CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE MODERN TARASCAN AREA—WEST Tel! 
Large cracks occur in the soil surface during the 
months of March and April, and moisture is evap- 
orated from a depth of many inches. Conse- 
quently éardnda is a ‘‘temporal”’ soil, i. e., it can be 
planted only after the rains begin. Because of its 
clayey texture, it erodes easily once the plant cover 
is stripped and the soil structure is destroyed. 
The cultivated slopes around Lake Pitzcuaro, for 
example, are one of the worst-eroded agricultural 
areas of Mexico. Wherever éar4nda soils occur, 
the surface is scarred by gullies, which are becom- 
ing a characteristic landscape feature in the low 
areas surrounding the Sierra. 
Minor soil types——Among the most fertile in 
the Tarascan area are a few minor soil types. 
These include the alluvium in La Cafada and 
the lacustrine deposits around the shores of Lake 
Patzcuaro and within the recently desiccated 
Zacapu Basin. Containing abundant organic 
material and essential chemical elements, most 
of these soils are cropped annually without fallow. 
A peculiar soil type, called wirds, occurs near the 
edge of a lava flow on the southwestern shore 
of Lake P&atzcuaro, on Jaracuaro Island, and near 
Thuatzio. The subsoil is a fibery-textured white 
clay (35.4 percent fine clay), from which the 
whitish-gray adobe bricks of Jaricuaro and 
Thuatzio are made; the topsoil, when mixed 
with lacustrine deposits (as on JarAacuaro Island), 
forms a fertile loam extremely high in organic 
matter (nearly 5 percent) and calcium carbonate 
(7.7 percent). On the other hand, when the parent 
material lies close to the surface (as around 
Arécutin), the wirds is one of the poorest soils in 
the vicinity.'® 
16 A similar soil type occurs at the edge of a lava flow along the highway 
on the outskirts of Zacapu. The relation between vulcanism and the forma- 
tion of wirds is not clear. 
TARASCAN POPULATION 
THE RECESSION OF NATIVE SPEECH 
One of the outstanding developments in Ta- 
rascan history has been the drastic areal recession 
of indigenous speech. Today the territory in 
which Tarascan (P‘orépeéa) is spoken represents 
only one-fifteenth of its pre-Conquest extent. 
The pre-Spanish linguistic area (discussed by 
Brand, 1944) included most of the present State of 
Michoacan, except the Pacific slope of the Sierra 
Madre del Sur between Colima and the lower 
Balsas (map 7). The political limits of the 
Tarascan state, however, extended beyond the 
language boundary: in the west into Jalisco, in the 
south to the Pacific, and in the north to the Bajfo 
of Guanajuato (Brand, 1944; cf. Stanislawski, 
1947 a). The Tarascan cultural core centered in 
the north-central part of the Empire, comprising 
the Lake P&tzcuaro-Cuitzeo area and the pine 
forests of the Sierra and the upper escarpment 
zone (Stanislawski, 1947 a). Tarascans extended 
their speech southward into the tierra caliente 
(basins of the Tepalcatepec and Balsas) by colo- 
nization from the highlands during the 14th and 
early 15th centuries. Likewise, the P‘orépeta 
settlements around the eastern end of Lake 
Chapala and south thereof (Mazamitla) appear to 
have been 15th-century colonies. Within the 
pre-Conquest area various islands of foreign 
tongues existed; these represented colonies settled 
with permission of Tarascan chiefs. There were 
three inclusions of Matlaltzinca or Pirinda (Otomf 
stock): (1) the largest, near present Morelia, from 
Undameo northeast to Charo, (2) at Taimeo, 
southeast of Lake Cuitzeo, and (3) at Huetamo 
near the Balsas.” Moreover, a group of Apaneca 
colonists lived at Guayameo, near Sirandaro on 
the Balsas, and an islet of Teco occurred between 
Tancitaro and Uruapan."® 
Various factors contributed to the areal retro- 
gression of Tarascans during the Spanish colonial 
and postcolonial periods. One factor was actual 
decrease of Indian population caused mainly by 
European diseases. The population of some 
areas was further weakened or depleted by 
migration of Tarascans as laborers to distant 
mining and agricultural centers. Moreover, 
Spanish and mulatto settlement within the indig- 
enous area was a powerful force of hispaniciza- 
tion; wherever stock-raising estancias or sugar 
haciendas were established, native speech slowly 
disappeared. Conversely, in those areas shunned 
by Spanish settlers, Tarascan has been preserved 
to this day. 
The most serious shock which the indigenous 
cultures suffered from Spanish contact was the 
frightful toll taken by the contagious European 
diseases that became epidemic throughout centro’ 
1 Data obtained from the following Relaciones Geograficas in Mus 
leg. 102: Rel. de Necotlin and Rel. de Cuseo; Mus. Nac., leg. 99 
Charo Matlalzingo. 
18 Mus. Nac., leg. 102, Rel. de Sirandaro y Guayameo; P’ 
1872, vol. 1, p. 131; Mus. Nac., Col.de Gomez Orozco, vol. 1, ” 
