CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



Usually, field notes were classified, typed in 

 triplicate, and filed according to a modification 

 of the system of the Outline of Cultural Mater- 

 ials prepared by George P. Murdock and others 

 for use in the Cross-Cultural Survey at Yale 

 University (Murdock and others, 1938). In 

 this way it was possible for all workers to find 

 immediately what had already been collected 

 on a subject and to discover discrepancies in 

 accounts when these existed. The system also 

 served to show deficiencies in the data. 



Certain other problems in field methods arose. 

 Cheran habits place some obstacles in the way 

 of field work. The main occupations of the 

 town are farming and forest exploitation. In 

 the former case, men are usually in the fields all 

 day, often at points several miles distant from 

 town. In the latter instance, men may be away 

 from town for 4 or 5 days at a time. In certain 

 seasons the town is almost deserted during the 

 day. As women will not talk with strange men 

 in the absence of their husbands, it often took 

 many visits to find at home a man we wished to 

 query on some specific point. In addition, 

 yards are surrounded by high walls and it is 

 customary to greet visitors at the yard gate 

 and converse with them on the street. Con- 

 sequently, it is difficult to gain much insight 

 into home life. Only women can get free ac- 

 cess into the houses, and it is unfortunate that 

 Sra. Rendon could not have spent full time in 

 the field. Certain aspects of this study would 

 then have been much better than they are. 



In general, the method followed was first to 

 discuss a topic with Sr. Chavez in detail, obtain- 

 ing from him as complete an account as possi- 

 ble. In some cases Sr. Chavez also wrote sup- 

 plementary accounts. Efforts were always 

 made to get the names of specific people who 

 were involved. Once we had obtained what 

 might be considered Sr. Chavez's view of a 

 particular aspect of the culture, this was some- 

 times checked with Sr. Rangel. On other occa- 

 sions we started with Sr. Rangel and checked 

 with Sr. Chavez. An effort was then made to 

 visit and talk with a large number of the people 

 concerned. For example, after securing Sr. 

 Chavez' account of childbirth, a list of all the 

 professional midwives in town was secured. 

 These were all then visited by Dr. Palacios and 

 interviewed intensively. Some were inter- 



viewed independently by other staff members. 

 Data were likewise taken from as many women 

 as possible. In another instance, accounts 

 were secured of as many fiestas and mayor- 

 domias as possible. Each mayordomo and 

 other ceremonial official was then visited and 

 interviewed, often several times. Finally, in 

 this instance, as many ceremonies as possible 

 were observed. In the case of economic life, 

 virtually every specialist in town was inter- 

 viewed and the data were checked and cross- 

 checked. In addition, a representative sample 

 of forest workers and farmers were inter- 

 viewed. This process was facilitated by the 

 existence of a complete roster of males of voting 

 age for two barrios, together with their major 

 occupations, given to us by the town authori- 

 ties. In the case of farmers, the tax rolls of 

 the tax collector's office were opened to us, 

 giving some check on land ownership. Some 

 fields were paced to estimate size (measure- 

 ment was out of the question for various local 

 reasons), and observations were made on the 

 length of time taken to complete various farm 

 tasks. At harvest time, the actual production 

 of fields was determined by observing the har- 

 vest closely. In this case, data given by infor- 

 mants proved markedly variable from the facts. 

 Prices of all products were established by ques- 

 tioning numerous producers and also by ques- 

 tioning buyers. Obviously procedures varied 

 with different topics, but the examples given 

 perhaps sufficiently indicate the general method 

 employed. 



In conclusion, acknowledgment should be 

 made of assistance and encouragement given by 

 persons not directly concerned with the field 

 study. Dr. Morris Swadesh, director of the 

 Proyecto Tarasco, an experiment in bilingual 

 education with headquarters in the nearby 

 town of Paracho, together with all the mem- 

 bers of his staff, was extremely helpful in 

 many ways. Scores of residents of Michoacan 

 at one time or another rendered personal assist- 

 ance. In Mexico City, Dr. Paul Kirchhoff and 

 Miguel 0. de Mendizabal were helpful, both in 

 personal matters and in giving numerous sug- 

 gestions and leads for problems to investigate. 

 Sr. Luis Chavez Orozco, then chief of the 

 Departamento Autonomo de Asuntos Indigenas, 



