CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE MODERN TARASCAN AREA—-WEST 69 
1s first mentioned as an established industry in 
the report of 1789 (AGN Historia, vol. 73, f. 344), 
indicating that it had been introduced for some 
time. 
LACQUER WORK 
Modern lacquerwork in Michoacén is closely 
associated with wood carved with the adz and 
lathe. Before the Spanish Conquest various 
gourds (Lagenaria, Cucurbita, and Crescentia) 
were lacquered with a varnish made from the 
insect axin (Coccus axin) and chia (Salvia sp.) 
This industry probably centered in the Balsas and 
Tepalcatepec Basins (Brand, 1944, p. 60) and was 
extended into the towns near the southern edge of 
the Sierra, e. g., Peribin and Uruapan. After the 
introduction of Spanish adz work during the co- 
lonial period, lacquer was applied to wooden bateas 
im Peribin, Zirosto, Zacin, Uruapan, and Patz- 
cuaro. Bateas were painted, but not lacquered, 
in Cucupao (Quiroga) and Santa Fé de la Laguna. 
Today few Tarascans practice the art, the famous 
bateas of Uruapan being lacquered by mestizos. 
Some of the turned vases and bowls of Paracho 
are finished with tung oil and synthetic lacquer 
purchased in mestizo markets. 
LEATHERCRAFT 
Probably one of the first native Tarascan crafts 
stimulated and expanded by the early Spaniards 
was leatherwork. With the introduction of cattle, 
Tarascan tanners were able to multiply leather 
production, which formerly had been based on 
deerskin, to meet the heavy Spanish demand for 
saddles, halters, shoes (the famous ‘‘zapatos de 
baqueta de mechoacdn’’).** Tanning was done with 
local oak bark, as it is today (AGN Tierras, vol. 
83, exped. 13). During the colonial period leather- 
crafts were centered in the northern Tarascan 
towns near the pastures and hide supply, and in 
a few pueblos of the Sierra. The latter included 
Cheran, Cherandtzicurin, Ocumicho, and Nahuat- 
zen, which was one of the largest tanning centers 
182 Fray Toribio de Molotin{a’s statement of 1540 on the Tarascan leather 
industry is revealing: ‘‘Han deprendido a cutir corambres . . . son buenos 
zapateros, que hacen zapatos y servillas [slippers], borceguias [high shoes], 
pantaflos, chapines [wooden shoes with leather straps] de mugeres; . . . este 
oficio comenzdé en Michoacan, porque alli se curten los buenos cueros de venados. 
Hacen todo lo que es menester para una silla ginete bastos y fuste, coraza y sobre- 
corazas. . .” (Motolinfa, 1903, p. 183). According to the Relacién de Micho- 
acdn (p. 16) “‘cotares de cuero,”’ or leather sandals, were made for the caltzontzin 
in pre-Conquest times. 
in the Tarascan area.’ By the latter part of the 
19th century leathererafts began to decline, and 
today within the Tarascan area only Nahuatzen 
(largely mestizo) continues to tan hides and make 
saddles and other riding equipment. Some 
Tarascan towns now boast of one or two zapateros 
who make huaraches of imported leather for local 
consumption. The principal huarache-making 
centers are now the surrounding mestizo towns: 
Coeneo, Zacapu, Tinguindin, Los Reyes, Uruapan, 
Ario de Rosales. 
METALCRAFT 
Copper work.—The Tarascans were probably 
the foremost metallurgists in pre-Columbian 
Mexico. They worked gold, silver, and copper. 
The precious metals were formed into ornaments 
and disks, which the caitzontzin stored on the 
islands in Lake Patzcuaro; useful objects, such 
as axes, coas, and spearheads, were made of 
copper (Relacién de Michoacdén, pp. 104-109, 
122-123). Although definite archeological evi- 
dence is not yet at hand, it is probable that the 
Tarascans purified native copper and extracted 
metal from simple oxide ores by smelting (Hend- 
richs, 1940, p. 327). From cursory inspection 
of copper artifacts extant in the Museo Regional 
Michoacano, Morelia, it appears that Tarascans 
cast copper objects (axheads) in stone molds. 
After casting, the axes seem to have been further 
shaped and possibly hardened by hammering.'*® 
Accidental, rather than deliberate, alloying with 
tin and zine probably occurred. 
The Tepalcatepec and Balsas Basins contained 
the ancient copper mines and metallurgical sites. 
Hendrichs (1940, 1945-46) has described several 
probable ancient copper mines sites in both the 
18 AGN Tierras, vol. 83, exped. 13; Zavala and Castello, 1939-46, vol. 7, 
pp. 361-362; AGN Historia, vol. 73, ff. 178-179. The present northern Taras- 
can towns of Zipiajo, Azajo, Companja, Tatejero, Tirindaro, Naranja, and 
Teremendo were all producers of shoes and saddles in the latter part of the 
18th and in the 19th century. 
184 Beals (1946, p. 44) states that in 1940 one person from Aranza was tanning 
hides in Cherin. The old men of Ocumicho remember the manufacture of 
the black “‘zapatos de raquetas’”’ in their town during the last century. These 
were sold throughout the Sierra as well as in surrounding mestizo towns. 
185 The Lienzo de Jucutacato, a 16th-century representation of the migra- 
tion of a people from the Gulf of Mexico into the Tarascan country (where 
they learned metallurgy) clearly depicts smelting of ore or metal (probably 
copper) apparently with the aid of charcoal and forced air draft (blowpipes) 
at the ancient copper center of Jicalén (Jicalin Viejo), 20 km. south of Urua- 
pan. 
18 Microanalysis of Tarascan copperware has not yet been undertaken. 
Until the results of such analyses are known, it is impossible to make definite 
statements as to ancient metallurgical methods. Interestingly, the flange 
shape of the modern Tarascan steel axhead is identical with that of the copper 
axes found in archeological sites in the Balsas Basin. 
