An Interpretation of Tarahumara Interpersonal Relations

Abstract

This paper presents an interpretation of some basic characteristics of Tarahumara behavior and temperament in relation to certain aspects of social organization and to variable situational factors. It considers Zingg's (1942) interpretative treatment of Tarahumara culture to be a rather one-sided positive assessment which, though not incorrect in pointing out the existence of integrative and highly adaptive structural features, misses many crucial issues that appear when the full range of actual behavior is taken into account. Zingg stresses the suitability of agricultural and herding practices to the physical environment, the lack of apparent food anxieties, the lack of concepts of an uncontrollable or excessively freakish nature, or a cruel supernatural world, and finally, that social life combines mutual work-aid with recreation and sociability. His analysis does not put strong emphasis upon indications of marked variability of economic resources from family to family, anxieties in the realm of interpersonal relations (jealousy, desertion, slanderous gossip, sorcery, etc.), projections of violence, and rejection of group-centered obligations, that are described in this paper. Some further materials are also offered to help explain those striking characteristics of Tarahumara behavior described by Passin (1942): the prevarication patterns; the curious projections and exaggerated fear of aggression, and the existence of fear and distrust among children toward parents, especially foster parents. (Passin, 1943) In sum, it is an appraisal of Tarahumara culture from the point of view of interpersonal relations. It focuses on ranges of behavior spilling beyond the descriptive categories of ordinary ethnographic reporting, and attempts to describe the patterning and texture of interpersonal processes.