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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 2 



The motivations of consumption appear 

 several. Primary is the need of food, shelter, 

 and clothing. For very poor families, this is 

 virtually the only type of consumption. Food 

 requirements are intimately linked Avith pro- 

 ductive efforts. The basic necessities by Cheran 

 standards are mostly produced by the family 

 unit, and the processes are apart from the 

 system of commerce and exchange. Any family 

 unit regarded as meeting Cheran standards of 

 living will also have other consumption motiva- 

 tions. Participation in the social and religious 

 life of the community is perhaps the second 

 most important consumption motive. Crisis 

 periods, especially marriage, and the possession 

 of a mayordomia are occasions for consumption 

 of goods, often on a very large scale. Such 

 consumption, however, comes not entirely in 

 the category of "conspicuous expenditure" but 

 rather as the fulfilling of a social duty. It is 

 true that the wedding ceremony is designed to 

 emphasize public display of the consumption 

 involved ; nevertheless, failure to give as elabor- 

 ate a wedding as the means of a family justified 

 would suggest to the inhabitants of Cheran 

 either that the family was stingy or that the 

 family disapproved of the match. Yet another 

 interpretation might be that they did not regard 

 the girl as socially acceptable, either because of 

 the poverty of her family or because of her 

 reputation. In one case observed, the bride's 

 mother, a poor widow with few relatives, pre- 

 pared to finance part of the wedding herself 

 when she found the wealthy family of the groom 

 was planning a modest ceremony. In this case 

 the threatened action of the bride's mother 

 precipitated so much gossip and unfavorable 

 comment that the groom's family at the last 

 minute greatly increased its expenditures for 

 the wedding (and the bride's mother, incident- 

 ally, did not have to carry out her threats). 



In general, wealthy people do not display 

 their wealth ostentatiously except through 

 undertaking the more expensive mayordomias 

 and giving the most elaborate weddings. Often 

 the houses of wealthy persons are less pre- 

 tentious than are those of the middle class. 

 A man of the latter class with a large family 

 may well operate a much more elaborate estab- 

 lishment than the wealthy man with a small 

 family. The wealthy are apt to be envied in 



Cheran, it is clear. Memories of the more 

 violent revolutionary days are close enough 

 that people conceal their wealth rather than 

 display it. That this was not always the case 

 is evidenced by the considerable number of 

 ruined stone buildings, homes of the wealthy 

 before the revolution. Today wealthy men live 

 modestly. Their table differs primarily in 

 quantity rather than in quality from that of 

 the poor. Wealthy men dress like others, unless 

 they are going to Uruapan or Zamora. Their 

 wives wear better quality clothes, as a rule, 

 than do other women, and on special occasions 

 they display more and better jewelry. There 

 are few servants in Cheran, and their place is 

 taken by dependent relatives or orphans who 

 are members of the family. 



The major methods of conspicuous expendi- 

 ture acceptable in Cheran are quite stereotyped. 

 Perhaps most common is to be sponsor of a 

 moro dancer or to be responsible for some phase 

 of a fiesta, posts assigned by the municipicr 

 rather than sought after by the individual. 

 The ownership of cattle which can be used for 

 cattle riding in the town fiesta is another 

 socially approved method of ostentation. 

 Ownership of a horse is also permissible, but it 

 is considered that only a few wealthy men really 

 need horses — men with distant lands or herds 

 that must be visited frequently. The man who 

 buys a horse without really needing it is con- 

 sidered to be "showing off." In the main, the 

 methods of ostentatious consumption not only 

 are communally recognized and approved but 

 are restricted to specific social occasions. In 

 ordinary life there is little to distinguish one 

 Cheran man or family from another, if one 

 except the very poor. 



VALUE AND PRICE 



The values of the major commodities and 

 services in Cheran are expressed in monetary 

 terms. Perhaps the only significant exceptions 

 are the services rendered by relatives and com- 

 ]>n.drcs in connection with house moving and 

 various fiestas, services rendered the commu- 

 nity, and the goods which are exchanged at 

 betrothals and weddings. In the latter case, 

 wholly fictitious values are placed on the goods 

 exchanged, but even here the equation is ulti- 

 mately made to money values. With these 



