30 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 7 
(2) Veracruz on the northern slopes of the Cofre 
de Perote; (3) the Sierra Madre Oriental between 
Apulco and Huayacocotla near the Hidalgo- 
Veracruz border and near the Pan American high- 
way northeast of Jacala, Hidalgo; (4) the Sierra 
Madre Occidental (Durango and Chihuahua); 
(5) isolated spots in the Sierra Madre del Sur 
(Guerrero) west of Chilpancingo; and (6) the 
Tarascan Sierra of Michoacin. The log cabin in 
Durango and Chihuahua possibly may have been 
introduced by United States Confederate refugees, 
a few of whom settled in the Sierra Madre in the 
late 1860’s and 1870’s. Located near one of the 
main Veracruz-México roads, the Perote people 
also may have obtained the idea of interlocked 
logs from United States or European travelers or 
settlers. The plank structures of Michoacan are 
technically superior to the North American log 
cabin (introduced into the North American colo- 
nies from Scandinavia in the 17th century), and 
are known to have existed since the last quarter 
of the 18th century. Log cabins were apparently 
unknown in Spain during the colonial period. 
The idea of their construction may have been 
introduced into Mexico from northern Europe. 
There is nothing in the Relacién de Michoacin 
or in the available Relaciones Geogriéficas (Muc. 
Nac., leg. 102) that indicates the presence of log 
structures among 16th-century Tarascans.** The 
native houses were constructed of adobe or stone 
with four-shed straw-thatched roofs. The first 
definite evidence of the modern troje that the writer 
has encountered appears in the Calderon report of 
1789 (AGN Historia, vol. 73), which mentions 
“. . jacales de . . . vigas horizontales cubiertas 
de tajamanil . . .” in Turicuaro (f. 336v), “. . . 
cuatro trojes de Maderas de Pino, bien constru- 
idas y conservadas ...” in Nocutzepo (Lake 
P&tzcuaro) (f. 301), and ‘‘. . . chozas (or casas) 
de madera . . .’?in many other towns in the Sierra 
(map 18). In most pueblos, however, wooden 
houses were mingled with those of stone or adobe. 
Moreover, houses constructed of small logs or 
poles placed vertically (‘‘estacas plantadas’’) were 
8 Log fortifications were constructed by the Tarascans at Taximaroa 
(Ciudad Hidalgo) in pre-Spanish times (Stanislawski, 1947 a, p. 49). There 
is no evidence, however, that the notching technique was known. For a 
description of pre-Conquest Tarascan houses, see Beals, Carrasco, and 
McCorkle, 1944, pp. 33-36. 
widespread both in the Sierra and in surrounding 
areas. The modern troje, then, appears to have 
been introduced into Michoacén sometime be- 
tween 1580 and 1780. 
Some native constructional and functional 
elements were applied to the log or plank struct- 
ure. For instance, the square floor plan and the 
four-shed roof were common features of the aborig- 
inal house. Again, the use of the troje as a store- 
house and the retention of the separate kitchen as 
living quarters would seem to indicate application 
of native uses to an introduced element. The 
storage of grain in the loft, however, may be an 
introduced European trait. As in most parts of 
indigenous Mexico, separate granaries (trojes) were 
possibly employed by pre-Conquest Tarascans.” 
The wooden troje is disappearing in the Taras- 
can area. As mentioned above, a few old 
structures exist in some of the towns outside the 
Sierra. According to the local inhabitants, such 
trojes were formerly more numerous; however, 
there is no evidence that the entire town was 
once composed of wooden houses. Owing to de- 
crease in large pines and firs, the cheaper adobe 
and stone structures are gradually replacing the~ 
troje in the Sierra towns. Only a few small 
Sierra villages and ranchos consist entirely of 
wooden structures. 
In additioa to the interlocked plank house, 
various roofing materials have been imtroduced 
into the Tarascan area (as well as into all parts of 
Mexico). Aboriginally, houses were roofed with 
grass or palm thatch, which is still employed in the 
tierra caliente of Michoacén. During the last 
half of the 16th century Basque miners probably 
introduced the shake (tejamanil) to roof their 
houses and ore refineries at the mining centers in 
central Mexico. From the mines the use of 
shakes gradually spread to Indian villages situated 
«0 One of the ‘temporary structures” depicted in the Relacién de Michoacin 
is similar to the modern vasiform granaries (cuwezcomatl) of parts of Morelos, 
Puebla, and Tlaxcala. Moreover, the original ms. of the Relacién de Tiripi- 
tfo, 1580 (in the Garcia Library, University of Texas, Austin), illustrates a 
vasiform troje similar to that shown in the Relacién de Michoacén. The 
Tiripitio troje was of two stories, the lower floor being used to store maize, the 
upper, reached by a notched log, for storing clothes, personal valuables, etc. 
4 Fair adobe brick can be made in the Sierra by mixing the local soil (of low 
clay content) with pine needles. 
42 The Relaciones Geograficas of 1579-81 (Mus. Nac., leg. 102) invariably 
mention shaked roofs in mining centers of New Spain. In the modern 
Basque country, however, shakes are used to roof only shepherds’ huts 
(Beals, Carrasco, and McCorkle, 1944, p. 34). 
