'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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... watched and spun and watched . The dye dealer had said she was a good weaver : she was quick and deft , and the patterns were not simple ones — at least they didn't look simple to me . Once she stopped and pointed to one band of pattern ...
... watched through the window until I could see more clearly but didn't quite recognize the landscape : I thought we must have been approaching the broad valley of Limatambo but couldn't be certain and slept again until we were on the ...
... watched Celestina and a friend of hers - an old , white - haired woman who wears an old - fashioned dark brown bayeta skirt , a hand - woven shawl , and no shoes - stretch the simple warp of a costal ( the large heavy woven bag in which ...