'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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... field than we had been led to believe - the Quechua , perhaps expressing an optimism required by the exigencies of their environment , will invariably tell you that the route you must follow is perfectly flat ( pura pampa ) , virtually ...
... field with a hoe . I felt slightly hurt and indignant - I wouldn't have gone out to help in the field if it hadn't been for Teresa's example - but I have begun to see that , as they grow older and their children are grown , women seem ...
... field to the top . For each chunk of sod that is turned , the men in unison thrust themselves slightly off the ground to allow their left feet to land on the footrests of the plows with the force of their whole weight behind them , the ...