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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY— PUBLICATION NO. 5 



especially the "Comercio," were printing in 1944 a 

 total of 20 to 25 full columns of news of all types 

 daily, but the Trujillo papers, especially the "In- 

 dustria," carry much less reading material. All in- 

 formants agree that the total circulation of daily 

 papers in Moclie cannot be less than 200. The follow- 

 ing figures were obtained by me from the respective 

 circulation managers and agents. "La Nacion" of 

 Trujillo reported for June, 1944, 49 paid subscrip- 

 tions in Moche and estimated a street sale by news- 

 boys of about 15 daily. "La Industria" reported 

 paid subscriptions in Moche for July 1944 as 79, 

 with no sale by newsboy. The agents for the dis- 

 tribution of the Lima papers report a sale of "about 

 25" papers daily to customers in Moche. This gives 

 a total of 168, to which must be added an unknown 

 number bought by the plazcras (women who go to 

 market) in Trujillo in the early morning. All in- 

 formants agree that this unknown figure would be 

 at least ZZ, making a total of 200. I did not have 

 the time to trace down these recipients of news- 

 papers to get a figure showing the precise proportion 

 of the total who were Mocheros, as distinguished 

 from jorastcros. However, the cream of the news, 

 so far as it is available in the papers, circulates widely 

 among the Mocheros, even in the campiiia, and the 

 average native was usually quite well informed of 

 the latest battles of the war, governmental decisions 

 in Lima, and outstanding doings of the Prefectura 

 in Trujillo. All of the salones, shops, and barber 

 shops, as w-ell as the municipal office, take at least 

 one paper, which is read or glanced over without 

 charge by customers and loafers. 



As previously mentioned, a large proportion of 

 the Mocheros, especially those above the age of 

 50, are illiterate, and of course do not read the news- 

 papers. I have been surprised on several occasions, 

 however, by the interest with which these people 



follow the news purveyed to them verbally by their 

 literate friends and relatives. 



A biweekly newspaper was started in Moche itself 

 in October 1944 under the name of "Inti" (Quechua, 

 "sun"), published and edited by the organization of 

 30ung men called Moche en Marcha. It is a four- 

 page, four-column sheet printed in Trujillo, but 

 edited in Moche, and is devoted entirely to Moche 

 affairs. The mere fact that a Quechua word was 

 chosen for the title is another indication, I felt, of 

 how deeply is the Mochica tradition buried in the 

 past. 



Aside from newspapers, there is no regular inflow 

 of reading matter. An occasional magazine is pur- 

 chased in Trujillo, but irregularly and at long in- 

 tervals. The preference seems to be for picture 

 magazines printed in Chile, Argentina, or Cuba, al- 

 though "Selecciones del Reader's Digest" seemed 

 to be arousing some interest in 1944. Most of the 

 literate Mocheros do not have the habit of reading 

 as a means of cultivating the mind or even as a 

 means of passing the time, while many cannot read 

 at all. On the other hand, there are exceptions here, 

 as in all communities, and quite a number of young 

 men who are in colegio or university in Trujillo, take 

 themselves somewhat seriously as intellectuals. A 

 number of these individuals have fairly large collec- 

 tions of books (20 to 30) and magazines. 



All of these media of transportation and com- 

 munication tend to break down the cultural isolation 

 of Moche. Of all of them, the good highwavs and 

 frequent bus transportation are probably the most 

 important at present. These media serve to place 

 the ]Mocheros in contact with other cultural currents, 

 but, of course, such contact does not necessarily 

 guarantee that the outside cultural elements in ques- 

 tion are or will be adopted by the Mocheros. A 

 discussion of these matters will be postponed to a 

 later section (p. 159). 



RECREATION AND ART 



DRINKING AND EATING 



To eat, drink, and be merry is the customary idea 

 of the proper way to relax and enjoy oneself in 

 Moche. As indicated in the section on the etiquette 

 of food and drink, the Mocheros are prone to recrea- 

 tion of this informal type about the house even on 

 ordinary weekday afternoons, whereas the consump- 

 tion of elaborate meals and prodigious amounts of 



cliicha and cane alcohol is a standard feature of all 

 holidays, religious or secular. 



In order to give some idea of the atmosphere of 

 the informal weekday affairs which somehow get 

 started without much planning or intention, I quote 

 from my notes concerning an episode in which I was 

 involved during my first days in Moche. Inci- 

 dentally, it should not be assumed that either dis- 



