CHERAN : A SIERRA TARASCAN VILLAGE — BEALS 



97 



The data again are not entirely reliable because 

 of a tendency not to count deceased children 

 until urged. Almost always emotion was 

 manifested upon recalling a specific child. 

 Women were more commonly able to supply the 

 names of deceased children. It is the impres- 

 sion of the interviewers that the data presented 

 are fairly accurate for all children baptised but 

 that stillbirths and perhaps death before baptism 

 were not counted.-"* 



Although most Cheran informants believed 

 families were small through the small number 

 of childbirths, the data indicate an average of 

 5.2 births per woman. No case of a childless 

 woman was encountered in interviewing, al- 

 though some exist in Cheran. If the failure to 

 report stillbirths is taken into account, it is 

 probable that Cheran women would rank fairly 

 high in fertility. The small family size con- 

 sequently is due to deaths rather than to lack 

 of births. Data from the same families indi- 

 cated only 2.7 children living at the time the 

 data were collected, indicating nearly half of 

 all children born had already died. The data 

 are summarized in table 13. 



Data on deaths for the years 1936, 1938, 

 1939, and part of 1940 are given in tables 14, 

 15, and 16. As might be expected, the highest 

 death rate is in children under 1 year of age 

 (probably higher than shown when unrecorded 

 stillbirths are taken into account) . The second 

 highest rate is in the period from 1 to 9 years 

 of age. For adults, the periods from 30 to 39 

 years and 60 to 69 years appear to be the most 

 critical. Again, however, ages are only esti- 

 mates and must not be considered as accurate. 



The table of deaths by causes (table 16) 

 should be considered primarily of interest in 

 showing the disease concepts prevalent in 

 Cheran. There were no doctors in Cheran at 

 the time these data were collected. Generally, 

 the cause of death was provided by the relative 

 registering the death, at the insistence of the 

 Secretary that he had to put down something 

 for his records to the State authorities. 

 Epidemics of whooping cough and smallpox are 

 clearly recorded, however. 



^ In taking a house census at Sevina, a neighboring town, the 

 interviewers called attention to the fact that a babe in arms had 

 not been included in the household total. Said the grandfather : 

 "That one is too new. One hardly knows yet whether it lives or 

 dies, so we do not count it." 



