A return to the village : community ethnographies and the study of Andean culture in retrospective

This edited volume brings together several scholars who have produced outstanding ethnographies of Andean communities, mostly in Peru but also in neighbouring countries. These ethnographies were published between the 1970s and 2000s, following different theoretical and thematic approaches, and they often transcended the boundaries of case studies to become important reference works on key aspects of Andean culture: for example, the symbolism and ritual uses of coca in the case of Catherine J. Allen; agricultural rituals and internal social divisions in the case of Peter Gose; social organisation and kinship in the case of Billie Jean Isbell; the use of khipus and concepts of literacy in the case of Frank Salomon; and the management and ritual dimensions of water and irrigation in the case of Ricardo Valderrama and Carmen Escalante. In their chapters the authors revisit their original works in the light of contemporary anthropology, focusing on different academic and personal aspects of their ethnographies. For example, they explain how they chose the communities they worked in; the personal relations they established there during fieldwork; the kind of links they have maintained; and how these communities have changed over time. They also review their original methodological and theoretical approaches and findings, reassessing their validity and explaining how their views have evolved or changed since they originally conducted their fieldwork and published their studies. This book also offers a review of the evolution and role of community ethnographies in the context of Andean anthropology. These ethnographies had a significant influence between the 1940s and 1980s, when they could be roughly divided – following Olivia Harris – between ‘long-termist’ and ‘short-termist’ approaches, depending on predominant focuses on historical continuities or social change respectively. However, by the 1990s these works came to be widely considered as too limited and subjective in the context of wider academic changes, such as the emergence of postmodern trends, and reflective and literary turns in anthropology. Overall, the book aims to reflect on this evolution of community ethnographies in the Andes, and on their contribution to the study of Andean culture. _GoBack _GoBack _GoBack _GoBack _ENREF_1 _ENREF_5 _ENREF_7 _ENREF_3 _ENREF_4 _ENREF_6 _ENREF_11 _ENREF_16 _ENREF_12 _ENREF_13 _ENREF_14 _ENREF_31 _ENREF_33 _ENREF_34 _ENREF_35 _ENREF_36 _ENREF_38 _ENREF_18 _ENREF_19 _ENREF_40 _ENREF_41 _ENREF_42 _ENREF_43 _ENREF_45 _ENREF_47 _ENREF_60 _ENREF_66 _ENREF_62 _ENREF_61 _ENREF_63 _ENREF_23 _ENREF_67 _ENREF_68 _ENREF_69 _ENREF_24 _ENREF_25 _ENREF_70 _ENREF_71 _ENREF_73 _ENREF_74 _ENREF_27 _ENREF_79 _ENREF_80 _ENREF_81 _ENREF_82 _ENREF_83 _ENREF_29 _ENREF_89 _ENREF_90 _ENREF_91 _ENREF_97 _ENREF_98 _ENREF_30 _ENREF_96 _ENREF_100 List of acronyms and abbreviations Notes on contributors Introduction: Community ethnographies and the study of Andean culture Francisco Ferreira Reflections on fieldwork in Chuschi Billie Jean Isbell (in collaboration with Marino Barrios Micuylla) 2. Losing my heart Catherine J. Allen 3. Deadly waters, decades later Peter Gose 4. Yanque Urinsaya: ethnography of an Andean community (a tribute to Billie Jean Isbell) Carmen Escalante and Ricardo Valderrama 5. Recordkeeping: ethnography and the uncertainty of contemporary community studies Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld 6. Long lines of continuity: field ethnohistory and customary conservation in the Sierra de Lima Frank Salomon 7. Avoiding ‘community studies’: the historical turn in Bolivian and South Andean anthropology Tristan Platt 8. In love with comunidades Enrique Mayer References Figure 1. The peasant community of Taulli (Ayacucho, Peru). Photo: Ferreira Figure 2. Taulli’s central village. Photo: F. Ferreira Figure 3. A communal assembly at Taulli’s central village, 2008. Photo: F. Ferreira Figure 4. Meeting at Taulli’s medical centre, built in the 1990s. Photo: F. Ferreira. Figure 5. Taulli ́s Carnival celebrations in the central village, March 2008. Photo: F. Ferreira Figure 2.1 Sectorial fallowing in Sonqo. Created by C.J. Allen Figure 6.1. In Tupicocha, newly invested presidents of parcialidades (ayllus) visit the community office in 2010 to form the new directorate. Photo: F. Salomon. Figure 6.2. Tupicocha comuneros examining the author’s work table. Photo: F. Salomon. Figure 6.3. One stress factor that causes damage to the Tupicocha quipocamayos is the practice of twisting them into a single cable prior to transport and display. Photo: F. Salomon Figure 6.4. The ‘simulacrum’ or replacement quipocamayo displayed by parcialidad Centro Guangre in Tupicocha, 2007. Photo: F. Salomon Figure 6.5. In Rapaz, Moisés Flores attends night-time balternos ceremonial inside Kaha Wayi and in the presence of suspended khipu collection, New Year, 2004. He wears the formal dress of a balterno. Photo: F. Salomon Figure 6.6. Museologist Renata Peters (right, seated) in a 2005 working meeting inside the precinct with some balterno officers. Photo: F. Salomon. Figure 6.7. Vendelhombre [ceremonialist] Melecio Montes (left) lifts the upper altar-cloth of Kaha Wayi’s mountain altar, revealing a lower altar-cloth severely damaged by fungus. The lower cloth remains were repaired in 2005 by interweaving them with a f Figure 6.8. Vice-president and Kamachikuq Víctor Gallardo examines khipu cords during conservation work inside the temporary site lab. Photo: F. Salomon. Figure 7.1. San Marcos, 1970. Photo: T. Platt. Figure 7.3. Tinku in San Marcos for Corpus Christi, 1971. Photo: T. Platt. Figure 7.4. Liconi Pampa, 2013. Photo: Fortunato Laura Figure 7.5. Agustín Carbajal (to the left), 1971. Photo: T. Platt. Figure 7.6. Map of the great ayllus of Northern Potosí. Drawn by Esteban Renzo Aruquipa Merino (after Mendoza and Patzi, 1997; Harris and Platt, 1978) Figure 7.7. Map of the Macha territory, with moieties and cabildos (Mendoza and Patzi, 1997) Figure 8.1. Tangor carguyoj with his servant and friends carrying chicha to the plaza for distribution to the whole comuna, 1969. Photo: E. Mayer. Figure 8.2. Map of Cañete Valley (Lima, Peru) agricultural zones (Mayer and Fonseca, 1979; 1988, no page number) Figure 8.3. Diagram of land management by production zones, Cañete Valley (Mayer, 1985; 2002, p. 389) Figure 8.4. Maize terraces in Laraos (Lima, Peru). Photo: E. Mayer _GoBack "This edited volume brings together several scholars who have produced outstanding ethnographies of Andean communities, mostly in Peru but also in neighboring countries. These ethnographies were published between the 1970s and 2000s, following different theoretical and thematic approaches, and they often transcended the boundaries of case studies to become important reference works on key aspects of Andean culture: for example, the symbolism and ritual uses of coca in the case of Catherine J. Allen ; agricultural rituals and internal social divisions in the case of Peter Gose ; social organisation and kinship in the case of Billie Jean Isbell ; the use of khipus and concepts of literacy in the case of Frank Salomon ; and the management and ritual dimensions of water and irrigation in the case of Ricardo Valderrama and Carmen Escalante. In their chapters the authors revisit their original works in the light of contemporary anthropology, focusing on different academic and personal aspects of their ethnographies. For example, they explain how they chose the communities they worked in ; the personal relations they established there during fieldwork ; the kind of links they have maintained ; and how these communities have changed over time. They also review their original methodological and theoretical approaches and findings, reassessing their validity and explaining how their views have evolved or changed since they originally conducted their fieldwork and published their studies. This book also offers a review of the evolution and role of community ethnographies in the context of Andean anthropology. These ethnographies had a significant influence between the 1940s and 1980s, when they could be roughly divided--following Olivia Harris--between 'long-termist' and 'short-termist' approaches, depending on predominant focuses on historical continuities or social change respectively. However, by the 1990s these works came to be widely considered as too limited and subjective in the context of wider academic changes, such as the emergence of postmodern trends, and reflective and literary turns in anthropology. Overall, the book aims to reflect on this evolution of community ethnographies in the Andes, and on their contribution to the study of Andean culture"--Back cover "The Atlantic-Pacific Central American sea-level canal is generally regarded as a spectacular failure. However, Deep Cut examines the canal in an alternative context, as an anticipated infrastructure project that captured attention from the nineteenth through the late twentieth centuries. Its advocates included naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, physicist Edward Teller, and U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. The waterway did not come to fruition, but as a proposal it served important political and scientific purposes during different eras, especially the years spanning the Cold War and the "environmental decade" of the 1970s."--Publisher web site