CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



101 



A 



-6 



w J , papa 



mama. 



1 5 



taraa/iua 



tio 



tia. 



o-K A^5 1 = 6 A i 



Canada 



Canada 



CGO 

 MALE 



espO'Sn 



cunado 



A = 



f<umba 

 compadre 



A 



5 



I/O C ATlv/C roRM 



juic tara^akua. 

 Figure 14. — Affinal relatives, male speaking. 



k^ 



J<omeri 

 coma dre 



ever, should the parents happen to have been 

 close friends, they might continue to call each 

 other primo(a) and continue to observe the 

 appropriate behavior. 



The major kinship obligation is to attend at 

 certain functions and to assist with labor under 

 certain circumstances. All close relatives must 

 be greeted by relationship terms when encoun- 

 tered on the street or in the house, but this 

 greeting may not be given to persons who still 

 have reciprocal obligations such as distant 

 cousins. 



Parent-child behavior. — Parents are expected 

 to look after the material needs of children, 

 provide the necessary education, seek the proper 

 godparents for them, and aid them to have a 

 proper wedding. Children are expected to be 

 respectful and to aid parents in their old age. 

 If they do not conform to expectations, they 

 may be disinherited. 



Behavior of siblings. — The ideal pattern of 

 Cheran evidently expects siblings to be close 

 friends and to help one another. To a certain 

 degree this behavior exists. Only for brother 

 or sister would a man give monetary aid or 

 give free labor at any other time than a house 

 moving. Nevertheless, numerous cases were 



encountered of bitter quarrels between siblings, 

 usually over inherited property or property 

 transactions. In some cases this extended to 

 refusal to assist in traditional ways in which 

 the aid even of remote relatives is expected. 

 Avuncidar-nepotic relationships. — Data on 

 behaviors in this category are inadequately 

 documented. Evidently boys often have close 

 relationships with their uncles. This relation- 

 ship is evidenced most clearly in the fact that a 

 boy often tells an uncle when he has "stolen" 

 a girl and may take his fiance to live in his 

 uncle's house, while the uncle first breaks the 

 news to the boy's father. In general, boys 

 seem to turn to their uncles in crisis rather 

 than to their fathers. There likewise seem 

 close relations between girls and their aunts 

 and uncles. Cases are known where a niece 

 rather than a child has cared for old people 

 (and in some cases inherited the property). 

 Comfortably situated families with few chil- 

 dren may care for a niece from a poor family 

 with many children, feeding the child well and 

 often buying new clothing. In return, the child 

 will help, running errands and doing house- 

 work. In at least one case, the niece really 

 took the initiative. Invited to spend the day, 



A- 6 Z^o i^ A 5 A 



cufiado tuisAa. EGO esposo tutska cunado 



Canada TEMALE Canada 



(0THER6 AS f^AUe) 



Figure 15. — Affinal relatives, female speaking. This chart shows only the differences from the terms used by 

 the male. For all affinal relatives not shown, the female uses the male terms. 



