44 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 7 
tion.’ Owing to dry conditions and usually poor 
soils, yields are low. The infrequent light winter 
rains (cabanuelas) often determine the success or 
failure of the temporal crop. Another wheat 
type, a white soft variety, is called ‘trigo de 
aguas”; sown in June or July and reaped in 
November or December, it is seen in all parts 
of Tarasca. Most of the wheat crop of La Canada 
is irrigated, being sown on the valley flats in 
December and harvested in May.** In the Sierra 
wheat is relegated to the less fertile slope land and 
desmontes, where it is rotated with maize. In the 
lake area and the northern plateau towns, where 
the grain is likewise a rotation crop, it is cultivated 
on both plains and slopes. It is occasionally sown 
in the house-lot gardens in all parts of Tarasca. 
Primitive European methods are used in wheat 
cultivation (pl. 6). Land is prepared by plowing 
with oxen, and seed is sown broadcast and covered 
with a brush harrow. Grain is cut with the 
sickle (hoz), bundled and tied by hand, and 
threshed in the era (an open arena floored with 
stone or packed earth) located in the town or in 
the field. Threshing is accomplished by driving 
mules or burros over the bundles of wheat, but 
where sufficient animals are lacking, it is done by 
flailing. The grain is separated from straw and 
chaff with the tarakua, or wooden spade. Atl 
straw is carefully saved for animal feed. (Engine- 
powered separators are just beginning to appear 
in the area.) 
One of the most interesting aspects of wheat 
culture among the Tarascans is the varieties of 
food prepared from both metate-ground and 
milled flour. Those made from grain wet-ground 
on the metate include tortillas de trigo, a common 
food in La Canada, but eaten on fiesta days (e. g. 
Corpus) in the Sierra towns.*’ In Charapan the 
tortillas are thin, round cakes often 1 to 1% feet in 
diameter, which are cooked on the comal. Thicker 
tortillas, or gordas, are similarly made, but 
browned on the coals. For the Corpus fiestas 
gordas (piiféis) *% to 1 inch thick and shaped like 
8? For example, most temporal wheat in the Lake region is harvested in 
early April, while in the Sierra ripening is retarded until May. In Cuma- 
chuén, the highest pucblo in the Sierra, harvest occurs in the first weeks 
of June. 
88 The ¢rigales, or wheatfields, are watered three times annually, at the 
end of January, first of March, and at the end of March. Pan irrigation 
technique is used. 
89 In the Lake towns of [huatzio and Janitzio metate-ground wheat dough 
is mixed with nixtamal (maize dough) to make a tortilla called iétakata. 
% Beals (1946, p. 52) mentions that in Cherfn gordas de trigo are fried in deep 
pork fat. This procedure was not encountered in other Tarascan towns. 
animals (birds, rabbits, pigs) are made in some 
Sierra towns. In La Cafiada, however, such 
figures are prepared from leavened flour dough and 
baked in the oven.*! Another wheat food, which 
is eaten particularly during and immediately after 
the wheat harvest, is called pakésa. Wheat 
grains are roasted on the comal, then dry-ground 
on the metate. The coarse flour is cooked in 
boiling water flavored with salt or pilonciilo. The 
resultant dough is eaten hot or cold. Moreover, 
a wheat pozole (whole grains stewed with meat, 
chile, tomate, etc.) is prepared in the Lake and La 
Canada areas, but rarely in the Sierra. Again, a 
wheat atole (trigukamata) is found in all parts of 
Tarasca. Various types of bread, called cemitas 
or audkatas are also prepared from metate- 
eround wheat, usually by professional women 
bakers. The dough is often sweetened and the 
breads variously shaped (round or diamond). 
The dough is baked in the dome-shaped Spanish 
oven, several of which are found in every Tarascan 
village. Unsweetened ceremonial breads (kan- 
akua), 1% feet in diameter and 2 or more inches 
thick, are made on the Saint’s day in some Sierra 
pueblos. 
Wheat foods are also prepared from flour, 
milled in the larger mestizo towns nearby. A 
bread called kusinda is baked in the Spanish oven 
in most pueblos. In La Cafiada and the Lake 
towns tamales (prepared like those of maize) 
and tortillas are made from wheat flour.” Bufue- 
los, a special dish prepared from wheat flour, are 
eaten ceremonially or as an occasional treat in 
all parts of Tarasca. The dough, mixed with 
tequisquite (a lime compound), salt, and boiled 
green tomatoes, is thinned into flat cakes by plac- 
ing on the knee, patting and pulling at the edges. 
The sheets of dough are cooked in boiling lard in 
a casuela. In the Sierra both men and women 
prepare and cook bufuelos, which are eaten only 
on certain holidays. Often on ordinary occasions 
this food is soaked in a sirup of piloncillo and 
eaten with white atole in the Lake area. 
Barley cultivation Small amounts of barley 
are cultivated in most parts of Tarasca, but pri- 
marily in the Sierra, for animal feed. The grain 
is sown in June and harvested in November and 
% Formerly in Charapan large piiitis, shaped like human figures 234 feet 
high, were given at weddings to the bride as a token of fertility. 
82 Tamales de trigo are also seen in the large markets (Uruapan, Paracho), 
where they are customarily taken with atole. In Paracho they are called 
Sayi-k.usinda or Sazipit-ukari. 
