Subsequently Pedro Carrasco, 

 of Spain, joined forces with us. 



Although Dr. Brand and I had twice pre- 

 viously visited Ihuatzio and, we thought, prepar- 

 ed the ground for the entry of the party, sub- 

 sequent events proved that we were wrong. After 

 several days of futile attempts to establish our- 

 selves, withdrawal from the village seemed 

 desirable. We quickly learned what perhaps we 

 should have known: a large party which would 

 make possible a really intensive study of a vil- 

 lage of 1,500 defeats its own purpose because 

 of the fear and apprehension caused by the 

 presence of so many strangers. 



After talking over the situation we decided 

 to split info three groups. Dr. Brand and Jose 

 Corona Niinez settled in the Mestizo town of 



Quiroga to make a geographical study of the 

 town and surrounding country. Chita de la Ca- 

 lle, Angelica Castro, and Remy Bastien lived in 

 Quiroga and went daily to Santa Fe de la Lagu- 

 na, a pure Tarascan village 5 km. away. Ga- 

 briel Ospina, Pablo Velasquez, and I settled in 

 Tzintzuntzan to study the ethnology of the town 

 itself, basically Mestizo, and the neighboring 

 Tarascan hamlets. In addition, I frequently 

 went to Quiroga to supervise the ethnographical 

 work of the students in Santa Fe. This division 

 of effort, though spur-of-the-moment, proved a 

 happy solution to the problem of where and how 

 to work. 



Velasquez and I were in Tzintzuntzan for the 

 first 6 months of 1945. Ospina remained until 

 March 1, 1946, a period of continual observ- 

 ance of over 14 months. In addition, I returned 

 each month to Tzintzuntzan for a period of sev- 

 eral days to check on progress accomplished, 

 and to fill lacunae which continually became 

 apparent in my notes. Ospina and I made three 

 additional short trips after the formal close of 

 the field season, the last in September 1946. The 

 advantages of this long period of observation 

 are obvious. All aspects of life during the com- 

 plete yearly cycle were observed first hand by at 

 least one of us. Many things were observed 

 twice, so that data which at first may not have 

 appeared significant, or which we missed, could 

 be correctly evaluated and analyzed. Finally, 

 the friendships which developed over this long 

 period made it possible to obtain materials both 

 by observation and direct questioning which 

 would have been impossible during a shorter 

 period. 



For the first 6 months of our stay we lived in 

 the fine school building of Tzintzuntzan, occupy- 



