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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 2 



bottoms of the pots and to rub their hands on 

 each other's faces, with other horseplay. 



This group inckided the men and the women 

 who had been working in the kitchen. It is 

 said the custom of the kitchen staff dancing 

 with the kitchen utensils is an old one which 

 is rarely observed now. A number of inform- 

 ants had not seen it for many years, and it was 

 not practiced in other weddings observed. The 

 custom is believed to be peculiar to Cheran. 



The godmothers, in the meantime, had been 

 seated again. The groom's father gave them 

 each a small pop bottle of charanda with a 

 package of Tigres cigarettes tied with gay rib- 

 bons to the neck of the bottle. These are 

 provided by grandchildren of the godmothers. 

 The father also gave each grandmother a small 

 green glazed pottery "barrel" with a tiny spout 

 on top and a cup fitting over the spout; these 

 were also filled with charanda and the god- 

 mothers ceremonially drank a drop or two from 

 the cup and then began pressing it on others. 

 Each person offered a drink took a drop or two. 

 When most of the small supply of charanda in 

 the barrels was gone, large bottles were pro- 

 duced and began to circulate in the crowd. 

 The first large bottle was taken to the shed 

 where the bride's male relatives sat. 



The dancing now became general, although 

 for a time the elderly women with breads 

 rushed about charging into people who were 

 not dancing and forcing them to dance. Drink- 

 ing also became general, and numbers soon 

 showed the effects of the liquor. Several ex- 

 peditions went out for more bread, accompanied 

 now by the godmothers, who danced rather 

 drunkenly in the streets at the head of the 

 processions. Many women accompanying the 

 procession also danced, but the younger women, 

 especially those carrying babies, merely walked 

 along the sides of the street. 



The following day the male first cousins took 

 atole to the groom. The atole was made by the 

 youths' mothers, but the boys had to take the 

 maize to the mill to have it ground and get the 

 ingredients for the atole. 



The wedding of Samuel Sanchez, described 

 above in somewhat abbreviated form, was one 

 of the extremes of Cheran marriage. At the 

 other end of the scale v/as the wedding of a 

 niece of Agustin's. The groom, Juan Geronimo, 



was a widower but still young. The girl lived 

 with an aunt, for lier mother had become a 

 woman of loose morals after having an affair 

 with a worker on the highway and at the 

 moment was in jail in Uruapan for disorderly 

 conduct. The bride's father was dead. An- 

 other aunt refused to attend the wedding 

 because she did not approve of the girl's marry- 

 ing a widower. 



In this instance the groom had not stolen the 

 girl but had asked for her, taking bread to the 

 house of the aunt, accompanied by musicians. 

 Agustin, with other relatives of the girl, took 

 her to church for the civil wedding, where she 

 was delivered to the groom's father. She was 

 not returned to her own home and there was no 

 breakfast. As the groom's father was poor, 

 there was no celebration in his house, but at 

 noon the girl's aunt did the best she could to 

 rectify the matter by serving a dinner in her 

 house. 



At another simple wedding attended, the 

 general forms were gone through in truncated 

 fashion. The dinner was over before 12 o'clock, 

 and immediately following it the groom's father 

 distributed the special breads in the form of 

 crowns. This early distribution indicated that 

 there would be no exchange of clothing on a 

 large scale (although there was a little) and 

 no drinking. There were no music and no 

 dancing, and the affair was over by about 2 p. m. 



Another of the weddings observed in some 

 detail presents a number of interesting features. 

 This was the v\'edding of Samuel Santa Clara, 

 son of the widow. Dona Feliciana, principal 

 informant regarding herbs. 



Again, as the families knew each other well 

 and it was certain that the girl's mother, also 

 a widow, would consent, the girl was not stolen. 

 Indeed, Doiia Feliciana and her "brothers" 

 went to the girl's house on a Thursday evening 

 and asked for her. There were no music and 

 no marriage manager on this occasion. The 

 following Monday, September 9, Doiia Feliciana 

 and all the groom's relatives ate at her house 

 and then went to the bride's house, starting 

 about 2:30 p.m. This hour is early and was 

 arranged for my special benefit so I would be 

 sure to see everything. Unfortunately, I had 

 not been advised of the plan and was not in 

 Cheran that day, but Agustin, who as usual 



