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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 2 



nothing had been done. Probably more than 

 personal motives lay back of the killing, but it 

 was impossible to discover them. 



Marriage customs are another frequent 

 source of conflicts reaching the mayor. Or- 

 dinarily a boy "kidnaps" the girl he is going to 

 marry. The kidnapping is public and usually 

 nothing is done about it, but the boy may be 

 forced to marry the girl if he does not go 

 through with the ceremony in a reasonable 

 time. Occasionally, though, the girl's relatives 

 make so much commotion that the mayor has 

 to act. If the kidnapping has been "legitimate," 

 that is, the boy intends to marry the girl, 

 usually the men participating in the kidnapping 

 are thrown in jail for 2 or 3 hours and released 

 with an admonition, almost certainly given 

 with tongue in cheek. 



In other cases the matter may become more 

 serious, especially if it is exploited by the girl. 

 One example will illustrate the situation. 



A boy stopped to talk with a girl of dubious 

 morals. When he left, she followed him, say- 

 ing she was going home with him. The boy 

 ran away and hid. Later in the day the girl's 

 parents came to the mayor and claimed the boy 

 had kidnapped the girl. The boy was ordered 



to marry the girl by a certain date. He failed 

 to do so, as he wished to marry another girl 

 and knew also that the girl laying the charges 

 visited a house of assignation. He was thrown 

 in jail. Later, his mother went his bond and 

 he was released. The boy fled town and had 

 not returned several months later. His mother 

 was put in jail overnight but was released the 

 next day. 



The preceding discussion is a very unsatis- 

 factory treatment of conflict situations and law. 

 Information on the unformalized personal and 

 familial conflicts is very scanty. Intimate day 

 to day knowledge of households which would 

 produce such information is extremely difficult 

 to secure in Cheran. On the other hand, not 

 enough detailed material was secured on the 

 types of conflicts reaching the muiiicipio to 

 make possible any adequate statement regard- 

 ing legal concepts. In theory, the law in 

 Cheran is Mexican law. Enough examples 

 have perhaps been given to indicate that much 

 of the justice dispensed in the municipio is 

 according to informal and generally accepted 

 rules. Only observation of a very large num- 

 ber of cases would permit abstracting the prin- 

 ciples on which action is based. 



RELIGION AND CEREMONIAL 



Religion in Cheran revolves about the church 

 and the formalized practices and beliefs asso- 

 ciated with it. In addition, there is a lively 

 belief in witchcraft, plus a body of miscellane- 

 ous and unorganized beliefs and customs. In 

 the main, the organized ceremonials, aside from 

 those associated with life crises, which are dealt 

 with in another section, are linked with the 

 church and are group or community affairs. 

 The ceremonials and rituals connected with 

 witchcraft and miscellaneous beliefs are pri- 

 marily individual in character and are not 

 organized in any way, although there is a cer- 

 tain gradation between the two types of cere- 

 monial with respect to organization. 



The church ceremonials and rituals are of 

 four types. Central to the system are those 

 church rituals and ceremonies which follow 

 more or less conventional Mexican Catholic 

 lines and are wholly under the direction of the 



priest. The Mass, Rosary, confession, baptism, 

 confirmation, and so on all fall in this category. 

 A more or less conventional church organiza- 

 tion headed by a priest is almost solely respon- 

 sible for these ceremonies. Associated with 

 this part of the religious organization are the 

 various societies, such as those of the Sacred 

 Heart, Daughters of Mary, Apostles of Saint 

 Joseph, and the Third Order of Saint Francis. 

 Linked with the church organization in part is 

 the cabildo or the aces. 



Forming a mixture of church and community 

 ceremonials are the fiestas. The organization 

 of fiestas is related to the political organization 

 and, aside from the Mass and strictly church 

 rituals, the fiestas are essentially secular cele- 

 brations centering round a religious object. 



The vnnjordomias are the third important 

 type of religious ceremony and are connected with 

 the church through the cargiiero system and 



