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E-book

Title A return to the village : community ethnographies and the study of Andean culture in retrospective / edited by Francisco Ferreira with Billie Jean Isbell
Published London : ILAS, Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, [2016]
©2016

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Description 1 online resource : illustrations (chiefly color), color maps
Contents Introduction: Community ethnographies and the study of Andean culture / Francisco Ferreira -- Reflections on fieldwork in Chuschi / Billie Jean Isbell (in coolaboration with Marino Barrios Micuylla) -- Losing my heart / Catherine J. Allen -- Deadly waters, decades later / Peter Gose -- Yanque Urinsaya : ethnography of an Andean community (a tribute to Billie Jean Isbell) / Carmen Escalante and Ricardo Valderrama -- Recordkeeping : ethnography and the uncertainty of contemporary community studies / Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld -- Long lines of continuity : field ethnohistory and customary conservation in the Sierra de Lima / Frank Salomon -- Avoiding 'community studies' : the historical turn in Bolivian and South Andean anthropology / Tristan Platt -- In love with comunidades / Enrique Mayer
Summary "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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-293) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Ethnology -- Andes Region
Ethnology -- Peru.
Ethnology -- Philosophy.
Ethnology -- Methodology.
Ethnology -- Fieldwork -- Andes Region
Ethnology -- Fieldwork -- Peru
Communities -- Andes Region
Communities -- Peru
Village communities -- Andes Region
Village communities -- Peru
Communities
Ethnology
Ethnology -- Fieldwork
Ethnology -- Methodology
Ethnology -- Philosophy
Manners and customs -- Research
Village communities
SUBJECT Andes Region -- Social life and customs -- Research
Peru -- Social life and customs -- Research
Subject Andes Region
Peru
Andes Mountains.
Peru.
Genre/Form Case studies
Form Electronic book
Author Ferreira, Francisco (Araujo-Ferreira), editor.
Isbell, Billie Jean, editor.
University of London. Institute of Latin American Studies, issuing body.
ISBN 9781908857842
1908857846
Other Titles Community ethnographies and the study of Andean culture in retrospective