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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 6 



placed on the under side of the roll, and all 

 smoothed. The second contact is by sight only; 

 no preliminary mark is made. Finally, at each 

 end of the handle she places her thumb to make 

 a shallow groove on the outside which continues 

 to the pot itself, thus slightly enlarging the area 

 of contact. This is necessary, she says, to in- 

 crease the strength of the weld. The exact size 

 and form of this groove is one of the distinctive 

 features of each potter's work, and one which 

 enables him or her to distinguish his work from 

 that of all others. Each potter, of the nearly 

 400 persons so engaged, can tell his work at a 

 glance — the handles, the sworls inside and out- 

 side which result from polishing, slight irreg- 

 ularities in the molds, and so forth, all serve to 

 identify the work of each. 



The other handle is similarly placed on the 

 opposite side; Nati scarcely seems to look to 

 see if it is exactly opposite, but so it always 

 turns out. Horizontal handles are always placed 

 straddling the joint between the two halves 

 of the pot. Smaller pots have a single handle, 

 vertical, from the lip to the wide lower bulge, 

 in the manner of a coffee cup. This handle 

 usually is flat and wide, and not round. Cdntaros 

 are finished in identical fashion, except that no 

 handles are applied. 



To make cazuelas and comales, we learn on 

 subsequent visits, disks of paste of proper con- 

 tent for the size desired are made and stacked 

 beside the potter. These are then flattened from 

 the top so that they expand in a circle. Taking 

 the handle of the mold in the left hand the pot- 

 ter places the thin tortilla of paste on top, works 

 the sides down around the edges, smooths it 

 with a piece of janamo stone and a wet cloth, 

 and with the horsehair or maguey fiber trims 

 off the edge evenly. Comales are finished, ex- 

 cept for polishing, with this operation. Often 

 a small ring of paste is added to the rims of 

 cazuelas to increase their depth. A small roll 

 long enough to encircle the cazuela is rolled on 

 the stone and pinched onto the outside of the 

 rim, simultaneously being flattened as it is 

 worked in a clockwise direction. Subsequently 

 it is further thinned by polishing with a damp 

 cloth until it has the same thickness as the rest 

 of the vessel. A slight ridge is visible at the 

 point of contact. This operation is the only sug- 

 gestion of coil pottery found in local pottery 



techniques. Some of the cazuelas have a final 

 scalloping around the edge. This is done by 

 folding the polishing cloth and making a series 

 of small indentations. 



CLASSIFICATION OF POTS 



The next step is the first firing. However, so 

 that the technique of filling the kiln may better 

 be understood it seems wise at this point to 

 digress and discuss the ways of naming pot 

 sizes and measuring quantities. Because of the 

 mold system it is possible to make any number 

 of pots of a given size and shape. And because 

 pots are made for sale and exchange, and not 

 primarily for home consumption, it is essential 

 to have an easily recognized system for evaluat- 

 ing one pot against another. The system in use 

 today is a carry-over from former days when 

 the "real" ($0,125) was the common coin, and 

 when the cost of living was so low that the real 

 was of great value. The largest pot sold for two 

 reales, and hence was named de a dos reales. 

 At the present time there is no de a un real pot, 

 and there is some question as to whether it ever 

 was made. Nevertheless, in comparing termi- 

 nology for cazuelas the sopera was said to be 

 equivalent to a pot "de a un real." This may, 

 however, be a rationalization resulting from the 

 desire to have a perfect correlation. The most 

 common large pot is the de a medio, that is, a 

 pot which sold for a medio real, half a real, 

 about $0.06. One man today makes a size cal- 

 led de a cudrtila. so named because it formerly 

 sold for a medio real plus a quarter, or three- 

 fourths of real. This is the only current size 

 between the de a medio and de a dos reales. In 

 descending order the sizes are de a cuartilla. a 

 quarter of a real, or $0.03; de a tres. 3 for 

 a medio real, or $0.02; de a cuatro. 4 for a me- 

 dio real, or $0,015 each; de a seis, or 6 for a 

 medio real; de a ocho. 8 for a medio real; and 

 de a diez, 10 for a medio real. The next smaller 

 size is the atolera, so named because it is the 

 size commonly used for atole. Following is the 

 bolera. the media bolcra, the menos de media 

 bolera. or "less than half bolera," the olla chi- 

 quita. almost a toy, and the chucheria, a term 

 applied to any tiny pots or dishes which are too 

 small to be of practical use. 



Many of the sizes have additional names, 

 some of which are carry-overs from days when 



