EMPIRES CHILDREN: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



259 



the eldest of eight children, and because of 

 her mother's ill health, was particularly useful 

 around the house, helping with the younger 

 children and even often going to the fields to 

 help plant and harvest. She was formally re- 

 quested in marriage on three occasions, but each 

 time her mother cried and put on such a scene 

 that she decided against the logical alternative 

 of elopement. Her father likewise opposed all 

 three offers. Finally her mother died and she 

 accepted Wenceslao Peiia's offer of marriage, 

 her younger sister having just died leaving Wen- 

 ceslao a widower with two small children. Her 



Table 47. — Age distribution of unmarried males and 

 females of 20 years of age and more, 1945 



father died while arrangements were being made, 

 upset, it was said, by her decision to defy family 

 will. Thus, Otilia was 38 at the time of her 

 first marriage, and after 6 years has had no 

 children of her own. Though Wenceslao's new 

 wife is ya muy grande, older than he, their 

 marriage has been happy and successful, and 

 she has been an ideal mother to her nephew 

 and niece. 



Fourteen men live with women other than 

 their legal wives, although of this number, less 

 than half can be said to maintain dual house- 

 holds. In the remaining cases the new relation- 



ship approximates divorce and remarriage in 

 societies where such is permitted; a complete 

 and permanent break between a couple has been 

 followed by new and lasting alliances with other 

 individuals. 



A relatively large number of unmarried wo- 

 men and a pattern against marriage, i. e., re- 

 cognition that many women will go through life 

 unmarried, may represent an unsatisfactory ad- 

 justment of Tarascan culture to modern reality. 

 Though of course no statistics are available, it 

 may be assumed that by means of polygyny or 

 concubinage any female surplus was taken care 

 of in pre-Conquest times. From the Relacion 

 we know that members of the nobility took nu- 

 merous additional women, presumably the more 

 attractive ones, so that even were this not the 

 custom for commoners the supply would have 

 been so reduced that even less desirable women 

 would not have had involuntarily to forego 

 marriage. 



THE ADULT STATUS 

 MARITAL RELATIONSHIPS 



In the case of individuals who marry at a 

 reasonably early age the transition from youth 

 to the adult status is clearly marked. Newly- 

 weds do not immediately have the same privi- 

 leges and duties as older persons, but the sig- 

 nificant step has been taken, and little by little 

 they must accept their new responsibilities. Per- 

 sons who do not marry gradually acquire adult 

 status as they become economically self-suffi- 

 cient, though it is significant that public and 

 Church officials almost invariably are married 

 men. Consciously or unconsciously, marriage 

 is recognized as the normal adult state, and to 

 such individuals one automatically turns to en- 

 trust positions of responsibility. 



Marriage, obviously, establishes a new set of 

 relationships and obligations between the couple 

 and their families. Of greatest concern to the 

 newlyweds are the personal relationships, and 

 these are of an economic, social, and sexual 

 nature. Both now have the opportunity, usually 

 for the first time in their lives, to satisfy the 

 sexual urge as often as desired, and during the 

 first months after marriage intercourse takes 

 place almost nightly, except during the wife's 

 menstrual periods. It is believed that relations 

 with a menstruating woman cause purgacion 



