CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE MODERN TARASCAN AREA—WEST 63 
Basin (Tirindaro), and in the Lake area (San 
Jerénimo and Erongaricuaro) make pottery on a 
small scale, mainly for local use. 
Modern Tarascans use both the hand and the 
mold techniques. The latter is usually accom- 
panied by application of lead oxide glaze. The 
former is still used in only three pueblos—Co- 
manja, Zipiajo, and Cocucho, where it is per- 
formed solely by women.'* In Comanja_ the 
lower part of the vessel is shaped from a single 
daub of clay. A depression is made in the center 
and the walls are built up with the hands by press- 
ing in small daubs of clay. The outer and inner 
surfaces are smoothed with a corneob. The result 
is a well-balanced vessel with walls of even thick- 
ness. The vessels are rough-finished, rarely pol- 
ished, and litharge glaze is never employed. 
Firing is accomplished by placing pottery on a pile 
of dried manure. The pots are covered with dried 
grass (zacatén), which, when lighted, ignites the 
manure. The grass ash is permitted to cover the 
pots, a hole being left in the center of the pile to 
permit smoke from the smoldering manure to 
escape. After 3 hours the pottery is fired to 
sufficient hardness. The chief ceramic products of 
Comanja are the large water ollas, called “‘coman- 
jas,’”’ which are marketed in the Sierra, the Lake 
area, and in some of the mestizo towns to the 
north. Similar ollas are made by an identical 
process in Zipiajo, but on a smaller scale. 
In Cocucho the ceramic process is similar to 
that of Comanja, except that the base of the 
vessel is formed on the bottom of a broken olla 
and part of the wall is built up of rolled pieces 
of clay (pls. 9 and 10). Firing is also similar, but 
pine bark and rotten wood, rather than manure, is 
employed for fuel; this process probably represents 
the truly aboriginal technique. The Cocucho 
women make large ollas with thick walls, especially 
famed as tamale cooking pots throughout the 
Sierra. This olla, rarely used outside of the Sierra, 
is called kukiéu, from which the village derives its 
name. The tunu¢i, a small flat olla used as a 
tlascal (receptacle for tortillas), is also made. 
136 The native hand technique was practiced in other Tarascan towns 
during the 18th century. In 1729, according to Matias de Escobar, ‘‘ Es cosa 
que admirar como que los he visto en Tiripitio [southwest of Morelia] como 
labran cuanto [losa] quieran, sin las ruedas y moldes de los Espanoles. Un 
pequeno cuero y una mala navaja son todos los instrumentos con que obran”’ 
(Escobar, 1924, p. 148). Both the hand and mold methods appear to be 
native in Mexico, although the latter was known to Europeans. See Foster, 
1948, for a discussion of native and introduced elements in the modern mold 
technique. 
The manufacture of these two Tarascan pots is 
slowly dying. In 1946 only 10 women were 
making pottery in Cocucho, whereas in 1841 it 
was made in practically every household of the 
village (AAM, siglo XIX, leg. 707). 
Today by far the greater amount of Tarascan 
pottery is made with molds by both men and 
women.” None is manufactured with the 
potter’s wheel. All who use molds have taken 
over the European glaze technique and the firing 
oven. Tarascan mold-made pottery can be 
differentiated according to finish. The ‘“Patam- 
ban” type, for instance, carries a beautiful green 
glaze, known and admired over most of western 
Mexico." Green glaze is also used in Santo 
Tomas and Santa Fé de la Laguna, having been 
recently introduced into the latter pueblo. Pot- 
tery hand-painted with brilliant floral designs on 
a background of black glaze is a specialty of Santa 
Fé de la Laguna. This unusual technique was 
introduced around 1900, and was readily adopted 
by the inhabitants, whose former industry was 
batea painting. As mentioned previously, the 
inhabitants of Santa Fé de la Laguna began to 
make pots during the last quarter of the 19th 
century. Since then their ware has become 
known throughout Mexico, and some is imported 
by United States curio shops. In 1936 the 
technique spread to Tirindaro, when daughters 
of a Santa Fé potter married into Tuirindaro 
families. The most common modern household 
pottery is the Red ware, either glazed or polished, 
made in Tzintzuntzan, Hudnsito, San José, and 
Patamban. Before being fired the large pieces, 
such as ollas and cdntaros, are usually slipped 
with a red clay solution and then burnished 
with iron pyrites. A handsomely polished surface, 
similar to that of the pre-Conquest wares, results 
after firing. (Such ware is fired only once.) 
Smaller pieces are often glazed with litharge. 
Glazed pieces are fired twice, the litharge being 
applied after the first firing and the glazed surface 
appearing after the second. Designs are often 
painted in white (tierra blanca) and black (terra 
de hormigén). Red ware is carried as far as Guadal- 
137 See Foster (1948) for a detailed description of the mold technique used 
by the potters of Tzintzuntzan. 
138 To produce the green color, pulverized copper oxide (cobre quemado) and 
yellow flinty quartz (pedernal) are added to the lead oxide (litharge) solution, 
which is applied to the pottery before firing. A black glaze is also made by 
adding a mineral called tierra de hormiga and pedernal to the litharge. 
