'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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... front of the compartment above the cab , the name of a saint or a local shrine to which the owner has devoted his fate or something flashy and modern , like Superman . This one was called San Martín . We had arrived early , and I had ...
... front of each altar and , later , one between them ; and at one a record player blared , while at the other a band played . In front of both , men danced ( I think they were all men and that all of the women sat just at the edge of the ...
... front of him , guiding the horns with his hands on the hoop - to duck the bull's head and charge the torero's pink cape and to threaten and chase innocent bystanders , which he later did enthusiastically . Teresa served mot'e and plates ...