ABSTRACT
Unlike the social systems of many modern Occidental societies, the traditional social system of the Mazahuas from El Nopal does not in itself generate any experience of meaninglessness. Hired work, which many men have to do in El Nopal "just to survive," is viewed by all the villagers as distressingly meaningless, but essential to bare physical survival yet promising of nothing more. Mazahua men and boys usually hire themselves out as agricultural workers, peones. They usually work on the private lands of the mestizos of the area but occasionally they also work on the ejidal and private lands of other Indians from the area, Otomi or Mazahua. This work is very poorly paid and considered as "leading nowhere". By this expression, Mazahuas from El Nopal mean that it is impossible to improve one's life in any way by working under such circumstances.
