'Tambo: Life in an Andean VillagePerhaps the best way to sharpen one's power's of observation is to be a stranger in a strange land. Julia Meyerson was one such stranger during a year in the village of 'Tambo, Peru, where her husband was conducting anthropological fieldwork. Though sometimes overwhelmed by the differences between Quechua and North American culture, she still sought eagerly to understand the lifeways of 'Tambo and to find her place in the village. Her vivid observations, recorded in this field journal, admirably follow Henry James's advice: "Try to be one of the people upon whom nothing is lost." With an artist's eye, Meyerson records the daily life of 'Tambo—the cycles of planting and harvest, the round of religious and cultural festivals, her tentative beginnings of friendship and understanding with the Tambinos. The journal charts her progress from tolerated outsider to accepted friend as she and her husband learn and earn, the roles of daughter and son in their adopted family. With its wealth of ethnographic detail, especially concerning the lives of Andean women, 'Tambo will have great value for students of Latin American anthropology. In addition, scholars preparing to do fieldwork anywhere will find it a realistic account of both the hardships and the rewards of such study. |
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... Cusco is stark : Lima big and brisk and cosmopolitan , very sophisticated , and Cusco ancient , traditional except for its accommodations to the growing tourist trade , and unhurried . It's something like the difference between New York ...
... Cusco for a few days to collect ourselves and perhaps to gain a clearer perspective on the situa- tion we were in . The yard was quiet when we got there , only Teresa at home . We made ourselves some coffee and then offered her some ...
... Cusco , and they seemed very foreign now to the heart of our Cusco , our little room ; when we travel to or from ' Tambo , even that room , our home in Cusco , becomes a part of the journey , alien , the lights unnaturally bright and ...