Silent Looms

"In her book, Silent Looms: Women and Production in a Guatemalan Town, Tracy Bachrach Ehlers captures the paradox of gender relations in a society that accords power and authority to men yet leaves the major burden of child care and economic maintenance of the family to women. Most monographs on Maya populations have either ignored women's contributions to the indigenous economy or, when they have included women's work, have ignored the contradiction between patriarchal ideology and observed behavior that is increasingly sharpened by the political and economic transformations taking place. "

Ehlers, Tracy Bachrach

Preface -- Acknowledgmenls -- 1 Introduction -- TheTown -- Being in the Field -- The Political Background -- San Pedro Sacatep6quez in Ten Year Perspective -- Guatemalan Gender Studies -- Previous Studies of San Pedro Sacatepequez -- Notes -- 2 Ethnographic Sketch -- The Fuentes Chicken Business -- Aldeas San Jos6 Caben -- Class Distinctions -- History of San Pedro as a Weaving Town -- Women and the Economy -- Work and the Family -- Highland Oasis? -- Notes -- 3 Female Labor and the Family -- The Miranda Tienda -- Female Domestic Labor -- Shopping -- Cooking -- Washing -- The Value of Daughters -- Budgets -- Dofla Yolanda -- Dofla Antonia -- Dofla Clarisa -- Female Labor and Schooling -- The Itinerant Textile Trader -- La Casa de Las Mujeres -- Female Labor in the Future -- Notes -- Photo graphs following page -- 4 Female Traders -- The Conu!rciante -- The Traveling Breadmakers -- Plaza Traders -- The Soap Seller -- The Vegetable Lady -- The Tin Merchant -- The Young Trader -- Mercado Merchants -- The T(pica Dealer -- The Wholesaler/Retailer -- Canasta Women -- The Masa Maker -- Storekeepers -- Teresa Fuentes -- Marga Mendez -- Juana Orozco -- Female Traders and the Internal Market -- Notes -- 5 Cottage Industry -- Weaving as a Cottage Industry -- The Ochoa Family Weavers -- Traditional and Modem Clothing in San Pedro -- The Value of Traje -- Modem Cottage Industry -- The Knitting Machine -- Commercial Weaving -- Dressmakers -- The Demise of the Huipil -- Notes -- 6 Women and Men -- TheGameofLove -- Female Seclusion in Oass Perspective -- Male Authority and the Family -- Authority and Courtship -- Getting Married -- Unido Marriages -- Marriage and the Poor Woman -- Sex and the Parallel Marriage -- The Latin Lover Debunlced -- Marriage and Development -- Notes -- 7 Women and Social Change -- References -- lndex.