36 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 



Chiapas, whore ladinos use tiles or shakes for 

 their houses while Indians continue to use thatch. 



It seems sound, then, to assume that shakes 

 were introduced into Mexico by a small group of 

 Spaniards, and that their use spread rapidly and 

 intensely in wooded country. As shakes were 

 probal)ly unknown to a great part of the Span- 

 iards, the Nauatl descriptive word prevailed over 

 the Spanish one. 



The liistory of shakes and of interlocked log 

 stiuctures cannot, however, be resolved defini- 

 tively without taking into account all the data 

 from Middle Anuu-ica. At the present time, log 

 structures are found among the Trique, Mixteca, 

 and Mixe in Oaxaca; in the region between 

 Perote and Jalapa, in the Sierra de Puebla; and 

 among the Tepehuano and the Tarahumara. 

 Shakes have a wider distribution. 



The modern use of the Spanish word tmje and 

 the Tarascan ^Arimba (in Angahuan) suggests 

 that these were once granaries which have evolved 

 into the modern wooden house. In the "Relacion 



de Michoacan" we read about trojes for storing 

 food, clothes, and idols, but no reference is made 

 to the shape or building materials of these trojes. 

 Probably Me have liere a precedent to the clear-cut 

 distinction between troje and cocina of the modern 

 Sierra Tarascans. 



To simimarize, we may conclude that the pre- 

 Hispanic houses were predominantly of adobe, 

 with thatched, four-shed roofs. The Spaniards 

 iiitroduced tile roofs and modifications in the 

 arcliitectural type. On the other hand, new iron 

 tools and building teclmiques (shakes and prob- 

 ably intei-locking logs) favored the use of wood in 

 construction on a large scale. Although w^ooden 

 houses have their center ot distribution in the 

 Sierra, they are still found in the regions of Urua- 

 pan, La Canada, Lake Pdtzcuaro, and elsewhere, 

 once having been much more common in those 

 districts. With timber becoming increasingly 

 scarce, adobe construction has virtually displaced 

 wood ill the adjoining districts and is invading the 

 Sierra. 



CONTEMPORARY TARASCAN HOUSING PROBLEMS 



In the Introduction of tliis paper, a number of 

 problems were discussed relating to the evaluation 

 of Tarascan housing. 



Although accurate determination of value 

 standards for setting ideal goals for Tarascan 

 houses is not pretended, some general conclusions 

 seem possible. Tarascan houses are below the 

 most desirable health standards from the stand- 

 point of dryness, ventilation, protection from 

 cold, and freedom from insects. In general, the 

 wooden type of architecture is less damp and 

 better ventilated. It is perhaps less warm, a 

 deficiency compensated for by use of the fire in 

 the kitchen, with the additional drawback, of 

 course, of smoke irritation of the eyes and respira- 

 tory tract. There seems little to choose between 

 the two types of construct ioi from the standpoint 

 of rodents and insects. 



Economically, the masonry-adobe type of con- 

 struction seems to be a little cheaper. For most 

 Sierra Tarascans, however, tlfis advantage is 

 illusory and only holds for those who can afl'ord 

 to hire all the labor done. The masonry-adobe 

 construction calls for the employment of special- 

 ists throughout. Alost Sierra Tarascan males, on 



the other hand, are capable of doing a considerable 

 amount of the necessary work on a wooden struc- 

 tiu-e. For those below the higher economic levels, 

 then, it is probable that wooden structures are 

 potentially less expensive than are those of 

 masonry and adobe. In other words, in terms of 

 the distribution of skills witliin the population, 

 wooden structures are more apt to produce ade- 

 quate housing if space be the main objective. It 

 should be observed, however, that this probably 

 is not true in many Lake and Canada villages, 

 where access to timber is absent or difficult, but 

 skill in making adobe bricks is common. 



As has been indicated, about 20 percent of the 

 population of Cherdn is inadequately housed ac- 

 cording to Tarascan standards. For these, any 

 change in housing conditions quite obviously is 

 related to wider economic problems and conditions. 

 What of the other SO percent according to ideal 

 standards? Until medical determination is made 

 of the proper amount of hving space per person in 

 tiie Tarascan climate, no complete answer to this 

 question can be made. It can be asserted, how- 

 ever, that better housing is possible for most of 

 this 80 percent if two things could be accom- 



