54 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY— PUBLICATION NO. 



The matter is not an obsession with the ordinary 

 man or woman, unless he is feehng ill. 



There may well be a magical background for this 

 belief, something embedded in the matrix of curative 

 magic. If so, it is my notion that the magical inter- 

 pretations have been lost. As we shall see later, the 

 corpus of curative magic is not a completely organ- 

 ized and consistent whole. It either represents a 

 collection of incompletely assimilated accretions from 

 various sources, or an older system now broken into 

 a number of more or less unhinged parts, or perhaps 

 it is both. At any rate, I was able to unearth no 

 hints of deeper meanings in the question of the food 

 classification, although, as with all other aspects of 

 this report. I would be the first to grant that the 

 period of field work was insufficient to be certain. 



When one is well there is no harm in mixing "hot" 

 and "cold" foods in the same meal, but this is be- 

 lieved to be dangerous when the individual is ill. 



There follows a partial listing of foods in each 

 category, upon which four supposedly authoritative 

 informants agreed. The informants consisted of a 

 professional curing woman (cnrandcra or curiosa, 

 not a witch or britja), a family matriarch, and two 

 men in their forties. None of these persons are 

 recognized relatives or close friends. Various other 

 food items which I tried to check produced disagree- 

 ment or uncertainty. 



COLD FOODS 



Carnero (mutton). 



Pescado (fish in general). 



Corbina (a large sea fish). 



Mishito (another type of fish). 



Cangrejos (crabs). 



Maiz (maize). 



Arroz (rice). 



Papa (potato). 



Tomate (tomalo). 



Chocolate (chocolate, cocoa). 



Te (tea, but not including tea made from yerba luiza) . 



Mantequilla (butter). 



Pan (bread). 



Azucar (sugar, in all forms). 



Dulces (sweets, candies). 



Conservas (jellies, canned fruit). 



Queso (cheese). 



Leche (milk). 



Palta (alligator pear). 



Guanabano (a native fruit). 



Came de chancho (pork). 



Frijol panamito (small beans). 



Cebada (barley; because barley is "cold," so is beer). 



Cerveza (beer). 



Cola (bottled soft drinks). 



Platano de la isla (a bland plantain). 



Trigo (wheat). 



Quaker (rolled oats). 



Avena (oats). 



Choclo (green corn on cob). 



HOT FOODS 



Canela (cinnamon). 



Yerba luiza (a common herb for tea). 



Frijoles corrientes (most of the common beans). 



Naranja (orange, but especially the peel, cdscara). 



Carne de res (beef). 



Carne de gallina o polio (chicken meat). 



Cabrito (kid). 



Pavo (turkey). 



Camote (swectpotato). 



Limun (lemon, lime). 



Sal (salt). 



-Aji (red and yellow peppers). 



Cafe (coffee). 



Pisco (native Peruvian brandy). 



Catiaso (drinking alcohol of sugarcane). 



Coca (sometimes made into tea). 



.Mango (a fruit). 



Cuy (flesh of the guinea pig). 



Platano (banana, except the variety called "de la isla"). 



Garbanzos (chickpeas). 



Vino (wine). 



Chicha. 



STATISTICAL STUDY OF FOODS 

 COiNSUMED 



In an attempt to obtain a more objective idea of 

 foods actually eaten throughout a typical day than 

 could be obtained from a merely impressionistic ac- 

 count and also in order to discover whether or not 

 there were actual differences in the diets or menus of 

 Mocheros as distinguished from forasteros, the help 

 of the local public schools was enlisted. A survey 

 was made during three successive week days of the 

 first week of July 1944 during which there were no 

 fiestas or general celebrations. The method followed 

 was similar to that employed in a Guatemalan town 

 in 1942.^- Through the kind cooperation of Seiior 

 Rafael Casteiiada, director of the Government-sup- 

 ported boys' school, the Seiiorita, directress of the 

 Government-supported girls' school, and their as- 

 sociated teachers, a contest was carried out in both 

 institutions on the same 3 days. The contest was ex- 

 plained to the students as one in observation, composi- 

 tion, and penmanship. The students were instructed 

 to write an essay each day on the subject, "What I 

 ate yesterday" { Lo qiic comi aycr). They were to 



"Gillin, 1943, vol. 1, particularly pp. 352-359. The similarity in 

 method does not imply detailed similarity in the two situations of 

 San Luis Jilotepeque (Guatemala) and Moche (Peru). 



