CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



85 



spent on meat. Families not regarded as poor 

 might spend as little as 60 centavos a day on 

 food for a family of six (two adults and four 

 children). Checked in several ways, although 

 obviously the quantitative data are inadequate, 

 it appears that most prosperous (but not 

 wealthy) families with sufficient land to pro- 

 duce all their own maize may spend less than 1 

 peso a day. It is estimated by some that this 

 amount also includes the cost of all clothing and 

 some maintenance of buildings but would not 

 include special expenses, such as replacing 

 animals, giving fiestas, holding funerals, etc. 

 Frankly, this seems hard to believe.-^ 



An approach to consumption (in terms of 

 peso values), based on such quantitative data 

 as it was possible to collect, indicates a much 

 higher consumption rate for the normal Cheran 

 family. Taking, for convenience, a family of 

 five, the following seems a reasonably close 

 approximation of consumption and expenditure: 



Home-produced goods consumed : Per day rer year 



Maize, 2V2 liters daily $0.15 ,. $54.75 



Vegetables and fruit 10 3G.50 



Firewood 08 29.20 



Total value $120.45 



Goods requiring cash expenditure: 



Expenditures at store and 



butcher shop $1.00 



Man's clothing (a rough estimate 

 of minimum requirements for 

 work clothing plus some "dress" 

 clothing) 



Woman's clothing (one typical 

 woman's outfit of Tarascan 

 type clothing, plus a couple of 

 cotton dresses a year) 



Clothing for 3 small children 



$365.00 



27.00 



60.00 

 15.00 



Total cash expenditure a year 467.00 



Total value of goods consumed a year $587.45 

 In addition to the above ordinary expendi- 



^ In Mestizo ChUchota. Rendon collected the following data : 

 For a family of two adults and four children. 6 to 22 years, food 

 expenditures were said to be 75 centavos to 1 peso daily, mostly 

 for meat, the remainder for beans, lard, pitch pine, chiles, 

 tomatoes, salt, lime, and other things. The maize consumed is 

 grown. Another family of four adults and one child of 5 years 

 spent about a peso a day. Another family of four adults and 

 three children, 8 to 14 years, spent a peso to a peso and a half 

 daily. In all cases the major expenditure was said to be for meat, 

 with beans coming second. All grew their own maize. Unlike those 

 in Cheran, all these families consumed coffee once and sometimes 

 twice a day. 



tures, there will also be less frequent ones. In 

 the life time of the average family, a house and 

 kitchen will have to be bought or built. By 

 usual Cheran standards, this will mean a capital 

 expenditure of $170 to $450. Animals must be 

 replaced from time to time, an item difficult 

 to estimate, but probably involving capital ex- 

 penditures of around $200 every 10 years as a 

 minimum. 



Periodic expenditures will also include a 

 blanket every few years at about $20, reroofing 

 of house and kitchen every 10 years or so at a 

 cost of about $40, an occasional mayordomia, 

 and the expenses of weddings, births, and 

 deaths. Finally, there are taxes on property 

 and contributions to the church. All these are 

 impossible to estimate accurately with the avail- 

 able data. A mayordomia, for example, may 

 vary from an outlay of perhaps $15 or $20 for 

 Mass, candles, and ornaments for the altar in 

 the house to a cash expenditure of about $500 

 for the mayordomia of Nochebuena plus exten- 

 sive use of maize and butchering of animals 

 etc. belonging to the mayordomo. Weddings 

 likewise may vary enormously according to 

 economic resources, but may run up as high as 

 $500 in cash outlay. In addition, there are the 

 innumerable occasions when one must partici- 

 pate in weddings, roofing or house-moving 

 fiestas, etc., each of which involves more or less 

 expensive gifts aside from possible contribu- 

 tions of labor. 



The above factors suggest that a Cheran 

 family of five in about average circumstances 

 makes a total outlay on consumption goods of 

 not less than $500 a year if such capital ex- 

 penditures as housing are allowed for. This 

 does not include the value of home-produced 

 foods. Many families unquestionably have a 

 much smaller cash outlay than the amount 

 suggested, but, equally certainly, some families 

 spend more. Furthermore, these estimates 

 assume that the family has inherited all the 

 land it needs and is not making any expendi- 

 tures for land purchases. 



The preceding considerations suggest that 

 insufficient attention has been paid to the 

 quantity of exports and the movement of money 

 in Cheran economy. Such data are difficult but 

 not impossible to secure, although a consider- 

 able margin of error must be expected. 



