26 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 7 
times many towns supplemented the scanty flow 
from the local spring by constructing aqueducts 
(éekikua, canoas) of hollowed half-logs to bring 
in water from large springs some distance away. 
Furthermore, wooden reservoirs caulked with pine 
pitch were constructed at springs to conserve 
water during the dry season (Mus. Nac., leg. 102, 
Rel. de Chilchota, f. 10v.; Ponce Relacién, vol. 2, 
p. 6). Wooden aqueducts are still employed in 
many Sierra pueblos to conduct water from springs 
to the village outskirts (pl. 2). 
The progressive exhaustion of springs consti- 
tutes one of the most urgent welfare problems in 
the Sierra today. Scarcity of water in that area, 
however, is no modern difficulty, for during the 
18th century many pueblos were sorely pressed in 
the dry season (AGN Historia, vol. 73, ff. 212-226). 
The present scarcity has been aggravated by con- 
tinuous destruction of the forest. Some towns have 
partially solved the local water problem by digging 
wells in the adjacent basin flats. Nurio and 
Urapicho, whose springs have long been dry, 
obtain water from a common group of wells in a 
large basin nearby. Located within a_ basin, 
Paracho has always obtained water from wells. 
Moreover, the peculiar geological structure of 
Charapan’s bench site has permitted the develop- 
ment of water-bearing strata beneath the town. 
These strata are now tapped by private wells dug 
in the house lots and public wells in various parts 
of town (pl. 2). Even the water level in wells is 
continually diminishing. During the dry season 
water must be carefully rationed to the inhabit- 
ants and their livestock. Other pueblos, which 
are located far from water-bearing strata in the 
basins and have springs that cease to flow in the 
dry season, suffer even more. The women of 
Azajo travel with burros 8 km. to San Jerénimo on 
Lake P&tzcuaro to fill their cdéntaros, and those of 
Ocumicho walk 3 km. and many from Patamban 
go 8 km. to the large spring at San José for water. 
Few towns have received Federal or State aid for 
the improvement of the local water supply; on 
their own initiative the people of some pueblos 
(e. g. San Felipe) have constructed concrete 
reservoirs to store spring water and have in- 
stalled pipe to carry water to various points in the 
village. The majority of the towns, however, 
lack sufficient resources to improve their plight 
and continue to suffer through the dry season. 
Plans of settlements.—The planning of pueblos 
and rancherias was unknown in pre-Columbian 
times. Settlements were amorphous, the dwell- 
ings irregularly spaced and connected by winding 
footpaths. Beginning around 1550, the Spaniards 
slowly forced the natives in most parts of central 
Mexico to rebuild their towns on a grid street 
pattern, which is now predominant in most 
pueblos (Indian and mestizo) in Mexico.** The 
advantages of the grid, with numbered blocks and 
houses, are obvious in terms of tax and tribute 
records. ‘Towns were also divided into barrios or 
wards, usually four or more; some barrios represent 
the congregation of outlying rancherias into the 
town. Within the Tarascan area the realinement 
of the street pattern was apparently continued 
until the close of the colonial period, for a late 
18th-century description mentions the tortuous, 
unplanned paths and irregularly spaced houses of 
some Sierra pueblos, which today have the grid 
pattern (AGN Historia, vol. 73, ff. 285-405). At 
the present time only the Tarascan ranchos 
(formed after the colonial period without direction 
from a centralized government) are characterized 
by winding streets and scattered dwellings, and 
probably illustrate the pattern of a pre-Conquest 
village (map 15). 
One of the outstanding features of the grid 
pattern imposed by the Spaniards is the plaza, or 
square, located in the center of the settlement. 
Every Tarascan village has its plaza, which 
functions as the commercial, social, and adminis- 
trative center of the town (map 16; pl. 2). A 
semblance of a garden and often a bandstand 
occupy the center of the plaza. Administrative 
buildings (the palacio municipal or jefetura and 
the jail), often the school, stores, and the dwellings 
of the more prominent citizens face the streets 
bordering the plaza. Moreover, the square is the 
site of religious and civil festivals and the market. 
The church, however, rarely faces the plaza, but 
is often placed one-half to one block distant. 
Away from the plaza, which in the larger towns 
is surrounded by a contiguous group of buildings, 
most Tarascan pueblos in the Sierra are char- 
acterized by widely spaced dwellings separated by 
house lots. Compact towns with contiguous 
building throughout occur in the Lake region and 
in the Zacapu Basin. (Maps 16, 17; pl. 2.) 
4 For a discussion of the introduction of the grid street pattern into New 
Spain, see Stanislawski, 1947 b. 
