THE TAJIN TOTONAC PART 1 KELLY AND PALEBM 



187 



frame than does a thatched roof. However, tile is 

 more lasting than is thatch, is somewhat cleaner, 

 and has, moreover, a certain prestige value. It 

 seems probable that, as economic means permit, it 

 will find increasing favor in Taj in. 



In many homes, considerable discomfort results 

 directly from the fact that domestic animals have 

 the run of the house. Many dwellings are in- 

 fested with chicken lice ; and any house with pigs 

 underfoot is likely to be generously supplied with 

 niguas, which penetrate the bare feet and cause 

 major discomfort. If the practice of using a 

 bamboo gate on doorways were encouraged, these 

 animal pests might be reduced considerably. Such 

 gates are common in small towns and could be 

 manufactured easily by the Totonac, with mate- 

 rials at hand. 



As will be seen below, nearly half the families 

 in Tajin sleep on woven mats spread directly on 

 the earth floor. Some, however, use a simple 

 platform bed, described in the succeeding section. 

 Were the use of such beds encouraged, sleeping 

 accommodations would be somewhat more 

 hygienic. 



In view of local conditions, any approximation 

 to plumbing is out of the question. The outhouse 

 is so rare in Tajin that it may be considered non- 

 existent. But if a sanitary, easily constructed, 

 privy could be devised, its advantages would be 

 obvious. However, it must be borne in mind that 

 the surface soil is shallow and that the subsoil 

 is hard, calcareous, and not easily penetrated with 

 the excavating equipment found in the average 

 house. In short, an outhouse based on deep per- 

 foration probably would not be practical. 



Undoubtedly, a housing expert would recom- 

 mend other and more far-reaching improvements. 

 But to be effective, any suggested change must fit 

 the local scene, must be based on local materials, 

 and must fall within the capacity of local, un- 

 skilled labor. Our building materials — cement, 

 steel, brick, and glass — are far bej r ond the reach 

 of Tajin today, both literally and economically; 

 and we must think essentially in terms of local 

 resources. 



DISTRIBUTION 



We do not know how widespread is the specific 

 type of native house found at Tajin. In framing, 

 there are slight differences between it and a To- 



89347T— 52 14 



tonac house in nearby Tulapilla. 17 The latter 

 frame has several roof poles which do not extend 

 from the mother beam to the ridge, but which go 

 only part way up. Moreover, the poles of the 

 gable end are not parallel, but radiate from the 

 ridge. 



There are noticeable differences between Tajin 

 and an area even as close as Poza Rica and Maria 

 Andrea. In the former town, the city dwellers 

 form house walls of bamboos placed horizontally, 

 not vertically. And on houses observed along the 

 main road, from Maria Andrea to Gutierrez Za- 

 mora, the thatch of the two long sheds of the roof 

 overhangs at each side, so that the gable ends ap- 

 pear to be inset. These, and many other varia- 

 tions of the same basic house are only to be 

 expected. 



Of course, there are obvious resemblances be- 

 tween houses in the whole area from the Huasteca 

 to the Maya, but without a detailed comparative 

 study, it is impossible to know how fundamental 

 are the resemblances and the differences. It may 

 be noted that despite the excellent and detailed de- 

 scription of Mayan houses by Wauchope, we do 

 not find in his monograph a precise counterpart 

 of the typical Tajin house. 



It seems likely that for any large-scale com- 

 parative study, house construction would have 

 to be broken down into dozens, perhaps hundreds, 

 of individual elements. But if we knew the dis- 

 tribution of these elements and their combination 

 in certain areas, the results should be important 

 historically. The strength of the apsidal house 

 in Yucatan (Wauchope, fig. 7) and its occasiona 1 

 reappearance far to the north, in the Huasteca, 

 probably are not a matter of chance. 



VARIANTS 



The native house still is the most popular, but 

 a number of architectural innovations are notice- 

 able. Quite often, the frame is made of squared 

 timbers and supports a tiled roof (ci-ki, tile house) . 

 The walls of such a structure may be of bamboo 

 (pi. 9, d) or of wooden planks (makatAqA* ; maka, 

 plank; tAqA ? , fence) (pi. 9, /). 



Needless to say, these variants are considerably 

 more pretentious, although one man remarks that 



17 To judge from thp photograph of a house iu construction, 

 kindly supplied by Gordon Bkholm. 



