We hope that the series will encourage further research into all aspects of Oaxaca ceramics. Mention should also be made of Lackey's (1981) thorough study of contemporary pottery production at Acatlan, although Acatlan is located north of the Oaxaca state border, in the state of Puebla. In Blanton et al., Monte Alban's Hinterland part I: Prehispanic settlement patterns of the central and southern parts of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico.
A second study period, from September 1969 through January 1970, used patent funds allocated by the Research Committee of the University of California Academic Senate. Nicholson for his recommendations for sources for the ethnohistory of the Oaxaca region, and for Dr.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Percentage of Households In Each Occupational Group, In The Aggregate And In The General PODulation, 1967-1968. By the time of the second period of fieldwork, the occupational pattern of the sample had changed slightly, due to the distribution of two households (see endnote 4) and some shifts in the remaining households. Another consideration in the selection of the sample was representation of all the neighborhoods of the town.
The town of Santa Marfa Atzompa in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, is located in the Valley of Oaxaca, about five miles northwest of the state capital of Oaxaca de Juarez. A man from the state of Puebla settled in Atzompa in the early 1940s and became a wealthy miller and butcher.
V~~ OAXACA
TEHUANTEPEC
Entering the village from the southeast, you will see several adobe dwellings and a few jacales (thatched huts) dotting the hillside on the left side of the road. The bus turns south as it reaches the dividing line between the two wards and stops next to the church at the edge of the main square. A monument in its honor adorns the square, and the existence of the system is confirmed by the water tap outside the market shed.
Atzompa is a good place to sell as potters always have some cash ready and most of the school children spend 20 centavos in the marketplace during recess. Five of the stores had minimal operations, primarily in Barrio Grande, and new ones were opening continuously.
BARRIO CHICO
BUTCHER - VACANT
Village Activities
The size of the oven gives some indication of the size of the goods produced by the household. The figure of 2,025 was informally reported by the mayor at the time of the national census of 1970. At the beginning there were 348 families engaged in pottery production out of the total household in the village.
Most sons live in the paternal household and remain in the family budget at least for the first few months of marriage. The shape is concave or flat depending on the shape of the pot being formed.
ABLO
Map 3. Sources of Pottery Materials 22
- Making Pottery
- Pottery Making
The other half is sold in the plazas or cyclical markets of the Valley, mainly the Oaxaca City Saturday market. Some of the buyers who patronize the potters' stalls in the squares may be regatones who sell to consumers;. In the less prosperous past, the buyers were often the wealthy farmers of the neighboring municipio San Jacinto Amilpas.
How many short-term pleasures the family will give up in the interest of long-term improvement. The avoidance of a potentially dangerous obligation was manifested in the rejection of the Ejido Bank's loan offer for the purchase of oxcarts, and the U.S.
CHAPTER IV
The expansion of the market for Atzompa pottery and the consequent growth of pottery income in the village have increased the opportunities for developing working capital. He was the only Atzompa bomb miller of the four who operated in the village before 1940. One of the shareholders of the ejidatarios factory expressed some nervousness about the inevitable prospect of competition from a tortilla factory.
Such parties may include guests who are not in the educated segment of the population, but who have some social sophistication. Of fourteen individuals in eight households of the sample who had completed secondary school by 1969, nine were still living in the village. In 1968, only one of the 80 household heads in the sample worked in Oaxaca, but two others were regularly employed for wages.
In the ranking of wealth by five members of the sample, four gave preference to land ownership. Perhaps the most important point regarding mobility in the town is the fluidity of the economic structure, illustrated by cases of rapid economic progress. Party pressure in the choice of slate is non-traditional and dates back to the 1920s.
This is probably related to the influence of the four religious brotherhoods (cojradfas) that existed in the mid-1960s. The traditional requirement for elaborate fireworks adds to the financial onus of the festival sponsor (comisionado). The ideal of service to the community was emphatically expressed by 18 of the 78 respondents in the sample.
CHAPTER VI
Another factor in value change was Atzomperos' experience as a braceros in the United States. Also significant is the significantly greater availability of manufactured goods since the extension of the Pan American Highway to Oaxaca in the early 1940s. The data relate to the heads of households in the sample and to their spouses.
Comments in the questionnaire responses indicate that marriage was sometimes an occasion for change, especially for women. Among the men, however, two had switched after age 39 and five more, a total of over 50, switched between traditional clothes in the village and modem dress for going to town. Likewise, a woman who wears urban style when working in Mexico City as a servant changes to the intermediate style of dress in the village for fear of ridicule.
These aids promote efficiency in the pottery industry as well as provide a more comfortable standard of living. Besides providing a more comfortable standard of living, these gadgets promote efficiency in the pottery industry. In 1969, there were eight rental sets in the village and several others in private use.
A young villager in the sample boasted to a relative of the material possessions and aids he had acquired and said. There is no need to mortgage your land, as with bank loans. With the installation of electric service in the village in 1969, the majority of villagers had service extended to their homes, despite high initial costs.
CHAPTER VII
Of the 78 respondents in the sample, 22 said that the air is entered at the time of the fright (see susto, fright, below), and 17 of these believed that this is "aire del lugar", air projected from the ground at the point where the victim is afraid. This disease is most often visited by children, usually unconsciously on the part of the perpetrator. II The symptoms of the victim of chizo are lethargy and pain, especially pain in the calves.
They all have as their goal the removal of foreign objects from the patient's body. This was told both by the daughter of the victim and by the sister of the perpetrator. He passed out and the perpetrator of the black magic also died shortly afterwards, apparently due to heavy drinking.
There is a lack of consensus on the application of the hot-cold categories. Of the 78 respondents, 9 stated that they were very willing to let the doctor determine the correct diet in the event of illness. Of the fourteen respondents aged 60 or older who started consulting doctors, nine had only done so in the past twenty years.
Of the 78 respondents, 7 said that the way the disease enters the body is through the transmission of germs (germs or microorganisms). It would appear from the probable etymology of the word, and from the polytheistic implications of a similar term in the Maya region, that the concept of chilneque is of aboriginal origin. In a unique case among those related, the soil of the "country" was brought to the patient's house.
CHAPTER VIII STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
The education factor also influences the correlation between Category 3 and Category 6 (progressivism in medical beliefs and practices), r=.34, p=.OOI. The prosperity variable seems to be the most influential link in the correlation between category 3 and category 4 (progressivism in community activities). There is no potential interdependence between category 3 and the education level of the head of household.
However, in a weaker correlation between category 5 and category 2 (progressivism in farming), both wealth and In the moderate correlation between category 5 and category 6 (progressivism in medical beliefs and practices), education was found to be a strong connecting factor. Progressivism in category 5 has fairly high correlations with progressivism in the ceramics industry (category 1), with economic and educational mobility (category 3), and with progressive behavior in community activities (category 4).
In the case of Category 5 (progressivism in material possessions and desiderata), however, the education level of the head of the household is the overwhelming consideration. In the relationship between Category 6 and Category 1 (progressivism in pottery production and sale), removing the influence of the education variable reduces the correlation by almost half, from .25 to .13. In relation to Category 3 (economic and educational mobility), the influence of the education factor is again shown to be significant.
In the last three correlations, the influence of other descriptive variables appears to be negligible. Only in the correlation between category 6 and category 5 does the relationship appear to be almost complete. The more important descriptive variables in the cross-category relationships were found to be (a) household wealth, especially in correlations involving progressivism in agriculture and progressivism in community activities; and (b) education of the head of the household.
The greatest influence of the wealth factor is shown in the relationship between the categories of progressiveness in farming and progressiveness in community activities. One of the two farmers in the sample who started planting sorghum does not use a tractor for plowing or chemical fertilizers.
