'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
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... standing with Baltazar before the men , reading out the name of each of the workers of the ayllu from a small notebook , and making marks in it as each man did or did not respond . A place was made for them along the side of the arc ...
... didn't cook a chicken : her prac- ticality led her to decide to cook the chicken the next day so her family would be able to enjoy it . Her age and standing in the community must allow her to do this - not have chicha to Carnaval.
... standing proudly in the sun on the plaza with his hat pushed back and the bottle in his hand , the father of strange children who were going far away ; Teresa crouching in her orange skirt against the whitewashed wall of the shop ...