EMPIRES CHILDREN: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



229 



Mcnth 



July. 



Births 

 ...54 



August 71 



September 63 



October 55 



November 55 



December 58 



Though the sample is small it is apparent 

 that, in spite of great irregularities in the curve, 

 births are less numerous during the second half 

 of the year than during the first half. A graph 

 by months of the entire 14-year period failed 

 to reveal any significant patterns. Two pairs of 

 twins, all females, were born during this period. 



An attempt was made to determine the aver- 

 age interval between marriage of parents and 

 birth of first child, and intervals between births 

 of succeeding children. This meant the tedious 

 process of recording marriages and hunting 

 through all succeeding birth registration books 

 for possible children. Many records had to be 

 thrown out because children were marked as sec- 

 ond or third who appeared to be first, and vice 

 versa. Also, some people had not registered 

 some children, so these cases also had to be elim- 

 inated. This reduced the Tzintzuntzan sample 

 to such small size as to be virtually worthless, 

 so it was decided to include cases from among 

 the Mestizo villages of the entire municipio to 

 contrast with those from the Tarascan commun- 

 ities of the municipio. The resulting sample 

 is small, including 41 Mestizo families and 26 

 Tarascan families, but does give a general idea. 



Table 38 shows by half-year periods the time 

 between marriage and first births, and the in- 

 tervals between births of subsequent children. 

 Miscarriages and stillbirths, which obviously 

 could not be traced, undoubtedly greatly affect 

 the statistics. Almost exactly half of the Mes- 

 tizo couples had children by the end of their 

 first year of married life, and only two had 

 children after less than 9 months. Over 80 

 percent had had children by the end of 18 

 months. The Tarascans, on the other hand, show 

 the greatest percentage of first births during 

 the period 1 year to 18 months, and only about 

 60 percent had had children by the end of the 

 first 18 months. The average period between 

 marriage and birth of the first child among 

 Mestizos is 15 months, while among Tarascans 

 it is 23 months. For both groups the greatest 

 number of second children came 18 to 24 



months after the birth of the first child. Third 

 children among Mestizos are born most fre- 

 quently 24 to 30 months after the second, while 

 among the Tarascans they are born after an 

 interval of from 18 to 24 months. The later 

 birth of first Tarascan children may reflect the 

 fact that Tarascans marry at somewhat earlier 

 ages than Mestizos, in some cases before full 

 sexual maturity. More Mestizo boys marry at 

 20 and girls at 18 than at any other age, while 



Table 38. — Intervals between warriage of parents 

 and first child, and betiveen subsequent children 



more Tarascan boys marry at 18 and girls at 

 16. The median for Mestizo boys is 22 and 

 for girls 21. For Tarascan boys it is 20, and 

 for girls 18.5. Ages at marriage, in the cases 

 which could be checked, proved to be correct 

 within 1 year. The youngest Mestizo boy at 

 marriage was 17, and the youngest girl 15. The 

 youngest Tarascan boy was 15, and the young- 

 est girl 12. She bore a child 19 months later, 

 while he did not become a father until over 4 

 years later. Table 39 shows the age at marriage 

 of 46 Mestizo men and women, and of 25 Ta- 

 rascans. 



In an attempt to determine the relative fer- 

 tility of Tzintzuntzan mothers, 70 married wom- 

 en of 45 years of age or older were either 

 personally interviewed or the data filled in by 

 their children or other close relatives in a po- 

 sition to know the number of children given 



