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    The Calpolli-Barrio in a Present-Day Mexican Pueblo

    Author(s): Robert RedfieldSource: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1928), pp. 282-294Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/661338

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    THE CALPOLLI-BARRIO IN A PRESENT-DAYMEXICAN PUEBLOBY ROBERT REDFIELD

    HE socialorganization f theAztechas been considered yMorgan1 and again by Bandelier,2whose work has beenreconsideredand appraised by Waterman.3 It is agreedthatthe fundamental social unit was the calpolli. The sixteenth cen-tury writers, in this respect perhaps more than in others, are notalways clear or consistent, and the precise nature of the calpolliis not in all respects certain. The part played by kinship in fixingthe unit is undetermined. Waterman,observingthe prevalenceofsibs among the higher Indian societies, and relying on statementsmade by Zurita4and Torquemada,5declares the calpolli to havebeen a groupof kin.6 Spinden7doubts that the groupwas everexogamic and a true sib.

    But the calpolli certainly had a variety of wide-reachingandimportantfunctions. Furthersummarizing he conclusion reachedby Waterman, it may be said: Each calpolli owned in commonlands separateand distinct from lands of the other calpolli. Theselands could not be sold and only membersof that calpolli couldsettle upon them. The calpolli assigned to families small tractswithin the calpolli property. These assignedfields (tlalmilli) were1Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient Society, chapt. 7.2 Adolph F. Bandelier, On the Distribution and Tenure of Lands and theCustoms with Respect to Inheritance, among the Ancient Mexicans. EleventhAnnual Report, Peabody Museum of AmericanArchaeologyandEthnology, 2: 384-448,1878: and id., On the Social Organization and Mode of Government of the AncientMexicans. Twelfth Annual Report, id., 2, No. 3, 1879.3 T. T. Waterman, Bandelier's Contribution to the Study of Ancient MexicanSocial Organization. Univ. of California Publications in American Archaeology andEthnology, 12: 249-282, 1917.4 Alonso de Zurita, Breve y sumaria relacion de los senores y maneras y diferen-cias que habla de ellas en la Nueva Espana, etc. Ternaux Compans, Voyages, 10: 53.6 Juan de Torquemada, I-II parte de los veinte y un libros rituales y monarchia

    Indiana, etc. Madrid, 545, 1723.6 Waterman, op. cit., 253.7 Herbert J. Spinden, Ancient Civilizations of Mexico and Central America, 190.282

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    cultivated by the recipients,and the right of occupancyand tillagewas inheritable. But if the assignee failed to cultivate the field,or if the family died out, the calpolli might reassign that field toanotherfamily. There are statements that each calpolliwas sover-eign within its limits. Each had a council house (tecpan); eachhad judges to pass on local irregularities, although their decisionswere apparently subject to review by tribal authorities. Each hadits own god and place of worship. Apparently the men of eachcalpolli formed a military society, an Aztec army, and foughtas a unit under a standard bearing an emblem of the calpolli. Ineach calpolli there was a military leader, and one, two or three(it is not clear just how many) civil officers. It is sure thereforethat the calpolli enjoyed important functions, governmental,religious and military, as well as functions closely related to themethod of land tenure. But in each case the functions fitted inwith and formed a part of a larger tribal system.This type of organization was apparently characteristic notonly of Tenochtitlan but of many other lesser pueblos within theNahua area. At the time if the Conquest, the Spaniardsdid notin most instances attempt very definitely or radically to reformthe systems of local government of the lesser pueblos. Theresurvive today many of the landholdingpueblos of pre-Columbiantimes, bearingat once the conspicuoustraces of Aztec culture andalso the strong imprint of Spanish colonial institutions. In thecase of some institutions, Spanishcustom was not so inconsistentas seriously to modify the Indian forms. Thus, the communallandsof the pre-Columbianvillage, the altepetlalli, urvivein manya Mexican village under the name of ejido,and about them clustermany of the problems involved in the present agrarianreforms.8A typical pueblo of this type is Tepoztlan in the State ofMorelos. Tepoztlan9 has a pre-Columbianhistory of some relia-bility. The glyphs on a temple situated just above the presenttown include a date that has been correlated with modern chro-nology to read 1502, the last year of the reign of the Aztec war-

    8 G. M. McBride, The Land Systems of Mexico, chapt. 5.9E. Seler, Die Tempelpyramide von Tepoztlan. Globus, 73: 123-127.Also in Gesammelte Abhandlungen, 2: 200.

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    chief, Ahuitzotl. The pueblo was a pueblo of the Nahua-speakingTlahuicas, whose principalcity was Cuauhnahuac(Cuernavaca).The Codex Mendozal? lists Tepoztlan as among those pueblosconqueredby the Aztec under the elder Montezuma. The CodexAubin-Goupil statesll that in 1487 new kings were installed inCuauhnahuac,Tepoztlan, Huaxtepec and Xiloxochitepec. Thehistory of the town is also known immediately after the Conquest.In 1521 Cortez arrived in Tepoztlan on his way fromYautepec toCuernavacaand as the inhabitants did not submit, he set fire tothe town.l2 When the conquest was achieved, Tepoztlan wasamong the towns awarded to Cortez.13While making studies in Tepoztlan during 1926-27 as a re-search fellow of the Social Science Research Council, I was earlyimpressed by the importance in the social organization of thepresent-day village, of the barrio, lwhich was readily recognizableas the calpolli of pre-Columbiandays. The survival, although ina much altered form, as an important unit, of a social groupingcharacteristic of pre-Columbian society, offers an opportunity toconsider the mode of change and readaptationof a social institu-tion. Although our information as to the calpolli is largely drawnfrom descriptions of Tenochtitlan, it is probably justifiable tocompare such descriptionswith the present situation in another,but near by, pueblo which was probably characterizedby verymuch the same culture.

    Tepoztlan is situated at the head of a valley closely boundedby steep cliffs which are brokenjust at the head, permitting onethere to enter the pueblo from above. So entering in the rainyseason one finds the town almost completely buried in foliage.Only the towers of eight churches are visible. One of these, amassive colonial structure, is the Templo Mayor, situated in the10Plate 9 of the Kingsborough reproduction.n So says Seler, op cit., 124.12 Bernal Diaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain, 10, chapt. 144.Hakluyt translation, 4: 67.13 Coleccion de documentos ineditos del Real Archivo de Indias, 12: 554-563,1869, Madrid.14 The word barrio is also used in Mexico today for artificially determinedmunicipal wards, and also for certain small independent rural communities.

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    THE CALPOLLI-BARRIO

    central plaza and used by all the inhabitants. The other sevenchurches, or chapels (capillas), are much smaller and are scatteredabout the village, no two being close together. Each is located in,and is the property of, one of the seven barrios. The chapel andthe barriotakes its name from the saint whose image is placed onthe altar of the chapel and on whose name-day falls the fiesta ofthat barrio. Santa Cruz has not one, but two fiestas, one on May3rd, the other on August 6th, because there are two images in thechapel, that of Santa Cruzand that of San Salvador. In this case,whilethe barriois known as Santa Ciuz, Saint Salvadoris thoughtof as the patron of the barrio. The small hamlet of Ixcatepec,just outside Tepoztlan, has the same two imagesand consequentlythe same two fiestas. By arrangementof long standing howeverIxcatepec celebrates its fiestas a week after those of Santa Cruz.The barrios vary a great deal in size. The number of housesin each barriois approximatelyas follows:

    San Pedro ..................... 35Los Reyes ..................... 65San Sebastian .................. 14Santa Cruz .................... 100La Santisima (Trinidad)........ 175San M guel .................... 150Santo Domingo ............... 175Roughly speaking, there are four large barriosand three small

    ones. The four large barrios,those last named, are groupedaboutthe central plaza, while the three small ones are situated above(west of) the others. The boundaries of the barrios are clearlydefined. Sometimes a boundaryruns in the middle of a street andsometimes the houses on both sides of the street pertain to thesame barrio, the boundary then running just behind a row ofhouses. Occasionally there are irregular jogs which take a fewhouses out of a block andinclude them in another barrio. A wholeblockof houses, geographically n San Miguel, belongto the barrioof Santa Cruz,at the opposite side of town. How this cameabout,I do not know. The inhabitants of these houses take their turnin the care of the chapel of Santa Cruz, and pay the contributionpaid by barrio-membersat the time of the fiesta of that barrio.

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    Topography.-It is clear that in Tepoztlantopographicfactorshave been of some importance in fixing barrio boundaries. Inmany cases there is now a barrancaor at least a sudden declivitywhere one barrio ends and another begins. This is especiallynotable in the cases of the boundaries between San Pedro andLos Reyes, Los Reyes and Santa Cruz, Los Reyes and SanSebastian, La Santisima and Santo Domingo. Tepoztlan is situ-ated on a steep slope, and the barriosoccur in the orderpreviouslygiven fromthe upperend of the slope to the lower. If one looks atthe village from the mountainson the south side of the valley, theseven chapels appear in a ranking series, one above another,occupying five obvious levels. The following diagram illustratesthis.San Pedro Los Reyes San Sebastian

    and Santa CruzLa Santisimaland San Miguel San Miguel andSanto Domingo

    It is worthy of note that those pairs of barrioswhich occur onthe same level resemble one another in cultural features morethan otherpairs. Thus, San Sebastianand Santa Cruz have specialsimilarities in occupations and religious sentiments and bear thesame animal appellation (as will be later explained); while in thecase of San Miguel and La Santisima one of the principal streetsruns continuously on the same level through both barrios and thepair are much alike and cooperate for the Carnival and for otherfiestas.Suggestingthat the Tepoztecosare consciousof the part playedby topographic features the fact appears that during an annual

    fiesta an actor impersonatingtheir eponymous king, El Tepoz-teco, recites a traditional role in Nahuatl in the course of which,as he is defying the besiegingarmies of other neighboringvillages,he says: Ica hueloncan nechmoyohualotica nahui notepe, chicometlatelli, chicome tlacomolli, ihuan chicometlatmimilolli, i.e., HereI am surroundedby my four mountains, seven slopes, seven hills

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    and seven canyons. This is clearly a reference, in topographicterms, to the barrios.Barriomembership.-The word barrio s frequentlytranslatedward, but ward does not correctly suggest the nature of theunit. In the first place the barrio is not a political unit. For pur-poses of municipal government the town has been divided intoseven demarcaciones. It is plain that the barrios have been thegeneral pattern for the delimitation of the demarcaciones, ut theboundaries of the two sets of units do not coincide. People do not

    know in which demarcacionhey live; many are probablyignorantthat such a unit exists. In the second place, while one becomes amember of a ward, as we know it, merely by going and livingin that area,one may not in this way become a memberof a barrio.Membershipin the barrio is, generally speaking, hereditary. Inmost cases people live on the sites on which lived their ancestorsfor many generations. These house-sites bear individual Nahuatlnames by which addresses are given; street names are rarelyused.When therefore an individual comes from without a barrioand rents a house there, he does not thereby become a memberofthat barrio. When I asked for lists of barrio-members,my infor-mant would omit to name the occupants of certain houses. Inevery case these turned out to be houses rented by outsiders, or,in a few cases, houses owned and occupied by members of otherbarrios.This latter case leads to the point that there are living in everybarrio certain families who are known to belongto a barriootherthan that in which they live. This probably came about when anancestorbought a site in someother barrio. One of my informants,living in Los Reyes, belonged to La Santisima, although neithershe nor any other informant could tell at what time the familyhad moved. In Los Reyes there are five familiesfromLa Santisima,two from San Miguel and three from Santa Cruz.This probablymeansthat in these cases it was the entirefamilythat moved and there was no one left in the old barrio to continuethe membershipthere. Of course a man may and probably fre-quently does changehis barriomembershipby changinghis barrioresidence. This may come about if a father with several sons buys

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    for one or more of them a house-site in another barrio. The son,usually the eldest, who remainsin the old barrio, carrieson afterhis father's death the membership n the old barrioand fulfillsthepledge to that santo,while a younger son takes up membership nanother barrio. It will be observed that there is a tendency forthe men within a barrio to be related rather than the women,because in most cases a marriedson brings his wife to live in hisfather's house, or in a new house built on or near the same site,while daughtersmarryand may often go to live in another barrio.I find no evidence that the barrio affects choice of spouse; thereseem to be no influenceson such choice except influences of pro-pinquity and temperamental preference.Membershipin the barrio is attested by the importantfact ofpayment of the offering(limosna;huentli)at the time of the fiestaof the santoof the barrio, and it is so perpetuated in the cases ofindividuals belonging to barrios other than those in which theylive. Thus, the La Santisimafamiliesin Los Reyes pay the offeringwhen the fiesta of La Santisima takes place. They may also paythe offeringfor the fiesta of Los Reyes, but this is recDgnized s alater obligation and does not cancelmembership n the barrioof LaSantisima. By this ceremonialpayment the fact that the peopleliving in the Santa Cruz enclave within San Miguel belong toSanta Cruz is annually revived at the fiesta of Santa Cruz. Theofferingis thought of as a perpetual pledge to the santo, irrevoc-able, and binding on a man's family after his death. The moneyso paid is expended for one or bothof two purposes-the candlesburnedbefore the santoon the day of the fiesta, and the tower offireworks(castillo)burnedin front of the chapel on that occasion.The payment for each of these purposes,of the year's installmentof the perpetual pledge, is an occasion attended by solemnizingritual, both acted and spoken. The ceremonies take place at thehouses of the majordomosof the candles and of the castillo, andthe occasions are known respectively as the cerahpa and thecastiyohpa.15

    15 Redfield, The Cerahpa and the Castiyohpa in Tepoztlan. Mexican Folkways,3: 137, 1927.

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    AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGISTThe barrio,a social unit.-It is in this social and festal organiza-tion of the community that the barrio maintains its importance.Even when there is no fiesta the chapel serves as a sort of socialcenterfor the barrio;the water tank is generallyon that cornerandnear it people congregate to gossip. Some of the barrios havepurchasedgasoline lamps which are hung in the street outside thechapel, and here the youths of the barrio come in the evening totalk, gamble,or listen to songs. But it is at the time of the annualfiesta that the collective importanceof the barriomembersreaches

    its highest importance, and the chapel becomes the great focusof interest for the entire pueblo and even for the neighboringvillages. The decoration of the chapel, the ceremonialbringingof the candles, the erection and burning of the castillo, the prepara-tion and consumption of the festal dishes, the playing of theancient flute or of the teponaztli on the roof of the chapel, one ormore sacred dances and sometimes toros-all constitute a programof ritual and entertainmentwhichoccupiesfrom one to eight days.Although membersof other barriostake part in the fun, the barriowhose santo is celebrated acts as host, and its members very muchfeel their collective importance.The barrio as a religious organization, the central religiousbuilding, the patron-god whose image is contained within it, andelements in the ceremonial (e.g., the teponaztli, offering of flowergarlands, copal incense, etc.) are survivals from pre-Columbianculture. There are frequent referencesin the sixteenth centurywriters to the temples belonging to the calpollil7and to the landsthe produceof which went for their upkeep.l8 In the commentaryto the Codex Magliabecchil9 t is stated:

    Each barriohas another idol. They say it was he who guarded the barrio.To him they run with their petitions in times of necessity. On the day onwhich the festival of this idol falls, the people of the barrio offer him solemni-ties. The other barrios do not.17 As, for example,Sahagun,Historia de las cosas de Nueva Espana, p. 211(appendix o the secondbook);Las Casas,Historia de las Indias,chapt. 130,p. 347.18Las Casas,op. cit., chapt. 130,p. 373.19Commentaryo section 62. Publishedas The Book of Life of the AncientMexicans, by Universityof California, 903. Translation y T. T. Waterman.

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    This is precisely the situation in Tepoztlan today. It is notnecessary to enlarge on the fact that the santo in each chapel isregardedas the special god and protector of the barrio and thatthis sentiment is directed toward the particular wooden imagethere enshrined. The santo is a symbol of the collective sentimentof the barrio. It is not uncommonfor an individual to boast of thesuperiormiraculousnessof the santo of his barrio,- our barrioisthe most important because our image is the most miraculous.San Salvadorprotected the people of Santa Cruzduringthe revo-lution, SanSebastian appears in dreamsto the peopleof his barrioand offers them advice, and so forth.There is therefore a morale, an espritdecorps,inheringin thebarrio,embodiedin the santoandoccasionallyexpressedas rivalry.Every exertion must be expended on the fiesta to maintain thebarrioprestige. The organizations which support the Carnival,asecularfiesta, arecreations of three of the barrios.These comparsas(groupsof masked men leaping together) strive each to make abetter show than do the others. Disputes not infrequently arise.Duringmy stay trouble between Santo Domingo and SanMiguelwas only averted by an arrangement that the two comparsas wereto leap on different days.This rivalry does not prevent the barrios from functioningcooperatively on the occasion of important fiestas celebrating asanto shared by the entire pueblo, or a santo of one of the smallvillages near by. If such an occasion be very important, involvinga fiesta of several days or a week, an organizationof majordomosis formed from the barrios and from the smaller villages outsideTepoztlan, and each in turn is responsiblefor the candles burnedon one day duringthe fiesta. The unit thus both divides and unitesthe natural community of which Tepoztlan is the most importanttown; in competitionand cooperationof barriosthe social-religiousfabric is woven.The barrios are the important social unit. The membersof abarrio tend to think and act alike. In very large measure this isbecause of the unifying and centralizing influence of the chapeland its santo,with the attendant cooperativework and play. Theplay has been mentioned. The work is connected with the care

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    of the chapel and of the milpas of the santo. A groupof men of thebarrio together prepare the land for sowing, together hoe thegrowingmaize, together gather the harvest. A groupof womenofthe barrio together preparethe food for the men so employed inthe fields. The wife, or principalwoman in the household,of themajordomoof the santo organizes the cooking of tortillas, beans,and meat.In some instances there are economic factors which emphasizethis collective feeling. Thus, what charcoal s burnedin Tepoztlanis nearly all burned in San Pedro, and, to a less extent, in LosReyes. The members of these barrios, in cutting, hauling andburning wood, are drawn together by their common occupation.More marked is the part played by the twisting of ropesof magueyfiber by the inhabitants of San Sebastian. This industry, intro-duced a generation ago by an immigrant to Tepoztlan fromanother village, has spreadto few houses outside of the barrio inwhich he settled; but in San Sebastianalmostevery household is sooccupied;and when there is an important fair in somelargertownin the state, the men of San Sebastian go there almost in a bodyto market their lassos and riatas.Barrio cultures.-The barrioshave, indeed,obviously differentcultures, or, what is the same thing, differentpersonalities. Thevarying characteristicsof the barriosare recognizedby the Tepoz-tecos themselves, and at least the more reflective of them canexpress the differencesthey feel. Descriptions so received agreedwith my previous notes with remarkableexactness. Thus, SantoDomingo is the most civilized barrio,and the most patriotic (i.e.,most nearly conscious of national feeling--their chapel is deco-rated with Mexican flags; a modernorchestra was organizedhere,etc.). Santa Cruz is strongly primitive-Catholic, exclusive andindependent- Santa Cruz governs itself like a little republic.San Pedro is a barrioof poor, illiterate people who preserve to amarked extent ancient mentality and resent the presenceof out-siders;and so forth.Barrionames.-The consciousnessof barriopersonalitiesrecei-ves an expressionin namesappliedto the barrios. Thesenames arein Nahuatl and arein every case the names of animals. The namesare:

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    THIE CALPOLLI-BARRIOSanto Domingo: cacame toadsLa Santisima: tzicame antsSan Miguel: techihchicame lizardsSanta Cruz andSan Sebastian: tepemaxtlame cacomixtles 20Los Reyes: metzalcuanime maguey wormsSan Pedro: tlacuatzitzin tlacuaches 2'

    These names are used, somewhat humorously, to refer to themembersof the barrioconsideredcollectively. Thus as the saint-day of Santo Domingo, January 12th, approaches, t will be said:Ye acitihuitz lhuitl cacame, Now comes the fiesta of the toads.There are two explanationsofferedby the Tepoztecos for thesenames. According to the first explanation, the animal named isone particularlycommonat the time when the fiesta of that barriois held. Thus, the fiesta of La Santisimais in June when the milpasare plowed for sowing and many ants therefore appear on theground; that of Santa Cruz is in May when the cacomixtles comedown to eat the sapotes which are ripe at that time and fallingto the ground;that of Los Reyes in January when the maguey isopened for pulque and the worms come to eat the exposed pulp.The other explanation, which is more common, declares that thenames are descriptiveof the characteristicsof the barrio members.The people of La Santisima are called ants because there are somany of them; they run over the ground and get into all sorts ofaffairs. Those of Santo Domingo are called toads not only becausethey live nearest the water but because they swell so with theirown importance. Those of San Miguel are called lizards becausethey are so quick (lijero)and light-minded,liking to play and singso much at night on the street corners. Those of Santa Cruzarecalled cacomixtles because they live up under the rocks with thecacomixtles. These characterizations are certainly apt. It ishighly doubtful that these names represent modifications of pre-Columbian names of calpolli. Similar collective designations,though not always in Nahuatl and usually not animal terms arefound in other Mexican villages.22 But the names do represent

    20 The bassarisk.Bassariscusastuta.21 The opossum. Didelphys p.22Gamio, p. cit., tomo i, 2: 402.

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    the consciousness of barrio individualities and help to show howTepoztlan is a federation of semi-independent units, as was nodoubt the pre-Columbianpueblo.In summary, it may be said that the calpolli has persisted inTepoztlan as the barrio. There is evidence that topographicfeatures there played a part in fixing the boundaries of theseunits. The barriosare place-units, but tend to include groups ofuninterrupted family-lines, tracing descent through the father'sside. Membership in the barrio is perpetually recorded by anannual ceremony. The barrio, as was probably the calpolli, is ofgreat importancein the religiousorganizationand social interplayof the community. The santo of the barrio continues the pro-tective function of the local god of the calpolli. The maintenanceof the chapel of this santo and the annual celebration of the santowith the cooperative work and play demanded by the fiestadevelop a strong group-sentiment in the barrio members. Thebarrios are sub-culture-groupswithin the larger village organiza-tion, and form a federation of competitive and also cooperativeunits.The functions exercised by the calpolli which are not sharedby its descendant, the barrio, are those involving warfare, andthose having to do with economics and government so far as theyrelate to the pueblo or units larger than the pueblo. This is nomore than saying that it is the tribal organization which waseffaced by the Conquest. The local festal and religious organi-zation, conflictingwith no pattern imposedfromoutside by Span-ish culture, persists, altered so far as required by other culturalchanges. Tepoztlan is not a primitive society today; it is a folkgroup, in the special sense,-an illiterate enclave surviving insidea new cultural framework imposed from outside by a literateconquering culture of a very different nature.

    WINDY PINES,GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS

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