The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community [Paperback]

Catherine J. Allen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2002 | ISBN-10: 1588340325 | ISBN-13: 978-1588340320 | Edition: 2 Sub

This second edition of Catherine J. Allen's distinctive ethnography of the Quechua-speaking people of the Andes brings their story into the present. She has added an extensive afterword based on her visits to Sonqo in 1995 and 2000 and has updated and revised parts of the original text. The book focuses on the very real problem of cultural continuity in a changing world, and Allen finds that the hold life has in 2002 is not the same as it was in 1985.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A beautifully written and skillfully constructed example of ethnographic ‘thick description.’. . . . Readers will gain much from her richly detailed ethnographic contextualization of . . . basic Andean truisms, since nowhere else in the literature has it been done better.”—American Anthropologist

“So why is this ethnography different from any other ethnography? Because Allen never distances herself from the human dimensions of life in the Andes. From the beginning, the Andeans are fully realized characters, not nameless and faceless informants. . . . This work is humanistic anthropology at its very best. . . It demonstrates in elegant and sometimes poetic prose that there are no substitutes for lived experience in life or in ethnographic prose.”—Paul Stoller, Anthropology Newsletter

“Allen has written an engrossing, sensitive, and highly personal ethnography of the people of Sonqo. . . . Allen succeeds admirably in portraying how Runa use coca to create and maintain social ties and allegiances with each other and their humanized topography.”—American Ethnologist

“This book is true anthropology. It is about people, the people of Sonqo, and how they think and feel, live and die. Allen . . . examines a series of relationships through an analysis of the uses of coca, providing a wealth of ethnographic detail. . . . [A] well-written volume.”—Latin American Anthropology Review

About the Author

Catherine J. Allen was the recipient of a 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship Award and is professor of anthroplogy and international affairs at George Washington University in Washington, DC. She is the coauthor with Nathan Garner of Condor Qatay: Anthropology in Performance (1996).

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books; 2 Sub edition (October 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588340325
• ISBN-13: 978-1588340320
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > History > Americas > South America > Peru

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best available book on Q'ero, April 1, 2005

By 

kaioatey (Awatovi, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry, No 12) (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book written by an anthropologist who spent several years in an isolated Andean ayllu (community) located a good number of miles from the provincial center of Colquepata. The attraction of this book is that, unlike most authors responsible for the ever proliferating literature on Andean peoples and their practices, Allen actually lived with the Indians, participated in their ceremonies, potato planting, festivals and travels. The book provides priceless descriptions of the labor divisions between men, women and children and of the interactions between the runa (i.e., Qechua for "people") themselves, between the runa and the city-dwelling mestizos and, perhaps most poignantly, between the people and the land. The land for the Andean peasant is a living breathing organism that needs to be loved, feared and placated with gifts. Each and every horizon marker has a personality, every hill possesses power and there are spirit beings inhabiting different "power spots" from the time immemorial. The interactions between the people, the ancestors, the spirits and the land are part of the reality that needs to be reinforced every single day through little rituals, such as greeting the sun as one steps out of the door early in the morning.

Coca represented here part of the glue that held everything together. The rituals that underlie coca chewing bind people in a neverending cycle of mutual obligation; in addition, coca is used as a main ingredient of despachos (ritual offerings) and a source of quiet energy during exhaustive labor on potato fields. Unfortunately, as a result of the demand for processed coca, cocaine, in the US, and the resulting pressure on the Andean countries by coca dealers and foreign goverements alike, the Peruvian peasants have found their access to raw coca leaves (non-addictive) severely limited, which affects a crucial aspect of their culture and cultural identity.

Allen depicts all these elements (and much much more) in a simple yet poignant narrative. Everything is exactly where it should be - she brings us close to the individual members of her extended ayllu so that the reader herself can participate. I found the frequent inserts of Quechua phrases especially useful, providing a direct link into the mode of the Andean thought.

I highy recommend this book. probably the best one available, if you want to visit Qero regions in peru.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rather intricate look at rustic Andean life and rituals, December 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry, No 12) (Paperback)

Allen's work was rather fascinating. She provided an in depth look at the Runa, a small group of townspeople who adhere to customs of ancient Incan and colonial Spanish civilization. She does an especially good job at exploring the role that Coca chewing plays in their society and in determing their identity. Their rituals and customs will fascinate you. Beware, this book is not for the unsophisticated reader. It's a good read, but requires some thought and exploration to truly appreciate it.