'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 65
... night , after a day in the puna . Teresa had not had to cook a meal to carry that day since Baltazar and Gary were working for someone else , so we had spent a peaceful af- ternoon watching the chicks in the yard and spinning and late ...
... night , after dark , Sebastiana came down to spend the night with Hugo who has been ill . Teresa and Leonarda burst into our room , agi- tated , demanding that we come out with our flashlight : Sebastiana had seen an alma ( a soul ) in ...
... night and told him , Yes , yes , we'll be there right away , and went back to sleep . I woke at four - thirty and got dressed and went to stand at the edge of the plaza , where I wouldn't be seen , to watch : it was beautiful , the ...