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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 2 



Manila varieties are grown extensively for 

 export. Scarcely a house lacks a sweet lemon 

 ti'ee. The fruit is sold in bulk to dealers before 

 it is ripe. Bitter limes are sold the same way; 

 the prices are less than for sweet limes, but 

 people in Chilchota say they are more pleasant 

 in flavor. Oranges are also grown extensively 

 in orchards. Two varieties of guavas are 

 utilized. The type known as corriente grows 

 wild and is used only by poor people who cook 

 the fruit in honey. The "fine" type is cultivated 

 and sold. A few bananas are grown of the type 

 known in Mexico City as platano bolso and in 

 Uruapan as corriente. The local name is 

 Costarica. A "fine" and an "ordinary" variety 

 of peaches are grown; the entire crop is ex- 

 ported. Cherimoyas occur in most orchards, 

 but not in such quantity as in the Tarascan 

 towns of La Caiiada. The product is all con- 

 sumed locally. Some zapote bianco is cultivated 

 in Chilchota; more is grown among the Taras- 

 can towns. Cherries grow half-wild, being 

 planted but not tended. The fruit is eaten raw 

 or made into confections. A fruit known as 

 juakinicuiles (in Mexico City, jinicuiles) is 

 planted but not cultivated; it is much prized. 

 Citron is grown in some orchards ; all the prod- 

 uct is sold. The tejocote is not used at all in 

 Chilchota, and some people even were amazed 

 at the idea it should be eaten. 



Coffee is extensively cultivated, sharing with 

 lemons the major place in the orchards. Almost 

 all the coffee is sold in the bean in Zamora, and 

 the coffee consumed locally is brought from 

 Zamora. 



Three varieties of squash are cultivated. 

 Calabaza Tarasca is grown in the fields and is all 

 consumed in the town, either boiled or roasted 

 in hot ashes. Calabaza de Castilla is grown in 

 two varieties, one with hard shell and one with 

 soft. Both are exported. A variety called 

 sopoma grows in the fields and is all used in 

 the town, either to make sweets or as greens 

 for broth or stew. 



The principal wild plant used for food in 

 Chilchota is a species of prickly pear (tuna), 

 known as jococoxtle. It is used in certain of 

 the beef stews or is ground with chile to make 

 a sauce placed on the table. 



Meat is mostly butchered on Saturday and 

 Sunday, and the main sales take place on 



Sunday. The places where meat is sold are 

 called "despachos" and are announced by hang- 

 ing out a red flag on a standard. Four or five 

 places sell meat remaining from Sunday 

 through most of the week. No distinction is 

 made in price between meat with bone and 

 meat without bone, but on request one will be 

 served only meat; in the Tarascan towns the 

 buyer has to take what is cut. Pork is pre- 

 ferred to beef. Beef hides are sold to dealers ; 

 those of swine either are made into cracklings 

 or are pickled in vinegar after rubbing with 

 chile, onion, garlic, and fragrant herbs. 



Some fish are caught with nets in the river 

 passing Chilchota. The fishermen are only 

 semiprofessional, fishing when they have time 

 and selling the catch only if they have more 

 than can be consumed at home. At least one 

 man, a farmer, hunts deer in his spare time. 

 He sells the flesh retail like beef. The dried 

 deer blood, hoofs, and hair are sold for magical 

 or medicinal uses. 



Black maize is used primarily to make 

 chapatas, tamales of black or red maize, sweet- 

 ened with brown sugar and mixed with black 

 or red amaranth. It is also used to make atole 

 de cascara de cacao (atole of chocolate hulls) 

 and ponteduros, which are toasted immature 

 corn ground and mixed with brown sugar sirup. 



Greens {quelites) of wheat are made from 

 a wild plant or weed which grows among the 

 wheat and are greatly liked in Chilchota. A 

 curious custom exists in that anyone may help 

 himself to these greens, entering into wheat 

 fields belonging to others either with or without 

 permission. Anyone objecting would be severely 

 censored in Chilchota. Pozole is also made 

 from green wheat toasted, ground, and mixed 

 with chile, salt, and "epazote." The time for 

 this is May at the harvest; it is "hot" food. 



A food made from the chayote root is sagu. 

 The skin is removed from the tubers and the 

 pulp ground to a sort of flour. The flour is 

 placed in water for 2 or 3 days, being stirred 

 frequently. The flour is then allowed to settle, 

 the water drained off, and the flour dried. 

 Although it is used in various dishes, the main 

 use is to feed small children and women recently 

 delivered, when it is cooked in water, either 

 plain or sweetened with honey. The plain 

 boiled chayote root, uaras in Tarascan, is sold 



