HOUSES OF THE SIERRA TARASCANS — ^BEALS, CARRASCO, McCORKLE 



wholly aside from its use for shelter or storage, or 

 he may wish to study the interrelations of the house 

 and its use with other aspects of culture. It is 

 possible, for example, that houses may represent 

 prestige values or be symbols of status quite apart 

 from any utOity they may have. Yet others may 

 wish to study the house from the standpoint of 

 culture change: how changes in houses occur or 

 how they are occurring, the effect of a dominant 

 culture in close contact with Tarascan culture 

 upon housing, and so on. 



The foregoing suggests that an aspect of the 

 scientific approach, aside from description, in- 

 volves in part the setting of problems. However, 

 this is not the exclusive property of the pure 

 scientist; m the applied field, problems also exist 

 or are set up. The nature and phi'asing of the 

 problems in the applied field, though, are apt to 

 be different from those of the "pure" anthropol- 

 ogist, although in many cases they may be closely 

 similar. In the applied field, the problem may 

 be: "To what extent is Tarascan housing suitable 

 for the needs of the inhabitants?" A pure scien- 

 tist could well ask a similar question, but his 

 pui'pose in so doing would be different. The pure 

 scientist asking a similar question probably would 

 be doing so in order to ascertain how good a "fit" 

 the Tarascan had achieved in his adaptation to 

 his physical envh-onment. The student in the 

 applied field would probably go somewhat furtlier. 

 He would perhaps ask: "What other type of house 

 would be better suited to the needs of the Taras- 

 cans?" In addition, his fmal question might be 

 either: "How may the use the Tarascan makes 

 of his present house be improved?" or "How may 

 the Tarascans be induced to change to a better 

 type of house?" 



Some of the questions of the applied antliropolo- 

 gist superficially seem to be of quite different 

 character from those asked by the "pure" scientist, 

 but it perhaps must be conceded that, theoreti- 

 cally, at least, they are capable of scientific ap- 

 proach. Even a problem involving change in use 

 or type involves, for its successful solution, an 

 understanding of culture processes and cultm-e 

 dynamics. At the same time, it is obvious that 

 the applied anthropologist has introduced the 

 whole field of values in his use of such terms as 

 "suitable," "needs," "better," and "improved." 



It must at once be asked whether these value 

 terms are capable of scientific definition or not. 



Before proceeding to the discussion of this point, 

 it should be remarked that the pure scientist also 

 frequently utilizes value terms in his work. Un- 

 fortunately, the "pure" scientist all too frequently 

 either ignores this fact or is completely unaware 

 of it. I have already pointed out that, in some- 

 what different context, the question, "To what 

 extent is Tarascan housing suitable for the needs 

 of the inhabitants?" could be a thoroughly respec- 

 table question in pure science if the objective were 

 to determine the relations of the Tarascans to 

 their environment. Anthropological literature of 

 excellent scientific repute is full of appraisals of 

 the adaptations primitive peoples have made to 

 their environments. Actually, every such ap- 

 praisal requires the existence of some sort of value 

 standard on the part of the antlu-opologist. If 

 he is a "pure scientist," however, he apparently 

 considers hunself above the necessity of explam- 

 ing these values or else he takes them for granted. 

 Actually, of course, he is often using "common 

 sense." Other things being equal, a house that 

 keeps its inhabitants warmer in cold weather, 

 most people will agree, is a better adaptation than 

 one affordmg less warmth. For the "applied" 

 scientist, however, such "common sense" ap- 

 proaches are not permitted. He must make his 

 value statements explicit and justify them. 



Once an attempt is made to bring values into 

 the open, the difficulties pyramid. How, for 

 example, is one to determine what is "suitable?" 

 An expression of an ideal on the part of the 

 investigator usually will not be meaningful in 

 terms of the realities of a given social situation. 

 What is suitable housing is not alone a question 

 of adjustment to climate. Realistically, what is 

 "suitable" involves a complex balancing of what 

 may be deemed most desirable taking into con- 

 sideration such things as available raw materials, 

 available technological skills, economic resources, 

 and so on. It might be perfectly possible to 

 arrive at the conclusion that, imder given tem- 

 perature and humidity ranges, a brick and frame 

 construction with a slate roof, steam heat, modern 

 plumbing, and a bedroom for every member of 

 the family represents what is suitable, but among 

 most Indian groups such as the Tarascans this 



