EMPIRES CHILDREN: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



151 



the members of the family, the day-by-day rou- 

 tine of each member, the nature and source of 

 income, and the nature of expenditures. In a 

 village the size of Tzintzuntzan a complete anal- 

 ysis of these data would furnish subject mat- 

 ter for a full-length monograph, and not simply 

 a single chapter. The following discussion is far 

 from exhaustive, though a large part of the basic 

 data are included in the several charts of this 



section. 



LABOR DIVISION 



Division of labor is determined by sex and 

 age of the individuals involved. In neither cat- 

 egory is there anything unusual about Tzin- 

 tzuntzan. Some idea of sex division has already 

 been acquired from the discussion of the oc- 

 cupations of adults. Among the Mestizos, agri- 

 culture is not a basic part of the woman's work, 

 though on occasion she may help in sowing or 

 in other simple tasks. Among the Tarascans, 

 a woman may participate more actively in the 

 work of cultivating and harvesting, though I 

 have never seen one using a plow or domestic 

 animals. Tarascan women likewise may help 

 their husbands in fishing, and often do so if 

 there is not a complete all-male crew for a 

 canoe. 



Woman's most important participation, how- 

 ever, in a direct productive process is in pot- 

 tery making. Agriculture and fishing could be 

 practiced with no female help at all, and pro- 

 duction would be but slightly reduced. Without 

 the female potter, Tzintzuntzan would hardly be 

 a pottery-making village. In this process the 

 unique and intimate cooperation of male and 

 female reaches its highest degree of efficiency; 

 for the best utilization of the time of all work- 

 ers, a minimum of one adult of each sex is 

 required. There is no rule against a woman go- 

 ing to the clay mine, and a few occasionally do 

 it. (See table 23, Margarita Farias (Urbano 

 family) April 19.) 



Likewise, there is no rule against a woman 

 going to the hills for firewood. Nonetheless, these 

 tasks are preeminently those of men, and few 

 self-respecting husbands would want it said of 

 them that their wives had had to do either. 

 Members of both sexes can and do control the 

 remaining pottery-making techniques. It is dif- 

 ficult to say whether the fact that women prob- 

 ably put in more hours at pottery making is 



due to the fact that they are the real potters, or 

 whether it is simply because many men have 

 other duties, such as agriculture, tending of ani- 

 mals, selling trips and the like, which cut into 

 their time. In any event, pottery is most efii- 

 ciently produced by those family teams in which 

 there are adult members of both sexes actively 

 engaged in cooperative work. 



The rescaton has little need of the help of a 

 woman in his work, though should he be mar- 

 ried, his wife likely will help him load his 

 animals and prepare for the trip. The other 

 minor occupations in Tzintzuntzan, as listed in 

 table 8, do not depend to any important degree 

 on the cooperation of man and woman. 



With the exception of pottery-making homes, 

 the man is expected to be the breadwinner, while 

 the wife bears children, cares for them, prepares 

 food, and tends her house. Potter wives in many 

 cases probably are the hardest workers of any 

 individuals in the village, since this work is 

 in addition to their normal female chores. 



Work division within the family, as determin- 

 ed by age, is of much less significance. Pri- 

 marily, it takes the form of initiating children, 

 little by little, into the duties and responsibili- 

 ties of adult status. This process is discussed 

 in the section dealing with the growth of chil- 

 dren. Older people, for the most part, continue 

 with the work patterns of earlier years as much 

 as their health permits. Women have less im- 

 mediate concern with infants, and can devote 

 more time to pottery making, or, if they are 

 members of a larger family, they may help 

 with the cooking or tending of children. By and 

 large, however, except as modified by child care, 

 the work habits of adults are fairly constant 

 from the time they are married until near the 

 time of their death. 



THE DAILY ROUND 



The daily round of life in a family depends 

 to a considerable extent on the occupation of 

 the father, and on what he may be doing on 

 any particular day. The introduction of the 

 mechanical maize mill has resulted in some- 

 what later hours for arising; a half hour at 

 the mill now accomplishes what formerly requir- 

 ed from 2 to 4 hours of hard work. The mill 

 begins grinding between 5 and 5:30 in the morn- 

 ing, and finishes with the last straggler by 10 



