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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 2 



Possibly (although not necessarily) of more 

 significance is the summary in table 17. This 

 summation was prepared in the belief that the 

 general class of cause was perhaps more 

 accurately known ; in other words, diphtheria as 

 a cause of death very likely is an incoi-rect 

 diagnosis, but very possibly a pulmonary disease 

 was involved. Particular attention is called to 

 category 3a, bills. It is not at all certain that 

 an intestinal disease is involved. Bills is the 

 catch-all of Cheran medicine. Whenever one 

 is "under the weather," he is apt to say he has 

 bills, and very possibly the concept is a recepta- 

 cle for whatever beliefs of supernatural disease 

 causation still exist in Cheran. The problem 

 will be elaborated on in the discussion of disease 

 and curing. 



Knowledge of emigration is necessary to 

 understand the Cheran population situation. 

 Virtually all the emigration has been to the 

 United States; relatively few persons appear 

 to have emigrated either to other parts of 

 Mexico or to other Tarascan towns. Impres- 

 sionistically, it would appear that a very con- 

 siderable portion of the Cheran population has 

 been in the United States. Probably very few 

 families either have not been in the United 

 States or do not have some fairly close relative 

 who is or has been in this country. Too small 

 a sample was taken for statistical data on this 

 point to be valid, but of 28 males interviewed 

 specifically with reference to emigration, 25 

 had been in the United States. Discussion of 

 the motivations, character, and personal signifi- 

 cance of this migration will be given later. 



Although many Cheran residents have emi- 

 grated, few persons have immigrated. A tan- 

 ner from Aranza and a butcher from Chilchota, 

 two tilemakers, two school teachers, the secre- 

 tary, and the tax collector are the only persons 

 known to have settled in the town in recent 

 years. Of these, only the fir-st two regard 

 themselves as permanent residents. Most out- 

 siders are treated as citizens, and there is no 

 bar to purchase of land by outsiders. However, 

 if land is for sale, owners are expected to offer 

 it first to local residents. 



If the Cheran population continues to in- 

 crease to the point that land becomes scarce, it 

 will be interesting to ob.serve whether an emi- 

 gration pattern again develops. The present 



war may well have caused a new migration to 

 the United States, for many persons were 

 eager to return if they could be sure of 

 employment. Such a movement, however, 

 would not have the sociological significance of 

 a movement arising more directly out of local 

 conditions. There is no tendency as yet to 

 develop primogeniture in farm holdings. 

 Should farm holdings become so reduced in size 

 as to be indivisible from the Cheran viewpoint, 

 though, it is possible that some such pattern as 

 thatof thelri.sh peasant or the French Canadian 

 might develop the more readily, in view of the 

 already existing tradition of migration. 



Class or caste stratification is almost un- 

 known in Cheran. There still remains much 

 of the tradition of town unity so characteristic 

 of Mexican Indian and, to some extent, of rural 

 Mestizo towns. There is much talk of rich and 

 poor but, as indicated in the discussion of 

 economics, a rich man is one who harvests 50 

 to 100 cargas of maize. A list made out by 

 a "radical" informant contained 14 names, and 

 several people to whom the list was shown 

 agreed that it was approximately correct. 

 Fourteen "ricos" in a town of some 5,000 is 

 hardly a class, particularly when the standards 

 are so low. Formerly these wealthy men would 

 have tended to occupy most of the town offices, 

 but today this is not the case. As one infor- 

 ment put it, "We now elect moderately poor 

 people as persons who know work and necessity 

 better and who will thus better discharge the 

 work of their ofl!ice." Wealthy men are still 

 accorded a modicum of respect and relatively 

 little envy. Only two of the rich men are con- 

 sidered to have inherited all their property, 

 and the others are believed to have reached 

 their present state either wholly or partly by 

 their own efforts. This fact also probably 

 limits envy and dislike. The only occasion 

 when the wealthy form a group is at State and 

 national elections, when, with the storekeepers 

 and a few others, they are apt to be on the more 

 conservative side. 



The most influential group at present in 

 Cheran is probably not the wealthy, but the 

 middle class — people who were valiant in fight- 

 ing against the psuedo-agrarians who once 

 dominated the village, who help the village with 

 money when things are needed, and who "think 



