'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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... road making broad switchbacks across the mountainside long before the village comes into view . From the road above , the village is im- pressive , bigger than any I had seen before , a dense complex of adobe buildings , many of two ...
... road , the hoe taken from me finally by Ricardo when he finished with the plowing and had released the bulls to graze , with the implication that it was improper for me , a woman , to be working in the field with a hoe . I felt slightly ...
... road , the road engineered for the heavy trucks which travel it , gentling the grades with switchbacks and avoiding steep climbs and descents by means of wide , curving detours . Some parts of the old path are still paved , as Inca roads ...