La Zandunga: Of Fieldwork and Friendship in Southern Mexico

One of the best accounts of how to become an anthropologist doing fieldwork! Students will enjoy this insightful portrayal of the pleasures and pitfalls that anthropologist Beverly Chiñas experienced while studying women’s roles in the culture of the Isthmus Zapotec. The story of her long-term research, told here with honesty and grace, allows the reader to make several trips to the field in different roles: as graduate student gathering dissertation material, as young professional pursuing more sharply defined goals, and as mature researcher directing the work of assistants. The reader encounters Zapotec culture and people through the eyes of the questioning anthropologist-narrator, discovers the methods and techniques of anthropological investigation, and, instructed by the author’s commitment to her Zapotec friends, learns how friendships may transcend cultural barriers. Includes eight-page color insert.