Craho - Settlements

In the 1960s villages ranged in population from about 49 to 169 people, distributed through seven to twenty houses. Craho houses are built in a circle. They face the central plaza and are at the border of a circular path. Each house is linked to the plaza by a radial path. The diameter of the village circle, about 140 to 200 meters, does not increase in proportion to the number of houses. These houses, built on the model of the regional poor, have palm or wattle- and-daub walls and thatched roofs. Unlike the houses of Whites, they have no windows and, usually, no internal divisions; where divisions exist, they are randomly placed. Inside the house there are household fires, platform beds covered by mats, shelves to keep iron pots, and, on the ground, calabashes for water. The end points of the sticks that shape the roof are used as supports for firearms and hanging baskets into which food and a large variety of household objects and instruments are kept.