38 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 2 



tensive labor, although the weavers usually do 

 some housework also. 



CLOTHING AND DRESS HABITS 



Clothing manufacture. — Many persons make 

 their own clothes, but a number of persons 

 make clothes for sale or on order. Even men 

 may make clothes for sale if the family owns a 

 sewing machine. For example, one storekeeper 

 makes men's cotton trousers {calzoncs) and 

 men's shirts in his spare time, selling them in 

 the store. His wife also sews but less fre- 

 quently. Many storekeepers have one or more 

 sewing machines — the largest number observed 

 was three — which are rented to women who 

 come to the store to sew. One ambitious family 

 (whose sons were sent to Morelia to school) 

 made much of the family income from the labor 

 of mother and daughters. Most of the sewing 

 is durable but not skilled. No one in the town 

 knows how to fit a garment, and as standards 

 approach those of the Mestizos, more and more 

 people buy ready-made garments from outside 

 in stores, markets, or in Mestizo towns. 



Most of the "tailors" are specialists, making 

 only one type of garment. One woman makes 

 only men's cotton trousers. She makes six 

 pairs a day, double-stitched. Garments for 

 weddings are single-stitched. The cloth is pro- 

 vided and cut by the customer. This woman 

 works only intermittently on order. Trousers 

 require about 2i/o m. of cloth. Men's shirts 

 require about the same amount of material but 

 cost more for sewing. One woman makes only 

 aprons, while another makes only children's 

 garments. 



Men's dress. — Influence of the Mestizo world 

 is strongly evident in men's dress. Yet, aside 

 from the priest, no resident of the town dresses 

 completely catriu (i.e., in city style) in Cheran, 

 and only rarely do individuals going to Uruapan 

 or some other town wear city dress. Many 

 men, it is true, commonly wear one or more 

 garments of "town" .style. Coats, sweaters, 

 and jackets are owned by many. Tailored 

 woolen trousers, on the other hand, are rare, 

 while almost none own complete suits. Ordinar- 

 ily, the cotton trousers of the Mestizo coun- 

 tryman rather than woolen trousers replace the 

 white cahones of the Indian. 



The most prominent and significant change 

 in men's dress in Cheran is not the entry of the 

 catrin garments of storekeeper and professional 

 man of the towns, but of the blue denim jeans 

 or overalls of the mechanic and factory worker, 

 the garment of the proletariat. As the con- 

 trolling group in town is allied to the Partido 

 RevolucionarioMexicano and the Confederacion 

 de Trabajadores Mexicanas, the town officials, 

 including mayor and secretary, often wear over- 

 alls, reserving their catrin clothes for visits to 

 Uruapan or Morelia or for important civic 

 events. 



The working dress of Cheran males, and the 

 exclusive dress of many, is trousers (calzmies) , 

 shirt or blouse of unbleached muslin {manta) , 

 straw hat, and sandals (guarachcs) . A blanket 

 or poncho (scrape) is worn or carried as pro- 

 tection against cold or rain (pis. 3; 4, lower 

 right) . 



The calzones or trousers are tight-fitting in 

 the legs but cut full at the waist with a baggy 

 seat. There are no buttons on the fly; instead 

 of a fastening, the two ample sides of the fly 

 are lapped over each other, and a sash, about 

 6 inches in width, is wrapped about the waist 

 to hold the trousers. The lower part of the 

 trouser leg has a piece of cloth tape attached 

 which is used to tie the bottom of the cahones 

 tightly around the ankle. The shirt, or more 

 properly, blouse, likewise has no buttons. It 

 usually has no tails, or very abbreviated ones, 

 and is usually worn outside the calzones. It is 

 open part way down the front and has a roll 

 collar, but neither opening nor collar ordinarily 

 is fastened. Buttons are never used, except in 

 attempts to copy city garments, but strings may 

 be provided. Such fitting as is attempted is 

 badly done. A coat of manta may also be worn 

 on special occasions; it differs from the blouse 

 primarily in being open down the front and in 

 being of heavier material. It may also be 

 stitched in bright-colored thread. 



Both shirt and coat may be modified by at- 

 tempt to copy urban models and sometimes are 

 purchased ready-made. 



Sandals or guarachcs have a heavy pointed 

 double thick leather sole and leather heel. Part 

 of the top is of leather pieces nailed to the sole, 

 but the major portion is made of woven leather 

 strips passing through slits in the upper sole 



