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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 11 



animals and pets, poultry, and swine), animals 

 grazed in large numbers (cattle or oxen, sheep, and 

 goats), and work animals (equines and work 

 oxen). Since there is no fishing, little hunting, no 

 mining, and only a little quarrying of stone and 

 digging of earths, the agricultural pursuits account 

 for the utilization of practically all of the area out- 

 side of the settlements. As mentioned previously, 

 about 1,100 hectares are cultivated and 2,756 

 hectares comprise the pastures and woodlands. 



The number of individuals who are directly 

 connected with agriculture in Quiroga and its 

 ranches is somewhat difficult to figure. Of the 

 291 persons who own the 475 parcels of rural 

 property in the area (not counting the ejidatarios) , 

 not more than 170 are resident farmers and the 

 remainder are absentee landlords or are local 

 merchants and businessmen who only visit their 

 holdings periodically. The number of actual 

 farmers, i. e., those who do farm labor (owners, 

 members of the family, share croppers, hired 

 laborers), varies greatly from season to season and 

 from one year to another. Consequently, census 

 figures give only an approximation of the facts. 

 The situation is further confused by the following 

 factors. The terminology is quite uncertain. 

 There is no doubt about a farm owner when he 

 states that he is an agricnltor propietario, but 

 many owners are content to classify themselves as 

 agricultor which means merely farmer or agricul- 

 turist. Most of the share croppers or medieros 

 also call themselves agricvHores, as do some of the 

 landless day laborers. Sometimes the term cam- 

 pesino (countryman or rustic) is used as a synonym 

 for agricultor, but commonly campesino is used 

 for a landless rural laborer, a mediero, or an 

 ejidatario. In Quiroga at least half of the 

 ejidatarios (collective farmers on the ejido) term 

 themselves simply batellero (one who cuts down 

 trees and works out the crude wooden bowls 

 known as bateas) since this was their main occupa- 

 tion before receiving the ejidal grant, and it is 

 still the chief means for supplementing the inade- 

 quate income derived from the ejidal farms. In 

 spite of some confusion, we can take for granted 

 that practically all agricultores, campesinos, and 

 ejidatarios are primarily farmers. A quite variable 

 group comprises the minor males of a farming 

 family who may be laiown as farm laborers 

 {jornalero del campo), campesino or agricultor, or 

 merely as agricultor-ayuda familia (farmer family 



aide). In some families boys as young as 7 years 

 are included in the category of family helper, 

 although commonly the ages involved are from 

 12 to 18. Unfortunately, neither in the census of 

 1940 nor in our census of 1945 were the returns in 

 this category either consistent or comparable. 

 Finally, there is the large group of day laborers 

 known by such terms us jornaleros (day lal)orcrs), 

 peones (literally a footman or infantry soldier, 

 now applied to manual laborers and any unskilled 

 laborers), trabajadores (workers), labradores 

 (laborers), braceros (manual laborers), etc. This 

 large group of unskilled manual laborers provides 

 a labor pool whence come workers on the high- 

 way, in the chair factories and flour mill, on the 

 farms, etc. During the busy farming seasons 

 (plowing, planting, cultivating, and harvesting) 

 the majority of these jornaleros become jorvaleros 

 del campo. Although the majority of the laborers 

 who work on the farms some part of the year term 

 themselves jornaleros del campo, many of them 

 will give their current occupation at the moment of 

 the census and may show up as carpenters (rough 

 carpenters in the chair factories), water-carriers 

 (aguadores), gatherers of firewood {lenadores) , 

 makers of adobes (adoberos) , road workers (peonies 

 de camino or carretera), and general assistants 

 around various town enterprises (mozos). In 

 view of this situation, undoubtedly the number of 

 jornaleros del campo given in table 24 should be 

 increased considerably. However, the stated 

 number of farm laborers may come close to the 

 equivalent number of full-time workers. The 

 farm picture is still incomplete, however, since 

 the women, girls, and young boys often participate 

 in various aspects of the farm labors such as 

 planting maize, beans, and pumpkins, placing 

 fertilizer in the hills of corn and beans, harvesting 

 beans, gleaning, herding livestock, caring for the 

 poultry and swine, etc. Also, when the women 

 are not actively engaged in farm pursuits they 

 often are decorating the bateas (in the case of the 

 women of El Calvario), making pulque or pre- 

 paring the roasted maguey, preparing and carrying 

 meals to their menfolk in the fields, gathering wild 

 tejocote, capulin, and cactus fruits, etc., as well 

 as looking after their regidar household chores. 

 Actually the entire population of the ranchos and 

 of the farming families in Quiroga above the ages 

 of 7 or 8 should be included in the agricultural 

 population of the area. Table 24 gives some 



