LIVING IN A LAND OF SCARCITY

As western societies have become prosperous and the poor are pushed to the margins, we forget what a life of scarcity looks like. You can, however, visit communities in which the location of these two groups is reversed. Where the life of scarcity is central and the rich are at the margins. These communities can easily be found in developing nations. What does life look like in such an environment?

It may be as simple as going to a small store and buying a single cigarette or a single bandaid for your blister. Or discovering ads for viagra with a single tablet to the box; being able to purchase 4 antacids rather than a whole bottle. It means being almost entirely dependent on what is grown locally and being aware of seasonal availability. It is being aware that many of your neighbors open their front gates to reveal a table selling a few candies to children or a few vegetables or a few handmade objects. Where everyone is a vendor or has a trade useful in the local neighborhood. The man who will sharpen your knives, the person who sets up a small stand in the evening to sell fresh fruit or bread from a bakery two blocks away, the woman selling handmade hats, those selling clay cooking pots, children selling gum, the many local stands selling prepared foods in the early afternoon or evening, the person on a mule selling a few sticks of firewood or a bag of leaves (used like compost). Or it may be noticing that not everyone has a private telephone but many go to a local shop to use a phone. Or where there are internet shops in every neighborhood and a few where children can play computer games. Where people will walk for miles with their children rather than take an inexpensive bus. Or seeing that many things, including inexpensive plastic toys , are sold on a lay away plan or that a pair of jeans can be brought on credit.

Or if you get to know your neighbors well you learn that they cook over an open fire in the back of their yard, and that they have no water storage system so only use the water for 2-3 hours a day when it is piped into their house from the street. Many people will burn all of their garbage in the back yards rather than pay the 10 to 20 cents to the local garbage truck. They have no heating system although the night temperature frequently drops to 40-45 degrees. Young people take their courtship to the street or the plaza as there is little privacy in the home. Many homes will have a few chickens in the backyard, even if they live a few doors from city hall. Those a little to the edge of town may have cows or pigs. Other may have garden variety fruit trees. All of this assists in feeding the family and may provide a few goods for the market. When a member of the family dies you don’t put their cloths in a box and drop it at a impersonal pick-up station, destined for the consignment store or a charity. Rather you take it directly to the local flea market and sell it yourself.

Festivities are not the domain of the commercial sector (this parade brought to you by coca cola, or, these fire works are paid for by a distant government). Rather they are organized by the neighborhood, often centered around the church, or by individuals from the community appointed to the festival committee on an annual basis. Many life events are expensive - illness, death, baptism, marriage - and a well developed scheme of borrowing money from a group of friends exist, thus tying everyone into a necessary and strong set of relationships. Much different than seeing your local loans officer.


Those who are disabled may drag themselves through the market asking for money or those in wheelchairs may place themselves in the middle of the road asking motorists for donations. In more urban areas those in need of money may sell newspapers, maps, lottery tickets, or novelty items at intersections so you can shop from the car window. Or the enterprising may enter the intersection during the red light and perform acts of fire breathing or juggling, often atop a ladder to maximize the audience, and with perfect timing appear to ask for a donation before the light turns.

While this reduction in options may appear to the outsider as onerous it does present many advantages. Citizens have a stronger connection to the land and a much stronger connection to their neighborhood as they may purchase goods from them or even eat food they provide in the neighborhood. Without the burden of choosing from 25 different toothpaste or from attending to the constant appearance of new products, market decisions are fewer and shopping time is reduced and become immeasurably less stressful. The lack of separation between commercial and residential life makes for a more interesting community.

While life is certainly more difficult for people there is a sense of community which is hard to create in more developed societies.

FIESTAS: FOLLOW THE MONEY

Brandes (1988) offers a very useful analysis of the role of fiestas in Mexico. While the example he works with is the pueblo of Tzintzuntzan I think much of what he says is probably generalizable. The tile of the book is Power and Persuasion and so he shows us how to see that fiestas have elements of the power structure of the community built into them. He looks, for example, at the study of the fireworks which are a significant element of any fiesta. He shows us how we should ask important questions: who pays for the fireworks? Who receives the fireworks? In his case the origin of the fireworks reveals a structure of submission and dominance and the receipt of the fireworks reveals the power structure of the community.

Fiestas are very expensive and often leave individuals in debt. In 1951 Ocativio Paz writes that the Mexican fiesta is “ .. a ritual squandering of the goods painfully accumulated during the rest of the year”. If so, why do people do this? The psychology of this is unclear but in some communities we see that the position of carguero (the person or persons responsible for organizing and thus raising the funds for a particular fiesta) is often a symbol of status. It would be unusual to elect a poor person to the position of carguero so most of those who do get elected are among the more wealthy. To understand the connection between the carguero and the fiesta we need to go to anthropology to learn something of community psychology. Mexican pueblos often give the impression of great communal involvement and activity. Deeper down, however, we find that these communities are very individualistic and have a somewhat fatalistic attitude. It is often believed that the goods of the world are already distributed and will not change very much. (For more on this see the writings of George Foster). However, it is apparent that some are more wealthy (have more of the good) than do others. How does this tension get dealt with?

We can see that to some extent the fiesta is a mechanism to redistribute the goods and thus has elements of the potlatch of the West Coast Native peoples. In a stratified society the fiesta gives to others in the community if only through the receipt of entertainment, some food and perhaps some tequila. A very small number of people will be employed directly. Over a five day period, which is not uncommon for fiestas, a number of bands are hired, there is much dancing, many very large diner parties are held and much alcohol is given away. These things do not of course sustain people in the way that new blankets might or might other sustainable economic goods. However, this redistribution does cement the honoured position of the giver and perhaps eases the tension that flows from inequality. (A more wealthy person may be left with bills exceeding $15,000 dollars, a not inconsiderable sum). Perhaps it is the case that those sponsors who do not have sufficient funds must go to their network of possible lenders and this cementing of relationships of dependence helps build and maintain community stability and solidarity. So the fiesta may be a squandering of money, but it appears to serve a function in the pueblos.

With this in mind I was struck during attendance at one fiesta to be shown the carguero. He was a very young man who spends a great deal of time in the United States were presumably he makes a reasonable amount of money. He then returns home to spend this on his community. (Again, not in building houses or parks but in sponsoring a party.) At a second very large fiesta the “master of ceremonies” identified the sponsors of the fiesta and gave the amount of their donation. The vast majority of these people were from California. What would Brandes make of this? Does it suggest that power has moved out of the community and indeed out of the country? Does it reveal the tension between those who stay at home and those who go abroad to succeed in ways they could not at home? Does it equalize everyone to a small extent and encourage the feeling of collective involvement? Or perhaps, the giver does not make sufficient money in the USA to attain status there or his status is blocked by discrimination, but when he brings some of this money home he can attain an honorary position for himself and his family.

HATS OF THE HERMITS

While attending a pastorela dance in Michoacan I was struck by the tall pointy hats of many of the dancers. These dancers were called the hermits (ermitanos) and this hat is found in many pueblos while other hermits are characterized by a very European looking mask and on occasion by a peasant-like straw cape. The pastorela is usually performed over the Christmas season and is in essence a nativity play. The first description of such a play in Mexico is from 1586 although the performance can be dated back to the 12th century. While some of the roles appear to be similar to those dating back many years each community presents its own version and it is often difficult to see just how it relates to the nativity story. So what was the origin of the pointy hat?

I recalled my childhood days when the pointy hat was called a “dunce cap” and was associated with being stupid or misbehaving. This hat goes back to the 13th century Scottish philosopher John Duns Scotus whose ideas where very popular. Duns had his students wear a pointy hat because he believed this shape helped channel knowledge. As always happens, however, Dun’s ideas fell out of favour and the pointy hat became associated with being stupid or holding unorthodox religious ideas. We need to keep in mind that philosophy at that time was largely religious philosophy. So how does this get to Mexico?

These hermits of Ihuatzio show that not all hermits wear the pointy hat.

You may be familiar with an interesting painting by the Spanish artist Goya (1746-18280) of an ecclesiastical tribunal in which the accused wears a pointy hat. The Spanish Inquisition was introduced in 1478 and while controlled by the Catholic monarch was really a religious court aimed at maintaining Catholic orthodoxy. Spain at that time was a multi-religious society (Catholics, Jews and Muslims – and later Protestants). The Muslims were defeated in 1492 and were converting to Christianity in order to attain access to the benefits of the wider society. Jews had begun to do the same after the terrible pogroms of the last part of the 14th century. However, there was growing concern that many of these were false conversions and that in fact many were secretly practicing their previous religion. A great majority of the accused during the first 200 hundred years of the inquisition were indeed Muslims. Other offences that came to the tribunal were sexual offenses and misbehavior by priests, particularly if they were espousing unorthodox beliefs.

Here the hats are very very pointy - Santa Fe de la Languna.

The inquisition was introduced to Mexico in 1570 so we can now guess a little as to what happened. Perhaps a priest was involved in sexual misbehaviour or announced unorthodox beliefs and his punishment involved something more than acquittal and less than burning at the stake. His public humiliation led him to withdraw from the society and as a result become a little crazy. His role in the pastorela is in part comic but also a symbol of someone who gave way to temptation. Thus, like the devils and the drunkards he is to be tamed by the presence of the church.

There is a remaining mystery. In the dance depicted in the above photo all of the hats had a number on them. I was unable to imagine that this was a personal identification or a hat size, so now I wonder if it was just a random number representing the number of the accused in the ecclesiastical tribunal. Does any one have knowledge of this?