MOCHE: A PERUVIAN COASTAL COMMUNITY— Gll.I.IN' 



101 



the passage of two years or so, the sweetheart, being com- 

 pletely convinced of the affection of her lover, wished to be 

 mistress of his heart (diicila) forever, but her ambition 

 would be realized only if she could eliminate from this life 

 the true siK>use, who was a model woman of the house. 

 She had to have recourse to crime, by means of la hrujcria 

 y el mat. All this she had to do without the intervention of 

 her lover, because he felt a true atTection for his legitimaic 

 woman. From this arose the fatal drama of the sweet- 

 heart. On various occasions, when the adulterous husband 

 visited her, she insisted that he bring her some bread from 

 his other house. The innocent husband, whether by lack of 

 attention or forgetfulness, failed to do this and his sweet- 

 heart pretended to be angry and would not permit the 

 caresses which he had previously enjoyed. He could not 

 understand what motive pursued his sweetheart and said to 

 himself, "Every day she asks me to bring bread to the house. 

 To save trouble I shall just take some of her own bread 

 from her kitchen as 1 come to visit her the ne.xt time." This 

 he did, !)resenting the sweetheart with some partly eaten 

 bread which he had found in her kitchen when she was other- 

 wise occupied. Great was her satisfaction to see in her 

 hands the desired bread and many were the caresses which 

 she lavished on her lover. Repeatedly she asked him if the 

 bread was from his house, to which he replied, "Si, si, si, 

 liijila," not having any presentiment of the cruel denouement. 

 As soon as the bread was in her power, the sweetheart ran 

 and delivered it into the hands of a bru/o (witch), who had 

 been previously advised to produce certain desired effects in 

 the innocent victim [the man's wife]. But the opjKisite took 

 place. A short time thereafter the second woman fell ill; 

 she was completely incapacitated and the medicos could not 

 diagnose the sickness, until finally the crisis arrived. In her 

 delirium and the pain which she suffered, she could do 

 nothing but call to her bed the husband and invoke his pardon 

 for the wicked act which she had wished to do to his legiti- 

 mate seiiora. And at the same time she told him, "If you 

 wish to save my life, go to the back yard of my house and 

 in a corner there is a small barrel with a large stone on its 

 to|). Take away the stone carefully and inside the barrel 

 there is a toad with the bread in its mouth. Take the bread 

 out of the toad's mouth and throw it in water." The man, 

 bewildered and not accustomed to performing these offices, 

 did the wrong thing. He took the top off the barrel, and 

 without intention, dropped the stone on the toad, killing it. 

 W hen he arrived at the side of his sweetheart, her condition 

 was hopeless and he could understand only these words, 

 "Now you have killed me. You never really loved me." 

 She died almost immediately, only shortly after the death 

 of her nefarious friend the toad. 



My informant says that his friend, the man involved, 

 told him the whole story because he himself vs-as not 

 involved in any magical plot against his wife. The 

 man is now said to be reconciled with his wife, and 

 both regard the experience as a good lesson. It 

 would seem, however, that the wandering husband's 

 preoccupation with the matter is not his sexual in- 

 fidelity to his wife, but the possibility that he might 

 have been implicated unwittingly in a magical at- 



tack upon her. Ho fell no profound gttilt over his 

 "betrayal" of her in the sexual relationship, but he 

 would have been seriously disturbed had he been 

 involved in a magical assault upon her health or life. 



LAKGKR FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS 



By means of genealogies, 1 "jilaced" 206 adult 

 Moclieros with respect to their blood relationships. 

 I was obsessed at the time with the notion that there 

 must be some structurally recognizable type of ex- 

 tended family or kinship grouping. Now, however, 

 I am convinced that such is not the case. 



Although an individual's blood relatives beyond 

 the immediate family are recognized as such, they 

 are tiot recognized, either by the individuals involved 

 or by others, as a grottp with internal functional or- 

 ganization or with recognized status relations vis-a- 

 vis other grou]3s. Extended families or kinship 

 groups are not among the constituent units of Moche 

 society. So far as its structural features are con- 

 cerned, the Moche family and kin are very mtich 

 like those of North America, except that they and 

 the individuals involved are less mobile, both physi- 

 cally and socially. As a result of the latter circum- 

 stance, the average Mochero has more face to face 

 contacts with a large number of his relatives than 

 is perhaps the case with the average North Ainer- 

 ican. 



There are a few exceptions in which a group of 

 siblings and other kinsmen maintains a certain soli- 

 darity and unity. In all cases the unity seems to 

 be imposed by the personal influence of a "matriarch," 

 an old woman, usually the mother of the siblings. 

 In one of these cases, the brothers consulted with 

 and took orders from their mother, a strong-willed 

 widow in her seventies with a sense of familv pride. 

 Each of the brothers, however, maintained his own 

 household for his family of procreation. It is also 

 worth noting that this old lady, who was sometimes 

 spoken of as the "curaca" (chieftainess) of the 

 campina. exerted a somewhat similar influence over 

 the actions of other persons not her relatives who 

 were in the habit of approaching her for advice and 

 counsel and who often obeyed her stiggestions even 

 when the latter were not solicited. Another "matri- 

 arch" of this type is the old lady, previously men- 

 tioned, who inherited the proceeds of an insurance 

 policy with wliicli she acquired considerable property. 

 Several of her children and grandchildren live with 

 her in her house and she effectively controls this 



