156 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 6 



borrows a burro, but this is but a temporary 

 expedient. The item "seeking lost burro," March 

 6, was a task done for a neighbor. During the 

 latter part of the period Paulino was harvesting 

 wheat, for which he was paid by the job. 



Severiano Urbano family. — Severiano, like 

 Paulino, suffers from the lack of a burro, and 

 hence must make more frequent trips for clay 

 and wood. This is an important reason why he 

 does day labor. The listing of "highway" dur- 

 ing the afternoon of the latter days in the pe- 

 riod actually represents a 3 p. m. to ] 1 p. m. 

 shift on a rock crusher set up on the outskirts 

 of Tzintzuntzan. This made it possible for him 

 to harvest wheat for several hours each morn- 

 ing. Subsequently he was transferred to the 

 morning shift, which meant a more normal daily 

 schedule. His wife, during all of this time, was 

 able to put in a moderate amount of time mak- 

 ing pots, though the fact that the kiln was fired 

 only once indicates how little she really made. 



The work schedules of each family are so 

 diverse that it is difficult to draw any general 

 conclusions. It is apparent that most people are 

 hard workers, even though circumstances may 

 limit the efficiency of such work, as, for exam- 

 ple, the lack of animals to bring wood and 

 clay. The presence of Holy Week, March 25 to 

 March 31, means that slightly more time was 

 spent on religious and recreational matters than 

 would normally be the case for a 2-month pe- 

 riod. Otherwise, the amount of work, though not 

 necessarily the occupations, appears to be about 

 average for any time of the year. It is interest- 

 ing to note that, relatively, a good deal of work 

 is done on Sunday by the more industrious fam- 

 ilies, even tliougli this is theoretically a day of 

 no work. 



It must be remembered that a complete ac- 

 count of the daily activities of most individuals 

 would show much more variety than is pos- 

 sible to summarize. Thus, the average man who 

 goes wood cutting or to the clay mine is home 

 by 10 o'clock, and can spend 2 or 3 hours in 

 the fields, with pottery, or bringing fodder for 

 his animals. A visit to the municipal building, 

 to bear witness, or merely to ask a favor, is 

 occasionally involved, and this may be com- 

 bined with two or three other short errands. A 

 detailed account of a woman's day would be 



even more complex. Hence, the activities listed 

 in the chart actually are not strictly compara- 

 ble, either on the basis of time spent or kinds 

 of work accomplished. They are useful simply 

 in indicating the general patterns of the more 

 important categories of work. 



FAMILY BUDGETS 



Tables 24-31 show the budgets of the eight 

 families for periods of from 7 to 12 weeks. 

 Table 32 represents an attempt to translate the 

 data of these budgets, modified by what is known 

 about the work habits of each family and other 

 factors, such as income in produce, into esti- 

 mates of yearly income, and expenditures for 

 major items. The reliability is not constant. 

 The over-all picture for tables 24-26, and their 

 summaries in table 32, are the most accurate. 

 These families showed the most genuine cooper- 

 ation in every respect, and the samples in each 

 category were sufficiently large to produce sig- 

 nificant averages. Tables 27 and 28 appear de- 

 fective in that known income is considerably 

 greater than the expenditures. In view of the 

 tendency to spend money almost as fast as it is 

 earned, it is probable that all expenses are not 

 listed. Alcoholic drinks account for at least a 

 part of the discrepancy in the first case. Actual 

 expenses for food, at least that taken at listed 

 meals, is probably not far off. Table 29 is de- 

 fective in that not all income is listed, though 

 the amount that actually got inside the family 

 front door appears to be accounted for with 

 fair accuracy. Alcohol, and food taken away 

 from home, are not listed. Tables 30 and 31 

 are quite accurate for the period under consider- 

 ation, but the absolute amounts of income and 

 outgo are so limited that significant averages 

 do not result. 



Anyone who has tried gathering field data of 

 this type will appreciate the tremendous dif- 

 ficulties encountered, even with the most willing 

 informants. Informants are not trained to think 

 in terms of budgets and of daily expenditures. 

 The husband or housewife spends when he or 

 she has money and desires something, and goes 

 without when money is lacking. Few persons 

 are able to recite a list of expenses, even after 



