MOCHE: A PERUVIAN COASTAL COMMUNITY— GILLIN 



91 



Quite a number of proverbs and epigrams which 

 might appear to be "indecent" in English translation 

 are also current in Moche, even in mixed company. 



TIME 



Modern Moche operates on clock-measured time 

 and this seems to be no recent innovation. The clock 

 in the church has a loud bell which strikes the hours, 

 the quarter, and half hours, and its striking can 

 usually be heard all over town and in most parts of 

 the campiiio. It was shown in the section "Back- 

 ground of Moche" that the community had a church 

 bell as far back as the beginning of the I7th century, 

 which, according to the records of the Cathedral 

 chapter in Trujillo, had been cast in Moche itself. 

 A considerable number of persons possess watches 

 and cheap alarm clocks, as well. As previously 

 mentioned, a number of cultural activities are oper- 

 ated on measured time: irrigation, hired labor, 

 transportation to and from Trujillo, school hours, 

 etc. Cows must be milked at a certain time, for 

 example, if the lady of the house is to catch the early 

 bus to Trujillo. Children must eat breakfast at a 

 certain time if they are not to be penalized at school. 

 Men who work in Trujillo and Salaverry must leave 

 home at a regular hour. And so on. 



Another time indicator is the service of the Com- 

 pania Faucett de Aviacion (Faucett Aviation Co.) 

 whose airplanes fly up and down the north coast. 

 They fly fairly low over the Moche District to and 

 from the landing field in Trujillo. The plane from 

 Lima and the south crosses the campina at just about 

 11 o'clock every day, 7 days per week, and the plane 

 from the north crosses in the opposite direction en 

 route to Lima about 15 minutes later. 



The fact that the Mocheros usually know the time 

 of day does not mean that they are always punctual in 

 terms of the North American ideal patterns. In the 

 community itself a meal, for example, scheduled to 

 begin at 1 p. m. frequently does not actually get under 

 way until an hour or two later. Even the masses in 

 the church are sometimes delayed as much as an hour 

 after the announced time, because the priest is late in 

 arriving from Salaverry where he has conducted the 

 early mass. The parade of a saint may be announced 

 for 9:30 a. m., but does not start until a.bout 11. In 

 cases of this kind, however, there is not necessarily an 

 inconsistency between the representational pattern 

 (dinner will be at 1 o'clock) and the actional pat- 

 terns'*' (sitting down to eat at 2:30). It is generally 



« Gillin, 1944. 



understood that "1 o'clock" means "about 2:30." 

 The maladjustment which a foreigner feels at first 

 is due to a semantic difficulty arising from the 

 fact that his experience in the local situation has 

 not equipped him to understand the meaning of the 

 verbal symbols in use. Among the Mocheros, then, 

 there is one type of situation, usually of a social or 

 recreational nature, in which a verbal statement of a 

 given hour actually means an hour to 2 hours later 

 than that stated. There are other types of situations, 

 however, usually involving obligations between indi- 

 viduals, appointments of a business nature, school 

 hours, etc., in which there is a close correspondence 

 between the verbal pattern in its literal meaning and 

 the action pattern correlated witii it. In other words, 

 the Mocheros have learned to keep appointments 

 punctually when they stand to lose by not doing so. 

 For example, informants who promised to meet me at 

 a certain time and place were seldom late. Men 

 working outside the community arrive promptly at 

 their posts in time to begin work. The responsible 

 jiarties are always on hand at the time when water 

 is supposed to be turned into their irrigation ditches, 

 etc. 



MEASURES 



The metric system of weights and measures is in 

 use and fairly well understood by the Mocheros, 

 although apparently it is not as firmly bedded in their 

 thinking as the older Spanish colonial system. For 

 example, the people prefer to talk of land areas in 

 terms of fanegadas instead of hectares. The legua 

 (league) as a measure of distance is frequently used 

 rather than the kilometer. In weights, it is more com- 

 mon to use the arroba, the quintal, and the carga than 

 to speak in terms of kilograms. In liquid measure, 

 the botcUa is most commonly used, and is assumed 

 to be equivalent to a liter, although the large beer bot- 

 tles under reference actually hold slightly less than a 

 liter. For small weights, ancas (ounces) and libras 

 (pounds) appear in conversation almost exclusively. 

 I have never heard a Mochero spontaneously use the 

 term ceiiligraiiio or miligranio. On the other hand, 

 the kilo (kilogram) is a standard measure of weight. 



This preference for the Spanish colonial system is 

 characteristic of all of coastal Peru. The practical use 

 of the Inca land measure, the topo, is unknown in 

 Moche. 



HISTORICAL TRADITION 



A striking negative aspect of "lore and learning" 

 is the lack of historical traditions. There is no time- 

 worn body of tales or legends concerning the past of 



