MOCHE: A PERUVIAN COASTAL COMMLMTY-GILLIX 



41 



pillar (wliich was a definite Mochica feature) are 

 both reminiscent of Mochica architecture. The 

 "porch" of the playa houses is always made of 

 quinclta. roofed with f'ctatcs. and is located on the 

 landward side. In addition to these open-air rooms, 

 conif'iiia houses usually possess an arbor and a 

 garden (hucrta) facing it. whereas arbors and 

 gardens are at best only rudimentary on the f'kiya 

 owing to lack of irrigation water. 



The great majority of floors are of hard-packed 

 earth, which is preferred by the true Mochero, 

 because he sleeps on an cstcra of totora laid on the 

 floor, and he claims that cement and tile floors are 

 too cold for comfort. In the pueblo some sophisti- 

 cated and rich Mocheros live in houses with wooden 

 plank floors, and one or two have cement and tile 

 floors. The jorastcro houses usually have tile. 



WATER SUPPLY 



Water supply in most houses is a matter of fetch 

 and carry. In the town there are six pitas or public 

 spigots from underground pipes. When water is 

 running in the accqidas (irrigation ditches) in town, 

 people also obtain water therefrom. Outside of 

 town, water is obtained only from the acequius. 

 During the dry season when a given ditch has water 

 only every 9 or 10 days, considerable labor is some- 

 times required : for example, when the nearest run- 

 ning ditch is 2 km. away, on the other side of the 

 cainpim. In such cases donkeys with pack saddle 

 and two metal cans are sometimes used. Otherwise, 

 water is usually carried to the house from tb.e source 

 by women using pails or clay pots. 



A number of houses in tow-n — relatively few out- 

 side — have wells {pozos) in the back yard. I am 

 unable to understand why all houses do not possess 

 this convenience. In town the water level is between 

 2 and 3 ni. below the surface, depending upon the 

 season, so elaborate work is not required for the 

 sinking of a well.*- These wells are lined either with 

 the shells of oil drums or with brick, and the water 

 is drawn up bv means of a metal bucket on the end 

 of a rope. 



SANITARY FACILITIES 



.Sanitary facilities consist of the nearest adobe wall 

 or fence of? the immediate premises. So far as I 



^- In 19.^4, the water level of nine wells in the town ranged from 

 0.5 to 3 m. below the surface and averaged 2.28 m. Data from blue- 

 print No. IT-APM-50, Consejo Provincial de Trujillo, Inspecci6n 

 Tecnica de las Obras de Agiia Potable, Agua Potable de Mochc, 

 Proyecto de la Red de Distribucion, Diciembre, 1934. 



know, there is no water closet, indoors or outdoors, 

 available to any Mochero. One of my informants, 

 visiting me at the hotel in Trujillo, found himself 

 comjiletely confused when I showed him into the 

 bathroom. Small children relieve themselves on the 

 street, the sidewalk, and almost any other public 

 place, and I have never seen one reprimanded or 

 punished for this behavior. Although women are 

 modest, the sight of a man urinating or buttoning 

 up his trousers in plain view of the general public 

 is very common. Enamclware chamber pots are 

 possessed by about a third of the Mochero families, 

 according to my count, but the regularity with which 

 they are used is questionable. During one night 

 spent in a Mochero's house in the cainpina in a 

 curing session. I noticed that several members of the 

 family sleeping in the adjoining room apparently 

 openly urinated on the floor during the night. 



Garbage and other refuse is commonly thrown into 

 the middle of the street. TJiere is a garb.ngc man 

 (baja policia), with a horse-drawn cart, who comes 

 around at infrequent inter\'als to carry the refuse 

 away. 



In the pueblo the houses, as shown on map 1. are 

 arranged along the streets, which are laid out in a 

 rectangular, although slightly irregular, grid plan. In 

 the camp'ina. they are located at irregular intervals, 

 usually shaded by trees. A campiiia house is usually 

 located in the corner of tJie owner's land, not in the 

 middle of the plot. On the beach, the fishermen's 

 houses are strung out at irregular intervals for about 

 1 1 km. on each side of the small seaside resort of Las 

 Delicias. 



A good many chacreros have two houses, one in the 

 pueblo and the other in the campiiia, "on the cliacra." 



HOUSE FURNISHINGS AMONG TRUE 

 MOCHEROS 



A North -American even of lower economic status 

 might consider even the better furnished Moche 

 houses somewhat bare and old-fashioned. Also, the 

 constant sifting of fine dust from the ceiling prevents 

 the rooms from ever looking spic-and-span in the 

 sense employed by a good housekeeper. It is some- 

 what difficult to describe the furnishings of the ''typi- 

 cal" Moche house at present, owing to the varying 

 influences of acculturation and differentiations in 

 wealth. As has been the case with many indigenous 

 groups in various parts of the hemisphere, it would 

 seem that Moche had achieved a form of "stabilized 

 native-colonial" culture compounded of aboriginal 



653,548°— 47- 



