CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



83 



Table 6. — Products and number of vendors in the 

 market at Paracho, 19JttO — Continued 



^ Fiesta of Santa Ursala. 

 - An obvious error. Braid 

 but had no stands. 



.-endors were present ever.v Sunday. 



and three sold dry goods. A line of women 

 sold atole and kurundas^ the yellow Tarascan 

 tamale. 



The Mestizo town of Chilchota has a market 

 on Sunday which is not notably different from 

 a medium-size Tarascan market. Indeed, as 

 this is the market town for La Canada, prob- 



ably a majority of the attendants are Tarascans. 

 Rendon, who collected the data, observes that 

 there is a fairly clear sex division in market 

 activities. Prepared foods are always sold by 

 women. Sugarcane, medicinal herbs, pulque, 

 and ocote (pitch pine) are almost always sold 

 by men. Such things as lime, sweetmeats, and 

 pottery are usually sold by women, although 

 men may sell them. Vegetables are usually 

 sold by women, while fruits may be sold by 

 either sex. In genera', selling is done mostly 

 by the women. Buying, on the other hand, 

 seems equally divided between men and women. 

 Merchandise sold on two different market days 

 (dates not given, but probably in February 

 1940) is shown in table 7. The organization of 

 the market is shown in figure 11. 



Table 7. — Goods sold at two markets at Chilchota 



CONSUMPTION 



The most important type of consumption in 

 Cheran is that occurring in the family. Ob- 

 viously, the consumption of raw material 

 and semifinished goods in manufactures is 

 significant, but the essential data regarding 

 this have already been presented in the 

 previous discussions. Likewise, there are 

 many aspects of consumption related to various 

 cultural activities dealt with in later discus- 

 sions. Special types of consumption occur in 

 connection with the life crises, especially mar- 



