THE TAJIN TOTONAC PART 1 KELLY AND PALERM 



107 



Volunteers, spared during cultivation : the coyol palm 

 (No. 362) and an annona, both of which produce edible 

 fruit ; the chili, tomato, and the solanum mentioned sev- 

 eral paragraphs above ; and a great welter of other items 

 which, in time, will support the vanilla vine. 



Some fields are square or rectangular, but most 

 are extraordinarily ragged in contour, with odd 

 salients here and there. Almost never is a field 



^ loom >*. 



a 



\> 





c 



d 



e 



f 



< 



s 



Figure 9. — A typical field. Diagram of the plantings of 

 Rosalino Gonzalez, a, New corn, already cultivated; 

 dry stalks of the preceding crop strewn on the ground 

 throughout the field, b, New corn, not yet cultivated; 

 dry plants of the previous harvest still standing, c, 

 Same as a, but with various kinds of bananas planted 

 among the maize, d, Same as b, with the addition of 

 assorted banana trees, e, New maize; scattered over 

 this plot are bananas, sugarcane, capulin (not cultivated, 

 but spared for vanilla support), and several vanilla vines. 

 /, New maize, mixed with bananas, sugarcane; largely 

 abandoned to monte. g, Abandoned maize field (aca- 

 hual), now taken over completely by monte. 



fenced ; a fringe of monte usually bounds it on all 

 sides and is sufficiently thick to keep out the neigh- 

 bors' animals. 



Two features contribute to the disorder which 

 apparently characterizes a Totonac maize field. 

 One is the fact that corn is harvested twice a year 

 and the plantings generally overlap. It is custom- 

 ary not to clear the old maize before the new is 

 started, and, in a field of young corn, the dry stalks 

 from the preceding harvest (pi. 7, e, d) still may 

 be standing — occasionally, in fact, may bear ma- 



ture ears which have not yet been collected. Fol- 

 lowing the first cultivation of the new field, the dry 

 stalks lie scattered on the ground among the young 

 plants. 



A second factor which makes for untidiness is 

 linked with the maize-vanilla sequence of crops. 

 Although theoretically a maize field can be re- 

 planted for a good many years, it is customary at 

 the end of 2 to 4 years to convert the milpa into a 

 vanilla field. Accordingly, as the corn is culti- 

 vated, care is taken to preserve all plants which, 

 within a few years, will be useful supports for the 

 vanilla vine. The result is that a maize field, al- 

 though actually well tended, generally is full of 

 volunteer shrubs and small trees, deliberately 

 spared, with a view to future utility, when the sliif t 

 from corn to vanilla is made. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS 



In large part, commercial implements have re- 

 placed the native ones. Steel axes and machetes 

 are used to clear the forests, and cultivation is done 

 with a metal coa. Nevertheless, the dibble — a sim- 

 ple pointed stick — still survives and with it are 

 made holes in which the seeds are planted. 



In the entire community, there is but one plow, 

 a gift to the owner. It sits in dignity on the porch 

 of his house, to be admired by visitors. But this 

 implement never has been used in Taj in and 

 nobody in the community has the slightest idea 

 how to manipulate it. There are, of course, no oxen 

 for draft, but there are mules. The Totonac give 

 various explanations for their want of interest in 

 the plow. One thinks that its use would be costly ; 

 another, that "the roots of the trees would impede 

 the plow." Most frequently, it is claimed that 

 plowing might eliminate the very useful volunteer 

 crops of tomato and chili (p. 81). Undoubtedly 

 there is a grain of truth in all these statements. 



The first step in clearing land is to cut the lower 

 growth with a steel machete, an outsized knife, of 

 which four different types (p. 246) are current. 

 All are commercial products manufactured in the 

 United States. Two of the types are considered 

 particularly appropriate for clearing land: the 

 machete de cinta, for the low bush, the thinner 

 huaparra, for higher branches. 



Once the preliminary cutting is past, the trees 

 are felled with a commercial steel ax. Next, with 

 a machete, the branches are hacked from the fallen 



