Pathways of Memory and Power: Ethnography and History Among an Andean PeoplePathways of Memory and Power crosses the disciplinary boundary where anthropology and history meet, exploring the cultural frontier of the colonial and postcolonial Andes. Thomas A. Abercrombie uses his fieldwork in the Aymara community of Santa Barbara de Culta, Bolivia, as a starting point for his ambitious examination of the relations between European forms of historical consciousness and indigenous Andean ways of understanding the past. Writing in an inviting first-person narrative style, Abercrombie confronts the ethics of fieldwork by comparing ethnographic experience to the power-laden contexts that produce historical sources. Making clear the early and deep intermingling of practices and world views among Spaniards and Andeans, Christians and non-Christians, Abercrombie critiques both the romanticist tendency to regard Andean culture as still separate from and resistant to European influences, and the melodramatic view that all indigenous practices have been obliterated by colonial and national elites. He challenges prejudices that, from colonial days to the present, have seen Andean historical knowledge only in mythic narratives or narratives of personal experience. Bringing an ethnographer’s approach to historiography, he shows how complex Andean rituals that hybridize European and indigenous traditions—such as libation dedications and llama sacrifices held on saints’ day festivals—are in fact potent evidence of social memory in the community. |
Contents
From Ritual to History and Back Again | 3 |
Introduction | 27 |
The Dialogical Politics of Ethnographic Fieldwork | 52 |
Copyright | |
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alcaldes altar ancestors Andean archives Asanaqi authorities ayllus Aymara Bárbara de Culta Bartolomé caciques called cantón carried Castilian ceque ch'allas Challapata Charcas chicha Christian chroniclers Chullpas church Cieza cloth collective colonial Condo conquest corral corregidor Cruce cultural Cusco dance deities diarchy documents drinking encomenderos encomienda ethnographic festival fiesta forms gods groups Guaman Poma hamlet herd ibid idolatry idols Inca indians indigenous jilaqata K'ulta Killaka kinds labor land libations llama llantiru mallku Mamani mayordomo misa mita moieties mountain narrative native lords Pachacuti past path patriline Pedro performed pilgrimage Pizarro plaza Polo Potosí practices pre-Columbian priest probanza Qaranka qarwa Quechua Quillacas quipu Qulla Qullasuyu reducción relationship Repartimiento rites ritual sacrifice saints Santa Bárbara sequence social memory Spaniards Spanish sponsors stories t'aki taqui oncoy Tatala territory tinku Titicaca Tiwanaku Toledo Tomás town council transformation tribute Tunupa uywiri vecinos Viracocha visits wak'as writing yatiris