Intracultural variation in beliefs about gender in a Mexican community

Analyses a variation among Oaxacan informants' interpretations of the 'weeping woman', a common Mexican folktale. Shows that while male and female informants share a prototypical scenario of the course of marriage, they differ in the attribution of motives and characteristics to the spouses. Concludes that analysis of ideological variation helps to understand the components that make cultural belief systems persuasive to informants. (PAS)