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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 



unmarried men may not come home until 9 or 

 10 o'clock, when the family is in bed, and they 

 feed themselves with cold food left for them. 



On Monday the men and young men go to 

 the fields or to the mountains between 7 and 9 

 o'clock, after eating a breakfast which always 

 includes tortillas and chile and likely includes 

 remnants of the previous day's meal such as 

 sopa de tortilla. If the men are going out all day 

 and the place is distant, they take a lunch. If 

 the place is nearby, wives cari-y Ir.nch to their 

 menfolk. Women will take maize to the mill 

 and carry whatever water is needed during the 

 morning. They may also buy some vegetables 

 at the market, although most will have done 

 this at the Saturday market. They may shop 

 for meat and other needed items at the store. 

 The main housework will be sweeping and put- 

 ting the sleeping mats in the "troje." Then 

 the woman will start work on the midday meal 

 for herself and children (earlier if she is to 

 take dinner to the fields, which she will do if 

 her husband is working within an hour's walk) . 

 This meal is apt to be quite simple if the hus- 

 band is not home. Some women make tortillas 

 before dinner and again before supper. Others 

 will eat warmed up tortillas for dinner. After 

 dinner, following about an hour's rest, these 

 women will make up a supply of tortillas suffi- 

 cient to last 24 hours. An older daughter may 

 be set at this work. In any case, probably 2 

 hours will be put in making tortillas and pre- 

 paring supper. Men who went for firewood 

 will probably be home as early as 4 o'clock, 

 others not until 5 or 5 : 30, while those who had 

 to look for a strayed animal or who are delayed 

 for other reasons may come in after dark. 

 The men of the family will eat together; the 

 women and children usually eat together but 

 after the men. Before he eats, a man may 

 have to water and feed his animals, unless 

 there is a small boy who can do it. 



After supper a man will often go out on the 

 street for about an hour to loaf and talk to 

 friends. Young men will go out and stay 

 longer ; they are usually the last to bed. Small 

 children are put in bed about 8 o'clock. 



Some families vary the schedule given above. 

 In a fair number of cases the men of the family 

 rise before the women and go to the fields 

 without breakfast. The woman in this case 



usually takes the maize to the mill or grinds 

 it herself, in the meantime making atole. The 

 men return about 10 for breakfast {almtierzo) . 

 Usually the women and children already have 

 eaten, but some women wait until their hus- 

 bands have eaten. 



Tuesday, men go out as on Monday. Women 

 may wash clothes on Tuesday, in which case 

 they leave home at 8 and do not return until 

 about 2. There is no regular wash day for all 

 of Cheran, but each woman usually has a 

 regular wash day. Customarily women bathe 

 when they wash clothes. 



Subsequent days of the week until Saturday 

 are much the same, the main variation being in 

 the time of washing. Some younger girls and 

 boys go to church between 11 : 30 and 1 o'clock 

 for doctrinal training from Monday through 

 Friday. About a fourth of the younger boys 

 also go to school. 



Saturday the men come home early, usually 

 by 3:30. They loaf about street corners, the 

 plaza, billiard parlors, and saloons. There is 

 a small market in the plaza and women shop 

 and talk there between about 5 and 7. Some- 

 times a man sees his wife at the plaza and goes 

 home with her, or seeing her leave he may 

 follow a few minutes later. Saturday night 

 supper is the best meal of the week. It features 

 fish, if possible, and there may be special treats 

 such as fruit, peanuts, cherimoyas, sugarcane, 

 avocados, or other items, depending on the 

 season. Supper is late, often between 8 and 10, 

 and the family goes to bed soon afterward. 



In some ways the activities of men are less 

 varied and complex than those of the women. 

 A man works at his fields or his trade as it is 

 necessary. When slack time occurs, he goes 

 for firewood or does odd jobs about the house. 

 He serves on the ronda or night watch and does 

 other municipal jobs when called upon to do so. 

 In his free time he may sit about home or go 

 out on the streets or to the plaza. 



It would be a mistake to assume, however, 

 that the man's life is an unending cycle of labor, 

 broken only by Saturday afternoons and Sun- 

 days. Young men, of course, spend more time 

 in recreation than do older people. Agustin 

 Rangel, who probably represents a somewhat 

 extreme case, remembered the following 

 activities : 



