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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — ^PUBLICATION NO. 1 1 



small tables adjusted to the smaller sizes of chairs, 

 and a miscellany of furniture ranging from toy 

 furniture sets up to a few full-size dining-room 

 and living-room suites. The locally made wooden 

 earring pendants have been mentioned, in addition 

 to which a few masks are made; and spoons, 

 ladles, and other woodwork from Paracho are 

 decorated by some of the maqueadoras and 

 pintores of Quiroga. One of the handicraft mer- 

 chants recently abandoned the manufacture of 

 chairs, and concentrated on turning a variety of 

 wooden objects such as bowls, jars, chessmen, etc. 

 The material used is locally cut madroiio and 

 jaboncillo wood. 



WEAVING OF WOOLENS AND COTTONS 



The weaving of cotton goods was a prehistoric 

 occupation in Michoacan, and professional weavers 

 are mentioned in the Relacion de Michoacan. 

 Unfortunately, we do not have a satisfactory list 

 of the items woven by the Tarascans before the 

 coming of the Spaniards. Mantas (blankets) 

 appear on the lists of tributes paid by villages of 

 the Patzcuaro Basin so early that probably cotton 

 was used instead of wool for the mantas made 

 before sheep raising became well established in 

 the area. No where is there any indication that 

 Cocupao was ever noteworthy for its weaving, but 

 apparently weaving of items for local consumption 

 was present throughout the colonial period — as 

 was true of most of the other Tarascan villages. 

 Wool soon became the only fiber used for blankets, 

 skirts, and most sashes, while cotton provided the 

 material for shirts, blouses, trousers, dresses, and 

 shawls (rebozos). Spanish influence not only 

 substituted wool in large part for cotton, and 

 introduced a number of new forms (trousers, 

 dresses, shawls, etc.), but also brought about a 

 gradual replacement of the native primitive 

 "horizontal" looms with upright looms (telares) 

 and of the crude spindle and whorl with the 

 spinning wheel {torno de hilar). At present in 

 Quiroga there is no spinning or weaving with the 

 aboriginal techniques or instruments. In fact, 

 the entire weaving craft from type of goods 

 produced to the guild organization seems to be 

 European. It is of interest that the weaving 

 guild (gremio de tejedores or obrajeros), presumably 

 the oldest craft guild in Spain, should be one of the 

 three stiU extant in Quiroga. Due to the complete 

 lack of local records we can only assume that the 



weavers, along with the other guilds in the village, 

 participated in the general decline that took place 

 during the eighteenth century in Mexico; and 

 after craft guilds were abolished or outlawed in 

 1861 the weaving guild lost all of the attributes of 

 a craft guild and became simply a religious guild 

 or cofradia which retained merely the name and 

 membership from the craft corporation. Locally 

 a weaver in wool is referred to as an ohrajero and 

 the room in his home in which is installed only one 

 or two looms is called an obraje, despite the fact 

 that less than 1 50 years ago only very large weav- 

 ing establishments were termed obrajes. Formerly 

 a small establishment, such as are all those in 

 Quiroga, was termed a trapiche, but now tlirough- 

 out most of Mexico a trapiche is a small sugar mill 

 and the associated plantation. 



In 1945 there were 13 upright wooden looms, 

 entirely of local manufacture, in 12 Quiroga homes. 

 All of the telares were old; in some instances the 

 original frame had been made by the grandfather 

 of the present owner, although various parts had 

 been replaced. Ten of the looms were commonly 

 in operation. The usual equipment, in addition 

 to the loom, included one to three spiiming wheels 

 (tornos de hilar), a reel (malacate del torno or 

 devanadera), and one to three pairs of cards 

 (cardas). There were 23 individuals who termed 

 themselves obrajeros, as compared with 26 in the 

 1940 census. These obrajeros comprised 12 owners 

 {patrones), 9 members of the family, and 2 jour- 

 neymen workers {obrajeros ambulantes). No dis- 

 tinction was made among pickers, sorters, carders, 

 spinners, dyers, weavers, fullers, etc., since usually 

 all of the obrajeros participated in all of the stages 

 of work. In some families women might assist 

 with washing, carding, and spinning the wool, but 

 the actual weaving was done only by males whose 

 ages ranged from 14 to 58. The wool used was 

 purchased from the ranchos of Quiroga and else- 

 where within the general region. Prices (as of 

 1945) varied from $4.00 to $4.50 a kg. for dirty 

 or unwashed wool (white, brown, and black), 

 but the average price was $4.00. Blue and red 

 aniline dyes are purchased from stores in Quiroga 

 and Morelia, although some of the customers 

 insist on indigo being used for the blue. The 

 leading manufacture is a blanket or cobija (the 

 term serape or sarape is not commonly used by the 

 weavers), usually woven in two parts which are 

 sewed together in such fashion as to leave an 



