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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... hands, in a small yard between adobe houses. In others, children: a couple of kids in a tree, taken close up; a trio of boys of graduated sizes sitting against a white-washed wall — all of whom, judging by impish grins, unabashedly ...
... hand in a household is an invaluable source of labor, and so, because we wanted to work, these roles fell to us easily, naturally. The agricultural year begins in 'Tambo in August and September, when the dry season — the Andean winter ...
... hand-woven wool cloth) for corn; the maize of 'Tambo is known to be especially good, and people come from highlands all ... hands and letting it drop, still spinning, to the ground. Juana went with the dye dealer to get a bottle of trago ...
... hand when I took it slight and bony. She seemed a little shy at being so formally introduced. Her face is kind and ... hands, the faint stoop in her posture from years of carrying burdens, that made her look a middle-aged woman. Gary ...
... hands, twisted the narrow rope between the almost-two balls and pressed them together, flattening the bread with the heels of our hands. With the last of the dough, Daniel shaped wawitas and caballitos (babies and little horses) and ...