34 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 7 
The Tarascans, like many aboriginal groups 
strongly influenced by European culture, engage 
in two types of agriculture: field agriculture and 
horticulture. The former comprises extensive 
cultivation of grains in comparatively large fields 
with the plow and in small hillside plots with the 
hoe. Tarascan horticulture includes mainly the 
intensive cultivation of grains, vegetables, medic- 
inal plants, and fruits in the house-lot gardens 
(ekudau, sing., ekudmeéa, pl., hispanicized to 
ecuaro); it also includes specialized truck garden- 
ing, such as that practiced on the shores of Lake 
Patzcuaro. 
FIELD AGRICULTURE AND ASSOCIATED CROPS 
There are three basic native food crops of 
Mexico: maize (starch and oil), beans (protein), 
and squash (vegetable vitamin), all of which are 
now associated with field agriculture. In most 
Indian and many mestizo communities this com- 
plex forms the principal elements in the common 
diet; the three crops are planted together in the 
same field, cultivated together in the same man- 
ner, and harvested about the same time. 
Maize culture.—The earliest record of maize in 
the Tarascan area is found in the charred ears 
encountered in a lava flow 18 km. northwest of 
Morelia. The date of the flow is unknown, but 
maize was probably known to the Tarascans when 
they settled in the Sierra and the northern 
plateau. 
The provenience of maize cultivated by the 
early Tarascans is but a small part of the complex 
and obscure movements of corn from a secondary 
center of origin in southern Mexico or northern 
Central America.” Anderson (1946 a) has de- 
scribed three distinct races of Zea mays in central 
Mexico: (1) the Mexican Pyramidal, centering in 
the eastern highlands; (2) Mexican Narrow Ear, 
found in western Mexico, particularly in both cold 
and hot lands of Jalisco and Nayarit; and (3) 
Mountain Yellow, a high altitude maize (usually 
above 7,000 ft.) encountered in purest form in the 
highlands of western Mexico. Located between 
% See Mangelsdorf and Cameron (1942) on the hybridization of South 
American primitive maize and Tripsicum in Middle America. 
5! Following is a brief description of the above races as given by Anderson 
(1946 a, p. 171): (1) Mexican Pyramidal. Ears short, tapering regularly butt 
to tip; row number high to very high (16-24). Kernels dented and pointed. 
Color prevailingly white and pale yellow. Plants short, pronounced inter- 
veinal red or purple coloring. Shallow root system, leaves broad and pubes- 
cent. Tassels with few or no branches. (2) Mexican Narrow Ear. Ears 
narrow, long, irregularly long-tapered, compressed at butt. Low row num- 
the two centers of medium altitude maize (Mexi- 
can Pyramidal and Mexican Narrow Ear), the 
Tarascan area has received a mixture of both. 
Mountain Yellow, often diluted with strains of 
Pyramidal, is found in the higher mountain slopes 
in the Sierra. Other varieties, cultivated for 
special purposes (green corn, sweet corn) are also 
found in modern Tarascan agriculture. Popcorn, 
however, one of the oldest maizes in Mexico, is 
significantly absent. 
The field corns.—Economically the most im- 
portant maize modernly grown by Tarascans is 
the field varieties, cultivated usually in the level 
lands and on lower slopes. Morphologically, this 
maize is similar to Mexican Pyramidal, but with 
pronounced denting of the seeds, little or no point- 
ing, and medium row number (14-18). In all 
probability this type represents a mixture of 
western and eastern corns, with characteristics of 
the latter being dominant. In the Sierra field 
corn is predominantly white and is grown ‘de 
humedad,” i. e. it is planted in the moist t’uptri 
soils in the dry season (March or April). For this 
reason it is called blanco marceno. In the lower 
areas surrounding the Sierra (e.g. the Lake dis- 
trict and La Canada) field corn is morphologically 
similar to that of the Sierra, but is predominantly 
yellow and grown “de temporal,” i. e. planted in 
the clayey ¢ardénda soils immediately after the 
first summer rains (late May or early June). 
The planting of a few grains of red maize (éé6éu) 
with the field corns (both humedad and temporal) is 
a common practice in many Tarascan pueblos.” 
Many consider the red as “father” of all maize, 
and as a protector of field corn from disease, 
storms, and drought. 
Traces of western low-row number in field 
maize are found scattered throughout the Sierra, 
where such corn is known as matz de ocho, although 
the row count varies between 8 and 10. In many 
pueblos it was stated that maiz de ocho was grown 
more extensively in past years, especially by the 
ber (8-14). Kernels wide, unpointed, slight to no dent. Color prevailingly 
white. Plants tall, slender; slight to high interveinal coloring. Tassel with 
many branches, long and wiry. (3) Mountain Yellow. Ears and kernels 
small, somewhat compressed. Ears enlarged at base with irregular rowing 
there. Color bright yellow. 
82 This practice was encountered in the following Sierra towns: Cocucho, 
Nurio, Urapicho, Pomacuarén, Cherén, Cherandtzicurin, Pichftaro. In 
La Cafiada: Tanaquillo, Carapan. The practice was denied in the Lake 
P&tzcuaro pueblos. In Nurfo 1 grain of red is planted with 1,000 grains of 
white. Many former Tarascan towns (now mestizo) follow the customs: 
Tancftaro, Apo, ete. The practice may extend far beyond the present 
bounds of Tarascan speech 
