40 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 7 
the above-named foods is the highly colored flour 
types grown in the house-lot gardens. 
Pinole has the widest distribution and is pos- 
sibly the most ancient of the maize foods in the 
New World. Among the Tarascans usually 
yellow maize from the desmontes is employed for 
pinole. The grain is toasted on the comal, then 
dry-ground on the metate, piloncillo being mixed 
in during the grinding process. Pinole is used 
almost exclusively for food on long trips. Esquite 
is prepared also by toasting whole grains of dried 
sweet or black elote corn on the comal, but it is 
not ground. 
The preparation of tamales, pozole, atole, and 
tortillas among the Sierra Tarascans is discussed 
by Beals (1946, pp. 49-52). In preparing all 
four types, hard-shelled maize is first soaked and 
cooked in lime water to soften or remove the hard 
outer shell that covers each grain. (Beals men- 
tions the use of oak ashes in soaking corn for 
pozole.) For tamales, atoles, and tortillas the 
soaked grains are wet-ground on the metate or 
in power-operated grinding mills (molinos de nix- 
tamal). The fact that they form an essential 
part of fiesta and ritual foods of most Mexican 
Indians suggests that tamales and atoles may be 
more ancient than tortillas. The latter are com- 
monplace in each of the two or three daily meals 
and carry no ritual significance. Moreover, the 
varieties of both tamales and atoles are numerous. 
Beals describes 10 atoles habitually made in 
Cheran; 11 kinds were noted in Sicuicho, only 5 of 
which were similar to those in Cherén. The 
varieties of atole are ordinarily distinguished by 
the addition of some flavoring, such as ground 
blackberries or herbs. 
Animal feed—Maize grain is commonly fed to 
livestock, notably for fattening hogs. Yellow 
corn, mainly Mountain Yellow, is considered the 
best for feed, as it has the highest oil content of all 
Tarascan corns; moreover, apparently the yellow 
color gene is associated with proper vitamin 
content for animal growth and fattening.” 
Sale of maize——The Tarascan Sierra is pri- 
marily a subsistence area in terms of maize, but 
when crops are good surplus grain is sold to 
buyers from Zamora, Tangancicuaro, Uruapan, 
and Zacapu. The surplus maize districts are 
© According to Edgar Anderson (personal communication), in Jalisco the 
Yellow Mountsin maize brought down from the highlands sells at a premium 
in the hog-raising districts south of Guadalajara. 
located around the Sierra in areas favored by 
irrigation or rich soils, such as the upper escarp- 
ment in the South or the Zacapu Basin in the 
North. White field maize and yellow field maize 
comprise the bulk of the export crop. Ekuazu 
maize is entirely for home consumption and most 
of the mountain crop is used locally. Accurate 
statistics on crop production and export are not 
available for the Tarascan area; export data 
probably do not exist, since public records of 
sales are not kept in the villages. 
Bean culture.—As an aboriginal cultigen the bean 
(frijol, t‘a¢An) is second only to maize in Tarascan 
agriculture and food habits. Twenty varieties of 
the kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) are cultivated 
in modern Tarasca. Although most of these are 
found in many parts of central Mexico,® a few 
may be peculiar to the Sierra of Michoacan. 
Among the latter are small cream- or brown- 
colored beans called petrona or uasari in some 
Sierra villages; another is called karanazi. The 
Indians regard such beans as ‘‘criollos,”’ or natives 
to the local countryside, while other varieties, 
which carry non-Tarascan names, are acknowl-— 
edged to have been introduced from the outside. 
Many wild beans are reported to exist in the 
Sierra, though only one, called uipinju (probably 
P. vulgaris) was described in Pamatacuaro, where 
it is tolerated along edges of maize fields. It is 
gathered and eaten, but is little liked.” 
Besides the kidney bean, the Tarascans culti- 
vate the large-seeded Phaseolus coccineus L. (P. 
multifloris Willd.), which they call koké¢ (the 
ayocote or ayocotl of the Nahuatl-speaking 
people). This bean is rarely grown or used by 
mestizos and even among the Indians its cultiva- 
tion is dying out.”! It is now grown only by the 
more conservative people, especially in the house- 
lot gardens where it is planted and tended by 
women. Koké¢, therefore, must be an old culti- 
gen in the area. Having a sweet flavor, it is not 
as well liked as the newer kidney beans from the 
outside. In some of the Lake pueblos koké¢ has 
¢s The common central Mexican varieties are: Bayo Grande, Bayo Chico, 
Mexicano, Colorado, Color de Rosa (Rosa de Castilla), Encerrado, Prieto, 
Blanco, Huiguerilla, ete. 
Unfortunately, a seed specimen of this bean was unobtainable. Another 
doubtful wild Phaseolus is reported from Corupo; called frijol cimarrén, it 
produces a white seed and an enlarged root stalk (“raiz como camote’’). 
7 The Spanish terms “‘pafole’”’ and “‘frijola” are also used in some localities 
In Pamat&cuaro P. coccineus is known as Sepe. 
71 In many pueblos (Sierra and Lake regions) it was stated that koko¢ was 
cultivated many years ago, but since the introduction of better flavored beans 
from mestizo towns, it was no longer grown. 
