56 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 2 



Suppeis (about 7 o'clock in the evening) : 

 Average houseliold: 

 Boiled beans 

 Chile sauce 

 Tortillas 



Boiled beans 

 Chile sauce 

 Tortillas 



Boiled beans 

 Whole-wheat bread 

 Black coffee 



Boiled beans 



Tortillas 



Milk 



Very poor household : 

 Beans 

 Posole (hominy, probably with a little boiled 



meat) 

 Tortillas 



Wealthy household: 

 Boiled beans 

 Tortillas 

 Chile sauce 

 Whole-wheat bread 

 Black coffee 



Boiled beans 



Tortillas 

 Chile sauce 

 Broiled meat 

 Milk 



Fairly common suppers are tamales (with 

 or without meat) and atole or coffee or a piece 

 of bread (a whole-wheat bread slightly sea- 

 soned) and a cup of tea made from the herb 

 nurite or a type of orange leaf. 



In all cases quantities are probably small, 

 except of tortillas. Rarely would more than 

 one piece of bread be eaten, perhaps 2 to 3 

 ounces at most ; perhaps half a cup to a cup of 

 beans; meat, if broiled or boiled, two pieces 

 about ly^ inches in greatest dimension — if in 

 sauce, perhaps a couple of tablespoonfuls with 

 the sauce. ''' 



With substitution of different foods, these 

 would represent Cheran menus on the whole, 

 although there would not be so much meat with 

 breakfast-luncheon, but rather atole, while 

 the meat broth and meat would more commonly 

 be served together. 



At the Indian town of Sopoco in La Caiiada, 

 the following midday meals were observed : 



^^ See Appendix 1 for more data on Chilchota. 



Boiled broadbeans 



Tortillas 



Eggs cooked on the coma! 



Fried herbs with chile sauce 



Tortillas 



Boiled broadbeans 



Boiled beans 



Tortillas 



Further comparative notes (collected by 

 Silvia Rendon) — Possibly because Capacuaro is 

 a smaller village with extensive woods close by, 

 more wild animals are used for food. These 

 include doves, huilotas, bird eggs (kuasanda), 

 rabbits, flying squirrels, squirrels (kuinikes), 

 deer, gophers (khumas), wood rats (heyaki), 

 peccary, jackral^bits (apacis) , foxes, armadillos, 

 bee larvae, larvae of a ground dwelling bee 

 (jirotcras) , worms from unidentified plants 

 (talpanal), fresh water crawfish (capus), wild 

 crab apple worms (kauas), and tlacuache 

 (takuace) . It is to be suspected that in Cheran, 

 where persons closely associated with the woods 

 are not often in the town, our list of wild 

 animal pi-oducts eaten is much shorter than it 

 should be, although it probably represents the 

 common diet. 



Two meals a day are eaten, at 11 o'clock in 

 the morning and in the evening at varying 

 times. In one house the morning meal was 

 tortillas and beans ; in another, coffee and bread ; 

 in a third, coffee and tortillas sweetened with 

 brown sugar; in a fourth, atole nurite and 

 tortillas; in a fifth, chile sauce, boiled greens, 

 and tortillas. The second meal most commonly 

 consists of squash or chayotes, meat broth with 

 cabbage, meat and chile, and tortillas. 



Special dishes not already reported include 

 the following: 



Tamalitos de capata, small tamales of black 

 amaranth seeds (capata; the plant is puari), 

 made to sell in Uruapan at three for 5 centavos. 

 The seeds are ground and cooked in maize leaves 

 like tamales. 



Icuskata, gordos filled with beans, for sale in 

 Uruapan at 5 centavos each. 



Yururicuskatas, gordos made of maize dough 

 mixed with l>rown sugar. In cooking, a num- 

 ber of pebbles are put in the comal and the 

 gordos are placed on top of these so they cook 

 more slowly. 



Toasted tortillas (haripukata), eaten fre- 

 quently at meals. 



