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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 6 



ulus toward greater effort and efficiency on the 

 part of an individual. 



The story also brings out another important 

 point. He would not give up his cargueroship 

 "because of what people would say." Maintain- 

 ing face in Tzintzuntzan — in Mexico too, as 

 far as that goes — is as important as in the 

 Orient. This means that recognized and well- 

 known standards must be met. A guest must 

 have a tablecloth, and his tortillas must be 

 smaller than those made for the family. A new 

 dress must appear before ''the function," the 

 fiesta of Rescate. A woman must have shoes, 

 at least for Sunday. Persons who place flowers 

 in the church must have at least as many as 

 those who went before. In short, to save face 

 certain minimum standards of excellence must 

 be maintained, and the only way to do it is 

 through enough hard work to produce an eco- 

 nomic surplus beyond that needed for bare exist- 

 ence. 



Satisfaction from a job well done is not an 



important part of work. Nati enjoys experi- 

 menting with new designs, and undoubtedly gets 

 a real artist's thrill from a new creation. Patri- 

 cio Estrada works hard and carefully on his 

 burnished and painted pots, because he likes to 

 do a good job. He notes a fresco on the old 

 convent and successfully copies a design on his 

 pots. And Micaela Hinojosa, at least when mak- 

 ing clothes for a visiting ethnologist, wants to 

 feel that they are the best she can do. These 

 cases, however, are exceptions, and for most 

 people a job is a job, without frills or flourish- 

 es. At best, a job is done to traditional stan- 

 dards of quality, and no more. At worst, we 

 have the case of the ox cart. This is not to say 

 that the capital equipment which a person uses 

 for his normal tasks is not generally well suited 

 to the problem, or that regular work is always 

 shoddy and ill done. Rather, it is the apparent 

 failure on the part of most individuals to do a 

 job well and thoroughly, just for the satisfaction 

 of knowing that it is well done. 



COMMERCE AND FINANCE 



TRADE 



Tzintzuntzan is one unit in a large area in 

 which free and unrestricted interchange of local 

 products has been a basic feature of the econ- 

 omy for many centuries. Most of Mexico has 

 since pre-Conquest times been characterized by 

 a large proportion of non-self-sufficient villages 

 and areas. The Tarascan area is no exception 

 to the rule. Some of the villages around Lake 

 Patzcuaro could, in an emergency, be self-sus- 

 taining. Tzintzuntzan is one of this group. 

 Others, such as the island villages, with neither 

 agricultural lands nor wood, could not exist 

 without well-developed trade mechanisms. And 

 all villages, whether potentially self-sufficient or 

 not, have found that through specialization and 

 trade it is jjossible to enjoy more of the good 

 things in life. Hence, metates from San Nico- 

 las Obispo, wood trays and chairs from Quiro- 

 ga, hats from Sahuayo, scrapes from Nahuatzen, 

 ad infinitum. 



A number of mechanisms developed to make 

 possible this trade. In pre-Conquest days, the 

 human back and boats on the lakes were the only 

 means. Even in the 20th century, surprising 



amounts of merchadise still move in this way. 

 With the advent of the Spaniards, the horse, 

 mule, and above all, the burro made possible 

 a quickening of the pulse of trade, and a more 

 efficient means of transport. This probably also 

 crystalized and reinforced the aboriginal pat- 

 terns of specialization. Don Vasco de Quiroga 

 is popularly credited with the establishment of 

 the system of specialization which today exists. 

 He told the Tzintzuntzenos and those of Santa 

 Fe to be potters, those in Ihuatzio to make reed 

 mats, those in Santa Clara to work copper, and 

 so on through the entire list. Tata Vasco, in his 

 wisdom, realized that specialization would make 

 possible a higher standard of living for all. 



There is a good deal more folklore than fact 

 in this belief. Certainly new trades, such as 

 metal working, were established after the arriv- 

 al of the Spaniards, and improvements in 

 others, such as pottery, were made. But the pat- 

 tern of village specialization is so deeply en- 

 grained in central Mexico that attributing it to 

 any one man is a denial of the simplest evi- 

 dence. The States of Mexico, Morelos, Puebla, 

 Oaxaca, Jalisco, and Guanajuato, to mention a 

 few of the most important areas, all have iden- 



