38 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY— PUBLICATION NO. 



lower {right): 11, middle (right) ). The lalter is 

 the ideal of all house owners, but many for want of 

 time, money, or energy never get around to it. 

 Plastering may take one of two forms ; a white lime 

 plaster made of purcliased materials (as there is no 

 lime kiln in the community itself) or a simple mud 

 plaster simply spread over the adobes by hand and 

 smoothed down with the edge of a board. The mud 

 plaster is sometimes whitewashed, in which case it 

 has an appearance resembling that of t!ie lime- 

 plastered waWs. 



Although no complete new houses were built 

 during my time in Moche, I was told that a mason, 

 when employed. Iielps to lay out the plan of a new 

 house. The mason may stake out the position of the 

 walls and partitions on the ground, connecting the 

 stakes with cord lines. Often the house owner or the 

 family lays out the plan "free hand," simply marking 

 the position of the walls with lines drawn on the 

 ground. Only the adobe and tapia houses are laid 

 out with any care. 



In the house with walls of tapia the walls are made 

 in the same manner as that employed in constructing 

 the tapia fences. The ancient Mochicas knew the 

 tapia process, but seem not to have used it in house 

 construction.^ Plate 11, upper (left), shows a house 

 constructed of tapia. Although this process is 

 cheaper than adobe, it is not preferred because it pro- 

 duces a very thick wall which, with the technique in 

 use, is hardly ever perfectly plumb. Tapia construc- 

 tion is often used to patch adobe walls and to make 

 additions to adobe houses. 



The procedure and artifacts in making tapia. 

 whether in house walls i)r in fences, are as follow. 

 The two principal artifacts, in addition to the spade, 

 are the cajon (mold made of boards) and the sogas 

 (ropes) for tying the cajon together. When a tapia 

 is in two or more levels, the lower one is called 

 arrastrada (creeping along the ground). For 

 making this, four stakes are driven into the ground, 

 one for each corner of the cajon, which actually con- 

 sists of four parts, the four sides of the mold. Then 

 the four elements of the cajon are tied to the stakes, 

 tied together, and adjusted to give the proper shape 

 and also to make certain that the cajon does not 

 come apart. The earth of the ground alongside is 

 wetted and left to stand for 4 days. Then it is 

 mixed and puddled with the spade, and shoveled into 

 the cajon. If the puddling place is distant from the 



'" Personal communication of Rafael I.arco Hoyle and Manuel 

 ilriccno. 



site of the tapia, the wet earth is carried to the cajon 

 in gunny sacks or baskets. Once in the mold it is 

 stamped down by a man working barefooted therein. 

 Then the sides of the mold are removed and the sides 

 of the tapia while still moist are slapped with the 

 flat of the spade in order to smooth and consolidate 

 them. The upper block of a tapia is called ensimada 

 (on top). Two bars of iron are laid across the lower 

 block, one at each end, and to these are tied the 

 cajon. so that it does not fall down. The tying is 

 done with a double rope, and sticks are twisted into 

 these ropes to tighten them. The sticks are called 

 toltol and the capstanlike arrangement is called 

 cahresta. (The Spanish Academy, I believe, favors 

 "cahrestantes.") 



A second type of wall, much used for patching 

 tapia fences, is called sanja tapia.^^ This is made 

 entirely with the spade and without a mold form. 

 Moist earth is simply shaped by the spade. The 

 top of a tapia fence is usually horizontal and is often 

 used as a pathway, because it offers a better surface 

 than the sandy lane. Some tops, however, are made 

 in the form of a pitched roof, in order to prevent 

 their use as sidewalks, which tends to wear down 

 and to break down the fence. In Moche, practically 

 all tapia making, whether for house or fence, is done 

 by ininga (cooperative work), but in other nearby 

 communities it is done by specialists, who in 1944 

 charged 1.50 soles per cajon for their labor. Five 

 years before that the price was 80 centavos. 



The qiiincha type of wall is found throughout the 

 Peruvian coastal communities. Two general types, 

 a primitive and a sophisticated, occur. In both types 

 upright canes {cana brava) are inserted side by side 

 in line in the ground. They are usually stuck into 

 the ground from 3 to 6 inches, and if the surface is 

 dry, a crowbar may be used to make the hole. On 

 occasion, however, the canes are not inserted at all 

 but have a footing of mud built up around their butts 

 to a height of 3 to 4 inches. The upright canes are 

 then interlaced with two or more series of horizontal 

 canes, called fientos. This is to say that every odd 

 cane passes outside the horizontals and every even up- 

 right passes inside, as in checkerboard weaving. 

 Usually there are only two series of horizontals, one 

 about middle height of the wall and the other near the 

 top. Sometimes there are three sets of horizontals. 

 These horizontals are usually arranged in a series 

 close together ; the series varies from two to three. 



^ I have not secured a clear meaning for "sanja." Can it be 

 Quechua, "sankhu," dense? See Farfan (1941, p. 22). 



