10 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 



In some towns, dried pine needles {"huinomo"), 

 wheat, or oat straw are used in place of manure. 

 In the Sierra, adobes are called ad6bi; in Ihuatzio, 

 on Lake Patzcuaro, iauarukata. 



STONE 



Masonry is made of assorted-sized rocks brought 

 from a quany in the west side of the cinder cone 

 on the northwest edge of town. The stone is a 

 porous soft reddish lava, easily broken or dressed 

 roughly with a hammer. It is carried from the 

 quarry on burros. The rocks are used for all 

 types of masonry walls. Usually large sizes are 

 employed near the bottom and to make the ex- 

 ternal faces of the wall; smaller stones arc used to 

 fill up the spaces, and usually all external surfaces 

 are filled with small stone spalls set in the mud 

 mortar. 



Large stones used for foundations are a hard 

 gray lava from the arroyo north of towTi or from 

 the slopes of a cinder cone northeast of town. 

 The same rock is employed for finished pieces of 



stone work used as doorjambs, door corners, and 

 bases for the pillars of verandas where these rest 

 on the ground. 



TILE AND BRICK 



Tile and brick are little used. Some tile roofs 

 are seen and tiles are sometimes laid over a shake 

 roof when the latter is worn out. Both tile and 

 brick are made from clay occuring near the tovm. 

 The dry clay is brought to town on burros. The 

 manufacture is carried on in an old chapel, and 

 firing is in a kiln, both located in the church com- 

 pound. The quality is poor and the demand is 

 small. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



Adobe-and-masonry walls are commonly fin- 

 ished on the inside and, less frequently, on the 

 outside, with a coat of sand and lime plaster. 

 This material is always imported. So, too, are 

 the pigments used in whitewash or kalsomine 

 finishes employed to decorate plastered walls. 



TYPES OF STRUCTURES 



WOODEN STRUCTURES 



Three main kinds of wooden structures are 

 built. These are the "troje," or house (troja; in 

 Angahuan, ffAriniba), really a storehouse in use, 

 the kitchen (kosina), and sheds used for storing 

 fodder or sheltering animals. Normally, a mas- 

 ter carpenter is employed; he usually works for 

 an agreed price and hires a helper. 



The "troje" is a rectangular structure, nearly 

 square, consisting of one room with a loft over it 

 (fig. 3; pi. 2, upper). The door is always in one 

 of the long walls and there is usually an overhang 

 of the roof, supported on pillars, forming a veranda 

 on this side. Usually the flooring of the first floor 

 is extended to form a floor for the veranda (fig. 3 ; 

 pi. 4, lower, left). 



The" troje," or house, is elevated on large stones 

 (or stone pillars in some towns), usually 9 in num- 

 ber, one at each corner, one m the middle of each 

 side, and one at the center of the floor. Upon 

 the stones go four interlocking foundation beams, 

 "polines" ' (pi^ekua), and a crosspiece destined to 

 support the middle of the floor, the "atravesano de 



' Also "yarines," because they are usually made of heartwood (iajiDi). 



Figure 3. — Old "troje" in Cheran, said to have been built before 

 tlie Revolution. 



la tarima" (uandj^ukua). The foundation beams 

 are square, from a third to a fourth of a vara 

 (about 8 to 10 inches) in cross section, but the j 

 crosspiece is thinner by the thickness of the floor 

 boards. 



The two longest foundation beams and the 



