'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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 37
... bread for them . There were no introductions , but our presence seemed somehow to be accepted quite easily ; I had expected to be con- stantly an object of curiosity , but everyone had more pressing concerns , and we were simply ...
... bread tomorrow , for ourselves for the first time since we've been here , about the pleasure of working together , the women shaping the bread , the men tending the fire , and everyone eating fresh bread hot out of the oven with butter ...
... bread for me an offering of thanks - a little embarrassed because we were in bed . It struck me as extraordinarily generous since I hadn't really helped very much and had deserted them at the moment of greatest hardship , even though ...