HOUSES OF THE SIERRA TARASCANS — REALS, CARRASCO, McCORKLE 



31 



owner, the master builder, and his helpers, and 

 the nearer relatives of the house owner are now 

 decorated with festoons of pieces of bread, some 

 in the shape of animals, toasted wheat tortillas, 

 and flowers. These are brought in a procession 

 from the house of a relative. AVomen carry 

 baskets on their heads and dance in the streets. 

 The musicians accompany the party. The vari- 

 ous articles are tied to the women's belts and 

 then are hung about the n?cks of the men. These 

 strings are called "cuelgas" (pi. 8, right). As a 

 special guest, Beals was decorated with the 

 others, and care was taken to explain to him 

 that it was customary to return the belts. The 

 master builder and, particularly, the house owner 

 received several festoons of this kind. 



Followong this ceremony there was dancing, 

 which lasted until late at night. In the particular 

 ceremony described, the householder drank very 

 little. The next day several of the relatives 

 returned with liquor and insisted that he get dnmk 

 with them as he had not drunk the day before. 



The other major occasion on which ceremonies 

 occur in connection with houses is when a house is 

 moved from one location to another. A man 

 wishing to move a house to a new location hu-es a 

 master builder to supervise the work. He also 

 invites all his relatives, who are obligated to come. 

 The women aid in preparing food, while the men 

 take apart the house, carry it to the new location, 

 and erect it again. The house owner takes no 

 part in this work; in fact, lie is apt to become dnmk 

 and be something of a nuisance. The relatives 

 are fed at midday and again in the evening, but 

 they do not ordinarily drink much until evening. 

 Even then most of them are apt to go home before 

 eating or immediately after eating. Ordinarily, 

 a house will be moved completely in 1 day; some- 

 times, however, part of the roof wUl be unfinished, 

 in which case a few men will return the next day 

 to complete the work. 



A special featm'e observed at a house movmg, 

 but nowhere else, was the serving of tobacco from 

 the lowlands and corn husks for rolling cigar- 

 ettes. At all other ceremonies the host frecjucntly 

 passed around cirgarettes, but they were of the 

 usual commercial type. 



The house is the center of numerous other 

 festivities and ceremonials, but they do not pertain 

 to the house directly. The major occasions are 



weddings, funerals, and mayordoinias. In the 

 latter type of ceremony, the image of a saint is 

 kept in the house for a year. However, as the 

 use of the house is incidental in all these cases, the 

 ceremonies will not be described. It may be 

 noted, however, that probably the image of a 

 saint would not be entrusted to a family unless it 

 had adequate housing for it Another special 

 feature in connection with weddings is also worth 

 mentioning. The most important ceremonial 

 directly associated with a structure takes place, 

 not in the house, but in the kitchen. This is a 

 ceremony whei'e all the close relatives of the bride 

 and groom enter into the relationship of the 

 compadra~go, that is, they assume the relationship 

 of godparents to each others' children. 



SOCIAL FUNCTIONS 



The house is involved in a number of social 

 usages and obligations. As a piece of moveable 

 property, it may be sold or inherited independently 

 of the land on which it stands. Sale or inheritance 

 follows the same rides as exist for other property, 

 however. As these rules will be treated in another 

 paper, they will not be repeated here. 



Residence rules operate with respect to houses. 

 Normally, after marriage, the bride and groom 

 live for a time in the house of the groom's father. 

 This may continue for several yeai's, but, usually 

 after the bu'th of a child, if not before, an effort 

 will be made to establish the son in a house of his 

 own. This may be done merely by erecting a 

 separate kitchen for the new household. Ideally, 

 however, the son will have a lot, house, and kitchen 

 of his own. In exceptional cases, however, the 

 family remains as a unit until the death of the 

 father. All the sons live on the same lot, and 

 the father du-ccts economic activities and controls 

 the family treasmy. Such a household is said 

 always to separate after the death of the father. 



Ownership of a house entads numerous com- 

 munity obligations. A house owner, first of aU, 

 must pay taxes to the Federal Government 

 thi-ougli the local tax office. A percentage of 

 these taxes goes to the municipal govermnent 

 also. The house owner is responsible for the re- 

 pair and cleaning of the street in front of his 

 property. This is not strictly enforced; only 

 street cleaning is demanded and this ordinarily 



