18 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 



and a hammer are the other needed tools. As the 

 wall increases in height, a crude scaffolding is 

 erected, usually on each side of the wall, and the 

 mortar is placed on a small portable platform of 

 planks (pi. 7, npper, left^). 



Adobe-brick walls are frequently finished with 

 a coating of adobe plaster, plentifully mixed with 

 animal dung if the wall is to be used for a house. 

 Somewhat less frecpiejitly, a lime-plaster coating 

 is used to cover the wall. 



In Cheriin, usually only front and side walls of 

 houses are made of brick or masonry. The back 

 wall, and sometimes one side wall, will be of 

 upright planks fitting into grooves in horizontal 

 beams at top and bottom. Doors have door- 

 jambs of stone and the doorposts rest on a stone 

 base with a mortice to receive a tenon on the lower 

 part of the post. A lintel at the top is morticed 



in this plate, or may be pinned directly into 

 sockets in the joists. The frame consists of a 

 ridge pole supported by pillars from the walls and 

 joists. The rafters are in pairs resting on the 

 ridge pole. In large structures with tile roofs, 

 additional pillars or braces may support the 

 rafters (pi. 7, upper, right). The ends of the 

 gable roof thus formed are usually closed with 

 shakes. Sometimes a floor is laid over the joists 

 to form a loft. Yet another common variant is a 

 shake roof with four sheds similar to the roof of 

 the "troje" (pi. 7, lower, left). 



The wide eaves of this type of house usually 

 extend to the edge of the sidewalk, a very con- 

 venient arrangement in a rainy country, although 

 the piu-pose probably is to keep moisture away 

 from the walls. No other feature so strikingly 

 sets off the architecture of central Michoacan from 



Figure 14.— Plan of house of Pedro Chavez, Cheran. Combination masonry and wooden walls, a shows tongue-and-grooving 

 of vertical plank walls, h and f show notchine of beams at top and bottom to receive wall planks, and (c) floor planks. 



to the doorposts and extends beyond them on 

 either side, bemg surrounded by masonry or 

 bricks and supporting the wall if it continues 

 above the door. Wijidows are made m the same 

 way, but no stone is used. 



Upon the leveled tops of the wall are laid 

 wooden plates, or "planchas" (in this case also 

 called " plantillas") . Across these are square 

 joists, extendijig 2 or 3 feet beyond the walls. 

 The ends are ornamentally carved. Across the 

 ends of the joists, a second plate is sometimes laid 

 and fastened to the joists with wooden pins, which 

 sometimes pass through the joists and extend 

 below them. Th(> rafters are set into sockets 



s The making of adobes and tiles will be described In another paper. 



tliat of the remainder of Mexico than do these ] 

 wide eaves (pi. 8, left). Structures fronting on 

 the plaza often have a corridor with supporting 

 pillars. I 



Many structures of masonry and adobe brick 

 are approximating Mexican arcliitecture in their 

 gi'ound plans, particularly if they are of any size. 

 Usually two or more large rooms front on the 

 street. A large entry way with double front 

 doors, wide and high enough to permit the pas- 

 sage of animals, usually will be between two of 

 the rooms. On the side facing the inner yard, 

 there is a wide earth or brick-floored veranda 

 (fig. 14). Doors and windows may open on both 

 the street and the yard. Floors of such structures 



