'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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... street , across the plaza and up the steep street to Juana's house . On the way , I met little Agapito , who was carrying a bundle of firewood on his back and a bunch of dahlia - like flowers , deep red , which he had brought from the ...
... street at the end of the churchyard . At the corner of the churchyard we turned toward the cemetery and stopped several yards from the intersection ; we sat against the wall with our chicha jars . Then commenced another battle of chicha ...
... streets at the top of the village to Julián's house , though Teresa now thought , contrarily , that he was too drunk ... street stood a huge and extravagant altar ; music , amplified by a loudspeaker , blared from the yard out over the ...