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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 1 



elsewhere indicate that the workers in workshops 

 equipped with radios are more contented and 

 productive than those in shops without music or 

 other entertainment. 



All the electricity now used in Quiroga is pro- 

 vided by the line constructed by the Comisidn 

 Nacional de Electricidad from the Planta de Bar- 

 tohnas near Tac^mbaro. This line has a lateral 

 near Sanabria which supplies a number of the 

 southern lake communities, and the main line 



continues from Quiroga through Santa Fe, Coeneo, 

 Comanja, Tirindaro, etc. There are two trans- 

 formers in Quiroga; and all consumption of elec- 

 tricity is under the supervision of Manuel Torres, 

 the owner of the flour mill. This industriahst 

 provided local electricity from 1930 to 1942 with 

 a 13.5 kilowatt direct current plant. The first 

 electricity in Qunoga dates back to 1906, when a 

 wood-fueled two-dynamo steam plant "La Provi- 

 dencia" provided direct current. 



LIFE IN QUIROGA 



Although we made no formal investigation of 

 what might be called the sociology of Quiroga, the 

 results of occasional and random notes on such 

 topics as religion, education, dress, foods, recrea- 

 tion, etc., are given here to round out the picture. 

 Somewhat comparable material, in much greater 

 detail, will be found in other monographs of this 

 series — especially in Dr. George Foster's report on 

 neighboring Tzintzuntzan (1948). 



RELIGION 



The material aspects of rehgion in Quiroga, as 

 elsewhere throughout most of Latin America, 

 are far more manifest than in most of the United 

 States. This is to be expected because (a) the 

 overwhelming majority of the people belong to 

 one and the same church, and (b) this church — 

 the Roman Apostolic Catholic Church — through 

 its missionaries and priests introduced both 

 religion and Western European material culture, 

 and has been the arbiter in nearly everything from 

 education and morals to dress and social affairs 

 during the greater part of the past four centuries 

 and more. Clmstianity was introduced to the 

 Tarascans by Franciscan friars, and the first 

 convent was established at Tzintzuntzan in 1526. 

 A church under the patronage of San Diego de 

 Alcald was built in Cocupao-Quiroga about 1534. 

 This church was a visita of the Tzintzuntzan 

 convent and there were no resident friars for a 

 number of years. The date of erection of a 

 convent (the terms casa,convento, and monasterio 

 are synonymous) with resident friars is uncertain. 

 None of the Franciscan chroniclers give dates for 

 the presidencia or vicaria (a convent subordinate 

 to a larger convent known as a guardianla) in 

 Cocupao, although most of the religious historians 



imply that a convent existed in Cocupao from the 

 first half of the sixteenth century. Since the in- 

 spector-general Ponce in 1586 spent a number of 

 days in Tzintzuntzan, but made no mention of a 

 Franciscan house in Cocupao, and since he pro- 

 ceeded northwestward around the lake from 

 Tzintzimtzan to San Jer6nimo Purench^cuaro, 

 yet made no attempt to inspect Cocupao which 

 was less than a mile off his route, we may conclude 

 that the presidencia of Cocupao dates from after 

 the Ponce inspection. We know practically 

 nothing about church history and religious activi- 

 ties in Cocupao during the colonial period. Before 

 the end of the sixteenth century Franciscan 

 houses existed in Tzintzuntzan, Erongaricuaro, 

 San Jerdnimo, San Andres, and Cocupao in the 

 northern part of the lake basin; Santa Fe de la 

 Laguna had been a secular rectorate since about 

 1534; secular clergy were in the neighboring par- 

 ishes to the north and east (Tirindaro-Coeneo, 

 Huaniqueo, Teremendo, and Capula) ; and Augus- 

 tinian convents were a short distance to the east 

 and south in Santiago Undameo (Necotldn) and 

 Tiripitio. Franciscan influence was dominant in 

 the area until Tzintzuntzan was secularized in 

 1780 and Cocupao in 1786-87, and the region 

 ceased to be a part of the Franciscan province of 

 San Pedro y San Pablo de Michoacdn (founded 

 as a custodia in 1536, raised to a provincia in 1566). 

 After secularization Cocupao continued to be a 

 ticarla fija of the parish {cvrato) of Tzintzuntzan 

 until 1853. The independent cvrato was set up 

 to include the newly made Villa de Quiroga and 

 the ranches of Sanambo, Icuacato, Caringaro, and 

 La Tirimicua, and this is still the area of the 

 Quiroga parish. Atzimbo and Zirandangacho 

 apparently are considered to belong to Tzintzun- 

 tzan, although politically they are now a part of 



