analysis of world view in a mexican peasant village: an illustration

Analysis of World View in a Mexican Peasant Village: An IllustrationAuthor(s): Cynthia NelsonSource: Social Forces, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Sep., 1967), pp. 52-61Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2575321 .

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52 SOCIAL FORCES

ANALYSIS OF WORLD VIEW IN A MEXICAN PEASANT VILLAGE: AN ILLUSTRATION*

CYNTHIA NELSON American University in Cairo

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with the central themes in the cognitive orientation of the inhabitants of Erongaricuaro, a mestizo agricultural village of 2,400 people on the shore of Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan, 250 miles west of Mexico City and in the ways in which these themes can be confirmed.

The paper also demonstrates how the use of Thematic Apperception tests (in addition to the usual methods of participant observation by anthropologists) sharpens the fieldworker's insights and leads to a more logical and coherent interpretation of the data. Moreover, TAT responses have definite research value for the frequency of certain themes leads the fieldworker to search for overt manifestations of them in everyday life, manifestations whose significance might not be fully appreciated without cues given by the projective material.

I

or many years anthropologists have been concerned with the elusive problem of what is the relationship between human

behavior and the underlying implicit assump- tions or unverbalized premises which structure such behavior and determine the patterns into which it falls. The concepts used to explore this field include "culture patterns," "ethos," "configurations," "themes," "world view" and more recently, "cognitive orientations."1' Re- gardless of terminology used, a central problem is methodology; how can outsiders (i.e.,

members of other societies) look inside the minds of people and comprehend their view of the several universes that surround them? The traditional anthropological answer to this diffi- culty has been through long residence in a community, knowledge of the language, and in- terpretations of the observed behavior. Good monographs based on this traditional method tell us much about the cognitive orientation of the people described, but few if any are able to present complete "systems." Another answer to the question has been the use of psychological and psychiatric methods which have added greatly to the stock of tools that may be used in probing comprehension and in the ways in which these "themes" or "world views" may be verified and substantiated.2 To date, a com- bination of both traditional ethnographic ap- proaches and these new tools appears to be the most rewarding way to investigate themes as I shall try to show.

Specifically in this paper I am concerned with the central themes in the cognitive orientation of the inhabitants of Erongaricuaro, a mestizo agricultural village of 2,400 people on the shore of Lake Patzcuaro, 250 miles west of Mexico City and in the ways in which these themes can be confirmed.

*The data in this paper were gathered during the author's field work in Erongaricuaro, Michoa- can, Mexico from August 1960-August 1961, sup- ported by National Science Foundation Grant G-7064. I wish to acknowledge the encourage- ment of George M. Foster, Principal Investigator, who read earlier drafts of this paper and offered constructive criticism in its organization.

1 For a fuller discussion of these concepts see Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1934); M. E. Opler, "An Application of the Theory of Themes in Culture," Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 36 (1946), pp. 137-166; Robert Redfield, "The Primitive World View," Proceedings of the Ameri- can Philosophical Society, 96 (1952), pp. 30-36; A. I. Hallowell, "Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and World View," Culture in History: Essays in Honor of Paul Radin (New York: Columbia Uni- versity Press, 1960).

2 E.g., Cora Dubois, The People of Alor (Minne- apolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1944); Thomas Gladwin and S. B. Sarason, Truk: Man in Paradise (New York: The Viking Fund, 1953).



WORLD VIEW IN A PEASANT VILLAGE 53

Basic to this paper is the attempt to show how the use of Thematic Apperception tests (in addition to the usual methods of participant observation by anthropologists) sharpens the fieldworker's insights and leads to a more logical and coherent interpretation of the data.3 Moreover, TAT responses have definite research value for the frequency of certain themes leads the fieldworker to search for overt manifestations of them in everyday life, manifestations whose significance might not be fully appreciated without cues given by the TAT responses. For example, TAT responses of Erongaricuaro villagers emphasized the theme of suffering and dependence, not only as a passive condition of life, but also as a means to achieve goals, or otherwise change conditions. This emphasis, noted early in my field work, led to much fuller comprehension of the dy- namics of interpersonal relationships than would probably have resulted had these cues not been forthcoming through TAT responses.

2 Erongaricuaro is an ancient community. At

the time of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico it was an important agricultural and market community, characteristics which mark the modern village. In recent years since the Conquest, Spanish has gradually replaced the original Tarascan speech, and although most adjacent villages are still Tarascan, Erongaricuarefios think of themselves as "Mexicans," citizens of a great nation, and not as "Indians," united by ties of language and custom to an important minority group. The basic economic and social unit is, as in other highland Mexican mestizo communities, the bilateral nuclear family. Al-

though the established norm is for newly married sons to spend a year or two in their father's home, separate households comprising only two generations are looked upon as ideal, and are a goal toward which most persons strive. Households vary in composition, however, both for economic reasons, and reasons of preference, three generations under one roof are not uncommon.

Erongaricuaro is in the center of an area in which the Roman Catholic Church has played a dominant role since the second quar- ter of the sixteenth century. The Church remains a focus of a great many of the villagers' activities outside the home, and the Holy Family serves as a model for the ideal family. But Erongaricuaro is not isolated, geo- graphically at least, and it is not immune to change. Since 1890 it has been within a few miles of a railway, and an all-weather high- way has connected it to Mexico's national net- work for more than a generation. Physical mobility is fairly pronounced. For more than 20 years large numbers of men have gone periodically to the United States as braceros (contract seasonal farm workers), and others move, for shorter or longer periods, and some- times permanently, to towns and cities, search- ing for work in industrializing centers.

TABLE 1.

Age Male Female Total

14-19 ........... 3 1 4 20-29 ........... 2 8 10 30-39 ........... 3 3 6 4049 ........... 1 3 4 50-59 ........... 0 3 3 60 ........... 2 1 3

Total ........... 11 19 30

Yet the processes of rural modernization are not easy, nor even, and conflicts in the minds and actions of people inhibit full exploitation of the possibilities now existing in Mexico for economic and social betterment. The entrepreneurial spirit is as yet poorly developed, and many people are reluctant to display other than traditional forms of initiative. The nature of this conflict, and the resulting dilemma, as will be shown, is one of the themes which,

3 The Thematic Apperception test, hereafter re- ferred to as TAT, and its modifications are projective devices which require an individual to respond to a series of rather general and vague pictures suggestive of a variety of social situa- tions. Their value lies in the fact that the re- spondent proj ects his feelings, needs and desires into the scenes portrayed. In traditional interpretation these response patterns are analyzed to assess the personality of the storyteller. However, the content of responses can also be looked upon as expressing a particular world view or cognitive orientation. It is in this latter sense that the analyses in this paper are made.



54 SOCIAL FORCES

without the insight afforded by TAT responses, nmight very well have been overlooked.

Table 1 summi1arizes the age and sex of the villagers examined by the TAT's.4

On the whole the villagers' responses were free and spontaneous, with several informants actually admitting they were projecting their own life histories onito the cards. For example, one woman in her late fifties upon completing her story ended by saying, "I suffered much for my son. This is the story in this picture that you show me." (Card 2.) Another informant, a single girl in her early twenties, responded to all cards by creating stories in the first person. This was most unusual as the villagers tended to use the third person; in no case was the second person used in the stories.

In most of the responses the central character is explicitly identified as father, mother,

husband, wife, son or daughter and the thiemiie focuses on some aspect of familial role structure. Comumon beginnings include: "The father is giving advice to his son"; "the mother is thinking how sad she will be when hier son leaves."

The reoccurring concerns that cut across all the stories and which appear to dominate the outlooks of most Erongaricuarefos are suimmarized in Table 2.5

Turning to the dominant themes as re- flected in Table 2 it is clear that the hierarchical structure of society seen in everyday life, with respect and submission accruing to those who control power, is expressed in fantasy life. There were 30 stories in which there was some explicit spontaneous reference to authority. In nearly all cases the reference was to submission to a higher authority, particularly a parent, with females showing a slightly higiher frequency than males.

A typical tlheme is expressed by a 35-year-old mnale to Card 6BM:

Here I suppose is a mother and son. By the look on her face she is scolding him for something bad that he did. I think that when he was a young child he got good support from his parents to study; but as in everything there are moments in life not always to listen to parents; He may con- tradict his parents and go against their wishes. B tt he thhiks he is wrong and will probablyv con- form to zewhat his mi.other says.

This narrative indicates the price the individual miaust pay for his expression of autonomy. Greater education may result in the question- ilng of traditional ways but loss of parental support destroys one's confidence and comll- pliance appears to be the most secure path to follow.

Anthropologists working amonag peasants have frequently noted the "luck syndrome, that is, the fatalistic belief that success call come

4 The cards used consist of ten out of the original Murray set. In order to facilitate reading and understanding the examples of TAT responses appearing in the text, a summary description of each card follows.

Card 1; A young boy is contemplating a violin which rests on a table in front of him.

Card 2: Country scene. In the foreground is a young woman with books; in the background a man is working the fields; an older woman looks on.

Card 3BM: On the floor against a couch is the huddled form of a boy or girl with the head bowed on the right arm. On the floor is an object that might be a revolver.

Card 4: A woman is clutching the shoulders of a man whose face and body are averted as if he were trying to pull away.

Card 6BM: An elderly woman is standing with her back to a young man.

Card 7BM: An older man is standing behind a younger man.

Card 8BM: An adolescent boy is looking straight out of the picture. In the background is the dim scene of a possible surgical operation.

Card 13B: A little boy is sitting on the doorstep of a cabin.

Card 13MF: A young man is standing with a downcast head buried in his arm. Behind him is the figure of a woman lying in bed.

Card 18GF: A woman is pressing her hands around the throat of another figure.

5 The system of categories for scoring the manii- fest content of the TAT's is a modified version of that used by George DeVos. The author of the present study was the only one to do the scoring and used DeVos' scheme as a general framnework inlto which the stories tended to cluster. See George DeVos, "Manual for Scoring the TAT," unpub- lished manuscript, Institute of Human Develop- ment, University of California, 1959.



WORLD VIEW OF A PEASANT VILLAGE 55

TABLE 2. THEMES

Average Number of Male-11 Female-19 Total Stories per Subject

% to total % to total number number

Dominant Themes N of stories N of stories N Male Female

1. Auithority A. Compliancewithparentalcontrol. 9 7.4% 18 8.5% 27 .82 .95 B. Expressions of autonomy 0 0.0% 3 1.4% 3 .00 .16

2. Achievement A. "luck syndrome". 14 12.0% 26 12.1% 40 1.27 1.37 B. Through self-determination 3 2.0% 6 2.9% 9 2.72 .32

3. Dependence A. Seeks help from others .35 29.0% 52 24.5% 87 3.18 2.75 B. Concern for nurture ........... 12 9.5% 30 14.2% 42 1.09 1.54

4. Superego Reaction A. Guilt and atonement .11 9.1% 17 8.0% 28 1.00 .90 B. Guilt leading to achievement... 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 .00 .00

5. Separation A. Fear of abandonment-passive.. 25 20.5% 40 19.6% 65 2.28 2.10 B. Manipulation-active suffering.. 2 1.5% 0 0.0% 2 1.82 .00

6. Obligation A. Self-sacrifice for others .10 9.0% 20 8.8% 30 .54 1.05 B. Duty to oneself .0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 .00 .00

Totals .121 100% 212 100% 333 11.01 11.15

only tlhrough capricious outside intervelntion, and not through one's own efforts. Of the total number of stories concerned with achievement 80 percent refer particularly to attaining acllievement by fortuitous circumstances. Char- acteristic, of this kind of theme are the fol- loWilg responses to Card 1:

. . . God will help him become a great musician, ...

... the child likes to play but he cannot....

. . . He will be able to do it because he likes it and the Virgin zwill help hinm.

The most insightful material to emerge from the TAT's is the tremendous concern about dependency, that is, seeking others for help, expecting to receive support and reachinlg success through dependence on others. Thirty- eight percent of the total numliber of stories by both men and women conltained somlie theme of giving or receiving help, advice or emotional support. It is not that the inldividual believes he deserves and miierits what he gets. There is nio expression of an initernalized in- strumaental goal to achieve; it is rather a passive waiting in the hope that somueone will collme alonig anid help.

Expressed tlhroughout responses to Card 13B is the idea: If Ihere is a person who helps,

he wiU becomse a great man; if not he will be lost.

An ilmlportalnt anid logical corollary to this thelmle stands out much more strongly in fani- tasy materials than in evidence from direct observation; success comes from dependence on others and from following the will of superior power, and failure results when this will is ignored. Typical is the following response to Card 7BM by a 45-year-old mani:

This is the boy's father and he is giving advice. Both of them look happy. The son consents to what the father is saying. It is clear that he solves his problems becatuse he listened to his father's advice.

Or this responise from a 20-year-old woman:

The boy's father is telling him what he has to do when he grows up. The boy doesn't like Nvhat his father is sayinig. Later thintgs go badly for- the so- becaitse he didn't do as his father told himii.

These responlses are consistenit with what we know about traditional peasant societies. In Erongaricuaro, as in many other places, sub- iission to the will of authority, and the conl-

sequent dependence that follows, is felt to be the road to security. Man submiiits to the will



56 SOCIAL FORCES

of God, and in return he is saved. Children sublmiit to the will of their father, if they wish to achieve security, and feel that failure to obey may lead to their downfall. Repentance also appears as an important theme in many of the responses. All stories referring to superego reactions express the idea that guilt and punishment result from wrongdoing and refusal to acknowledge authority, and its will, causes grief, which can only be assuaged by repentance. Table 2 indicates that men show a slightly higher frequency of stories around this theme than women. A 14-year-old boy narrates this story to Card 7BM:

There is a father and a son. They are very rich, but the son likes to drink and spend money. In this story the father is giving advice to his son because he feels soon he may die. The son is sad that his father might die. Previously the son had been gambling, drinking and wasting his life, but now he says that he won't do that anymore. Then they can be happy and take care of the house. In the future the son stops drinking and the father does not die. But the son remains sad for the grief he caused his father.

DeVos has suggested that guilt feelings among the Japanese lead to strong achievement motivation, which is consistent with the rapid development of that country.6 But in Eron- garicuaro guilt feelings do not become in- ternalized and serve as a powerful motive for achievement. Rather, they lead to renewed determination to submit, to atone, and to seek forgiveness; in a nutshell, to a continuance of the status quo. This is poignantly brought out in the TAT stories, especially those expressing themes of separation.

Separation for the villagers is equated with feelings of loneliness, fear of losing one's parents, and suffering. Table 2 indicates that village men tend to be more preoccupied over separation than women. For example a 16- year-old boy says of Card 3BM:

A young man is feeling sad for many reasons. He has fallen. He feels disillusioned because he committed some crime against his parents, his

friend or his sweetheart and now he is abandoned. He feels tortured for what he has done. He is alone where no one sees him sutffering.

Similar themes are apparent from the women as a 27-year-old girl-in response to the same card-narrates a long and involved story about a fallen woman who wishes to commit suicide:

Perhaps she will meet a person who will understand her, guide her, and give her affection. Basi- cally she is not bad; she is alone and abandoned.

Passive suffering is the dominant theme, yet Erongaricuaro is by no means passive and static, and new opportunities for advancement are presenting themselves to increasing numbers of people. George Foster has recently suggested that the relative lack of an entrepreneurial spirit in peasant societies is due to the fear of sanctions which will be invoked against the progressive and ambitious individual, by fellow villagers who see their uni- verse as one in which one man's progress is at the expense of others.7 A middle-aged man expresses this view:

In Erongaricuaro whenever anyone tries to raise his standard of living, or to rise above what he was before, there are always those around him who try to cut him down, to hold him back and prevent him from rising. If it isn't the govern- ment then it is the people around him who would like to rob him of what he has, kill him, and take over.

6 George DeVos, "The Relationship of Guilt Toward Parents to Achievement and Arranged Marriages among the Japanese," Psychiatry, 23 (1960), pp. 287-301.

George M. Foster, "Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good," American Anthropolo- gist, 67 (April 1965), pp. 293-315. This model of "limited good" and the arguments underlying it have been severely criticized by many anthropologists and it is not my purpose here to enter into the debate as to whether Foster is talking about explanatory models or "real" cognitive orientations. From the TAT material that I've col- lected Erongaricuarenos embody the "image of limited good" but this does not mean that such a view is caused by restrictive economic conditions which is what Foster appears to be arguing. The presence or absence of a particular orientation does not explain its genesis; but it can help us understand why people behave the way they do. For further discussion on the issues raised by Foster and his critics see American Anthropolo- gist, 68 (1966), pp. 202-214; 1202-1225.



WORLD VIEW IN A PEASANT VILLAGE 57

Yet entrepreneurs do arise, and still other people express the desire for progress, however much they may fear its consequences. Even these people, to some extent, must feel a degree of guilt, fearing that perhaps, in fact, they are despoiling others. Yet this apprehen- sion does not entirely kill the desire for progress.

An aspect of world view, suggested by the TAT responses, which illustrates how progressive individuals can operate within the framework of dominant values, is the strong emphasis on one's duty and obligations, not to oneself but to one's parents. Every story concerned with obligation expressed a theme of self-sacrifice. An ingenious rationalization, consistent with the accepted norms of role relationships, is suggested by the following responses to Card 2:

A 26-year-old woman narrates this story:

This is a peasant family-the mother, father and daughter. The daughter studies to prepare for a career that will aid her parents. She wants to leave for school to study and learn a career. Then she will work to earn money so that her parents zwill not have to work so much and so hard. With this enthusiasm she will succeed because she is a good daughter who wants to help her parents. They work hard to give her this opportunity and she will reciprocate by making her parents happy.

A 25-year-old man narrates:

The man is working, happy, satisfied. The wife is looking at him sadly because she would like an easier job for him. The daughter is studying eagerly. She desires to improve her life to help her family. The mother, thinking of the dangers a woman may run into, does not want her daughter to leave. But the daughter wants to study and the two quarrel. The daughter is successful. She becomes a great doctor, saving the life of her mother who became seriously ill. The mother for- gives her daughter for disobeying her.

The significance of these responses is clear: while it is not yet acceptable to justify ambition and success for personal reasons, these striv- ings are acceptable if their purpose is to support traditional hierarchical patterns and role relationships within the family. If a man or woman is motivated to achieve for selfish reasons, he or she is subject to possible negative

sanctions. But if the motivation is filial love and duty, and the desire to aid parents who have suffered, then a neo-entrepreneur is entirely justified in his actions. He is morally "clean" and the person who attacks him is attacking the traditional order of respect and family stability.8

3

Data in this section, based on field observations, explore the overt manifestations of the themes discussed above. Specifically they concern the ways social structure and role relationships within the family are perceived and how these perceptions are paralleled by men's view of the social structure and role relationships in the supernatural.

Field work, not surprisingly, revealed that the world view and social structure of Eron- garicuarefios is very similar to that found in other highland Mexican communities.9 Basic to an understanding of how life is lived in the village of Erongaricuaro is an appreciation of the importance of the concept of hierarchy, of stratification in interpersonal relations of dominance and submission. In the supernatural world God is all-powerful, an omnipotent being who is located at the apex of the combined structures of the supernatural and natural worlds. Subordinate to God, and of course lesser in power, are His Son, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and saints, and man himself. The same pattern of dominance-submission is found in each human family, with authority and power invested in husband over wife, par-

8 Foster, upon reading this interpretation in manuscript form, told me that in Tzintzuntzan, returned braceros who improve their homes, or who otherwise give evidence of improved economic position, often justify their actions on the grounds that they are thinking of the welfare of others and particularly of parents.

9 John Bushnell, "The Virgin of Guadalupe as Surrogate Mother," American Anthropologist, 60 (February 1958), pp. 261-265; Oscar Lewis, Life in a Mexican Village: Tepotzlan Restudied (Ur- bana: The University of Illinois Press, 1954); Fos- ter, op. cit.; May N. Diaz, Tonala: Conservatism, Responsibility, and Authority ini a Mexican Touwn (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Cali- fornia Press, 1966).



58 SOCIAL FORCES

ents over children, elder child over younger, and brother over sister.10

While God is remote, and hardly approach- able directly, His actions are continuously vTisible in the world. Although He can aid man, more often than not God is seen as an angry and avenging figure, stern and rigid, always alert to punish man for his transgres- sions. Many misfortunes are ascribed to him, and rarely does he receive credit for good fortune. Thus, a severe storm that seriously damaged crops in 1958 was interpreted as due to God's anger because of a recent village murder. But God, by His power, commands respect. Whatever His action, however capricious it may seem, He is entitled to it, because of this power. God is dominant, and all other beings, supernatural and human, are submissive to Him.

In human families, the father-husband plays much the same role as God, he is remote (al- most always psychologically, and often physically as well), all-powerful within the realm he dominates, capricious and owed obedience, however willful his comportment may be. In theory at least only the father has the authority to grant permission to other family nlembers to leave the house, to attend village functions, or to marry. (In fact this ideal is frequently violated.) He has great powers over the lives of hais wife anld children and, like God, in dealing with His children, he is more apt to be avenging and punislhing than sup- portive.

Both with respect to God and the father- husbanad, emotional security derives from sub-

mission to the superior will, through passive acceptance of what is decreed, and through attempts to do what is thought to be pleasing to these authorities. In the supernatural family, Christ submits to the will of His Fatlher, and accepts crucifixion because it is decreed that this will be done. His mother, the Virgin, accepts without complaint the agony and suffering of seeing her Son sacrificed. She con- soles and grieves, but does not question God's action. She bends to God's will.

The villagers feel much closer to, and much more clependent upon the Virgin than God, or Christ. They see her as the nurturing, ex- pressive, protective Mother not only of Christ, but also of all sinners, themselves included. Shle is mankind's principal source of help and succor, the most effective intercessor with God. Unlike God, she is not capricious nor punish- ing. Whatever one's sins, she is worthy of trust; she will not betray mian, and he can pour out his innermost thoughts to lher. The vil- laoers' fear of ahandonment and loneliness (powerfully brought out in TAT responses) is lessened by their belief that the Virgin will nlever withdraw her support, as long as mani shows her love. In a favorite litany the villagers plead with her to "pray for us." This is in striking contrast to prayers to Christ, where the petitioner asks that He "have pity on us" anld that He "deliver us." On many ocasions I have observed weeping meen and women, at the foot of an imiage of the Virgin, imploring her "to pray for me; do not forsake mie; let nothing lack for me, neither house, nor food, naor dress."

The role of the human miother is seen as analogous to that of the Virgin, a theme dealt with by Bushnell in S. W. Mexico.11 As one woman said,

the mother should work to avoid trouble in the family, and she is responsible for remedying marital crises. One of the reasons there are so many fail- ures in marriage is that the woman doesn't make the necessary sacrifices . . . It is the man who commands, but with intelligence the woman can influence him, because she must understand him and be willing to make sacrifices . . . The mother is more affectionate with her children than the father, and for that reason the children are more

10 The recogn-ition of this parallel is not, of course, a particularly novel idea and is perhaps an aspect of folk Roman Catholicism generally. Al- though philosophers have explored this pattern in essays on Mexican character e.g., Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude (New York: Evergreen Grove Press, 1962); Samuel Ramos, Profile of Man antd Culture in Mexico (New York: McGraw Hill Book Co., 1962); and anthropologists have made similar observations about Spain e.g., Michael Kenny, "Patronage Patterns in Spain," Anthro- pological QuarterlY, 33 (January 1960), pp. 14-23; Julian A. Pitt-Rivers, Thte People of the Sierra (London: Weidenfeld Nicolson, 1955) ; it is per- lhaps useful to describe analogues in a specific community. 11 Bushnell, op. cit.



TWVORLD VIEWV IN A PEASANT VILLAGE 59

attracted to her. It is the duty of the woman to save her husband and her obligation to devote herself to aiding him. When the woman tries to dominate, the marriage is a failure. Always the woman ought to submit to save the marriage.

Submission and passive acceptance bring the reward of a continuing marriage, and perhaps some economic security. But women usually see their task as a demanding and diffi- cult one, demanding continual sacrifices. The following incident illustrates the ambivalent feelings that exist: after an afternoon drinking bout in a bar, a husband returned home with his face bloodied from a fight, and went directly to his room witlhout speaking to his wife. She lamented,

It's always like this. When Jose gets a paying job, he has money for drinking but not for the house. He will never tell me what has happened. Even if I were to ask him he would become angry at me. Jose is a person I can never talk to about important things. Once I wanted to ask him what we should do about money for food. Instead of answering me with some plan, he only said that everything was fine, and that was the end of it. I still had to find money to buy food. I wonder why I ever got married. It is very diffi- cult to have all the responsibility for things and then have your husband go out and foolishly waste all those pesos on drink, especially when we owe my father 300 pesos.

Children see the role of their mnothers as sim-

ilar to that of the Virgin to mankind: slhe is

the primary source of succor and protection. The attitudes are inculcated in infancy, when the infant is carried on the mother's back in a shawl, breast-feed on demand, and kept near to her in bed at night. Through childhood and adolescence it is the mother who intercedes for

her children with their fathers, and who con- tinues to nurture them and give succor. Mothers often cook special foods for their sons, and otherwise humor their desires and wlhims. The mother's opportunity to develop dependency and guilt feelings in her children is also furthered by the fact that fathers frequently are physically absent from the home for mionths at a tilme. Among 30 families interviewed, over two-thirds of household heads said they had left the village at least once for periods ranging from six to 18 months. Several miore

had been away twice for shorter durations, and all expressed the desire to leave again if they had the opportunity. Although there are no statistics for the entire village, my im- pression is that Erongaricuaro conforms to an an overall Mexican pattern where the father abandons his fanmily for extended periods of time.12 Even if the father does not abandon his family to find work elsewhere, from a psychological point of view he is "absent," lack- ing close interpersonal contact with his children.

Within the human famllily there is no role quite analogous to that of Christ, although there is a functional analogue in manipulative behavior of the greatest importance. The villagers' conception of and relationship to Christ is an ambivalent one in which pro- found respect and devotion are felt, as well as a great sense of guilt. On the one hand as the Son of God, Christ is perceived as a legisla- tor, judge, rewarder, and punisher, and is treated with the deference owed a powerful authority. A villager is often more formal in his relationship to Christ- than to the Virgin, kissing the hand or clothing of the inmage just as was formerly done with respected tem- poral authorities (and as is still done with the priest, and higher Church dignitaries). On the other hand, in the role of the Son of Mary, Christ is perceived as a suffering and compassionate being who died to redeemn all mlankind from original sin. The knowledge that they, as the inheritors of the stain of this sin, are responsible for Christ's agony and death, induces a sense of guilt in villagers whiclh leads to the desire to atonle, and which thus promotes man's submiiission to Divine Will.

Although villagers are essentially fatalistic in their world view, and accept the doominance- submllission hierarchical concepts imllplicit in the supernatural world and within the family, they are not above attempting to manipulate these relationships in specific instances, to their

12 For a more complete discussion of the psy- chodynamics of this pattern see Santiago Ramirez, "Some Dynamic Patterns in the Org,anization of the Mexican Family," International Journal of So- cil71 Psychiatry, 3 (1957), pp. 35-39; Lewis, op. cit., pp. 287-352.



60 SOCIAL FORCES

own ends. In fact, manipulation in interpersonal relations is an area which holds particular interest for villagers, perhaps because they feel they hold so little control over natural forces. Central to manipulative activities are two concepts:

1. The abogado, the intercessor, the go-between, the special pleader.

2. Guilt feelings.

The first describes the dominant type of interpersonal relationship used for manipulation and the second the psychological senti- ment that supports it. Perhaps most social relations are looked upon as an exchange mechanism, in which the creation of an obligation entails an expectation of return. Thus, man may appeal to Christ, the Virgin, and the saints by doing things known to be pleasing to them, thereby creating the obligation for them to grant what man asks for, or at least to intercede with God, asking that the petition be favorably considered. For the final authority of God is fully recognized, and the saints, Christ, and the Virgin are known to be powerless if God is opposed. Lo que Dios no quiere, los santos no pueden hacen, expresses the understanding: "What God does not wish, the saints cannot do." Nonetheless, only through go-betweens can man hope to achieve his desires, and of the supernatural go-betweens, the Virgin is the most effective.

Man, therefore, does not hesitate to exercise some control over the supernatural world, by obligating its members to aid him. Although his acts are not magical, in the sense that if properly executed the desired result will auto- matically be forthcoming, they exhibit a certain' degree of confidence, as well as some equality. Saints particularly can be to some extent controlled, by turning their images or pictures to the wall if they do not do as re- quested, or by threatening to abandon them in favor of others (saints, presumably, like humans, fear abandonment and loneliness).13

Within the family, human beings utilize similar manipulative techniques. The mother, like

the Virgin, intercedes with the husband in favor of her children, in return for which children do favors for their mothers. A favored child, likewise, can intercede for his mother by playing upon the sympathy of the father. Withdrawal of a mother's support is an effective device to frighten children into obedience and children, in turn, can manipulate their mother by symbolically rejecting her love by refusing to eat her food.

Particularly important to an understanding of this pattern of manipulation is the deep feeling of guilt that man bears collectively for the crucifixion of Christ. As previously suggested, this collective sense of guilt is one of the strongest forces that ensures the continua- tion of Church dogma and ritual. In a sense Christ manipulates man, or holds him to the paths of righteousness, by preying upon his feelings of guilt, and his consequent wish to atone for it. This guilt sense for causing su- preme suffering is symbolized most dramatically in the penitential processions on Good Friday, when men, in response to a vow to Christ, parade through the village streets bearing a heavy wooden cross on their shoulder, whip- ping themselves with short lashes. These guilt feelings seem also to be symbolized by the attention given the image of Our Lord of Mercy, a bleeding, crucified Christ that hangs on the church wall. Through identification with the beaten, humiliated Christ, the villagers appear to express their desire for atonement, and their hope to more nearly ap- proximate the pure life that Christ wishes for them.

The preying upon guilt feelings, and the susceptibility to such feelings, underlies the human mother's ability so often to dominate her solls. Through Church teachings as well as the mother's constant reiteration, children see her cast in the role of the self-sacrificing and suffering female, the macdre abnegada, who, in spite of all, aids and intercedes for her children. Consciously and unconsciously playing upon these feelings, most mothers exploit their suffering roles to encourage their children to develop strong emotional attachments to them for the immediate gratification such behavior brings, and in the hope that in advanced years children will protect and support them.

13 Kenny deals with some of these patronage patterns in Spain indicating their extent within the Roman Catholic world view as such. See Kenny, op. cit.



INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS 61

Children, and particularly sons, come to feel that failure to repay mother, to do what she wishes them to do, is a cardinal sin, and the guilt feelings provoked are proportionately strong. Mother, fearing abandonment and loneliness wishes her sons to remain with her throughout her life. But with a growing popu- lation and changing opportunities, agriculture is a less and less adequate source of work and support. Many young men wish to migrate to the United States, either permanently or as braceros, and others wish to seek their for- tunes in other parts of Mexico. Many, of course do so. But many others either do not have the courage to leave a "suffering" mother, or in response to a tearful letter, perhaps hint- ing at approaching death, they will abandon promising opportunities and, driven by guilt feelings, return to Erongaricuaro.

In one instance, when a son left, the mother languished about the house for several days, and then wrote him a letter imploring him to return home, emphasizing that she had been bedridden since he left. Within a few weeks the son returned. Sons, who in spite of all, fail to answer their mother's call, are perceived as ingrates without filial feelings, and

villagers console these mothers for the "loss" of their sons.

4

In this paper I have suggested and illus- trated with examples, that the judicious use of TAT tests not only amplifies the picture ob- tained through traditional participant observation methods, but that the heuristic value of tests results in sharper problem definition. In particular, the thematic analysis demonstrates how certain values have a systematic logical relationship to one another. For example, by utilizing fantasy materials I was able to explore some of the further implications, parallels, or common patterns, that link the perception of social structure and role relationships within and between the human and supernatural families. Finally, I pointed out how TAT responses reveal what may prove to be a wide- spread rationalization in changing peasant societies: that ambitious and entrepreneurial personalities are able to avoid traditional sanctions for display of these qualities, by justify- ing their motivation and actions in terms of approved filial concern for parents, i.e., in terms of approved traditional relations.

INSIDERS AND OUTSIDERS: TOWARDS A THEORY OF OVERSEAS CULTURAL GROUPS*

PAUL MEADOWS Syracuse University

ABSTRACT

Although overtly concerned with overseas cultural groups, this paper considers social systems in terms of ethnic boundaries, structures, variables and policies. Systems of ethnic status structuralization are outlined; a classification of historic ethnic status systems is pro- posed; correlates of ethnic identity are formulated; types of boundary patterns are associated with types of ethnic orientation; and the pressures toward ethnic solidarity are associated with degrees of societal specialization and division of labor. The orientation of the paper is historical, cross-cultural and structural.

everal things must be immediately obvious S about the subject of this paper. First,

what we shall call "insiderness" and "out-

siderness" are not exclusively the properties of ethnic status aggregates, whether located

overseas or not. Second, it must be equally obvious that any theory of "overseas cultural groups"-or "ethnic status aggregates," as I

prefer to call them-must be regarded as a

* Prepared for the Upstate New York Confer- ence on Asian Studies, Albany, New York, Oc- tober 1966.



analysis of world view in a mexican peasant village: an illustration

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