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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... trago to offer them. They drank it and Juana refused the dye dealer another, saying, "No hay: se termino" ("There ... chicha to this summit as some kind of offering or tribute, perhaps to the river, whose name means, more or less ...
... trago as a gesture of goodwill, a sort of house gift, and Teresa went to get it. Then while Gary and Baltazar talked, Teresa served us chicha and Baltazar trago, and it gradually grew dark and Baltazar lit a small, homemade kerosene ...
... chicha and trago for all of the performers and men and women who help the carguyuq (the bearer of the cargo) and his wife. But though the cost in time and resources and labor — and emotional tension — is tremendous, the fulfillment of ...
... chicha called qonchu (the dregs of the jar) to leaven the bread, and chicha and some coca and sometimes trago for Baltazar. Working in the comedor, Baltazar dumped the flour into a big metal tub and packed it against one side. Teresa ...
... chicha and trago that flowed through the village during those days. Chicha and trago are staples of celebration in Quechua life, and of many other activities as well. Chicha is a very mild beer, made from corn which has sprouted ...