CHERAN: A SIERRA TARASCAN VILLAGE^BEALS 



211 



both in formal religion and in witchcraft, are 

 certainly almost wholly Euroiiean. 



Despite the European origins of Tarascan 

 culture, it obviously represents something 

 different from the European-originated Mestizo 

 culture. Neither is it a mere survival of 

 sixteenth century conditions. If Vasco de 

 Quiroga or any other sixteenth century 

 European were to return to Chei'an, he no 

 doubt would find it as strange as any lay visitor 

 from modern European culture. Nor would 

 this strangeness be wholly or even primarily 

 due to the infiltration of later European ideas. 



The uniqueness of Cheran culture, whether 

 viewed from the standpoint of the sixteenth 

 century or from that of today, lies in the 

 extensive reworking of its European materials. 

 For example, the cabildo system seems almost 

 certainly related to the organization of the 

 hospitals introduced by Quiroga, yet the good 

 Bishop might have to do considerable research 

 to recognize the relationship. Such reworking 

 may be due to the patterning influence of native 

 ideas rather than to a spontaneous evolution of 

 a purely European culture in the partial isola- 

 tion of the late Colonial period. The character 

 of such things as family life and attitudes and 

 the real educative forces affecting the thinking 

 and personality of Cheran inhabitants may have 

 been relatively unchanged, despite the modifica- 

 tions in material culture and social organization. 



A subject meriting more thorough investiga- 

 tion in Cheran is the persistence of the mixed 

 culture of Cheran. The fierce attachment to 

 costumbrcs is part of the acceptance of a way 

 of life by most members of the community, 

 even the most progressive. This attachment 

 persists despite the fact that Cheran culture 

 not only changes visibly but that such change 

 is accepted and even desired by a large part of 

 the population. The limits of acceptable 

 change, however, need further definition. The 

 impression of the staff of the present study is 

 that change is accepted rather readily in those 

 things relating to material welfare and perhaps 

 health. Chei'an residents are not averse to 

 changes leading to more money, food, medical 

 service (if it does not cost too much), or 

 elements increasing comfort, such as a larger 

 and better distributed water supply. The in- 

 troduction of industries giving employment at 



better wages would meet no opposition. Prob- 

 ably political reforms would have support if 

 they clearly would provide more effective and 

 representative self-government. Nevertheless, 

 it seems probable that extensive changes in 

 these fields would still leave Cheran life with 

 a highly distinctive flavor. No matter how 

 long Cheran residents have lived away from the 

 community, and even if they have been born 

 out of the community, they seem to accept a 

 pattern of attitudes and behaviors which have 

 not been successfully identified and analyzed in 

 the present study. 



In some measure a dichotomy of Cheran 

 culture is implied in the foregoing remarks. 

 The areas in which change is permissible and 

 accepted may be identified as "secular" in the 

 sense Robert Redfield (1941) has used the term 

 in his studies of Yucatan culture change. Such a 

 characterization might be misleading, however, 

 for it seems doubtful if the term "saci'ed" can 

 be applied equally well to the sectors of the 

 culture where change is rejected. Certainly a 

 Cheran resident would be nonplussed at the 

 application of the term "sacred" to weddings 

 and the obligations of kinship (although he 

 might consider it properly applied to the 

 compadre obligations). Primarily the sacred 

 in Cheran is closely associated with the aflfairs 

 of the Church, a view that is perhaps best 

 high-lighted by the fact that those progressives 

 who are most anticlerical (a position to be kept 

 clearly distant from "anti-Catholic") ai'e not 

 opponents of the costumbres. 



Cheran, like many Indian communities of 

 Mexico, is increasingly influenced by the town 

 and the city. Nevertheless, the processes again 

 seem significantly different from those hitherto 

 described by Redfield. In Cheran there is no 

 distinction of los tontos and los correctos. 

 Mestizo and indio, or ladino and indio, although 

 such may exist in some Tarascan towns with 

 an appreciable Mestizo population. Nor does 

 the neat diminishing order of city, town, and 

 village of Yucatan hold in this area. Cheran 

 is probably more influenced by Gary (Indiana, 

 U. S. A.) , Mexico City, and Morelia (possibly in 

 diminishing order) than it is by Uruapan and 

 Patzcuaro. Indeed, it is quite probable that 

 fundamentally Cheran is more progressive, 

 more in touch with the modern world, than is 



