Canar : a year in the highlands of Ecuador / Judy Blankenship.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blankenship, Judy, 1941-

Series:

The William and Bettye Nowlin Series in Art, History, and Culture of the Western Hemisphere

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cañari Indians--Rites and ceremonies.

Cañari Indians.

Cañari Indians--Social life and customs.

Cañari Indians--Pictorial works.

Cañar (Ecuador : Province)--Social life and customs.

Cañar (Ecuador : Province).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 p.)

Edition:

lst ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Once isolated from the modern world in the heights of the Andean mountains, the indigenous communities of Ecuador now send migrants to New York City as readily as they celebrate festivals whose roots reach back to the pre-Columbian past. Fascinated by this blending of old and new and eager to make a record of traditional customs and rituals before they disappear entirely, photographer-journalist Judy Blankenship spent several years in Cañar, Ecuador, photographing the local people in their daily lives and conducting photography workshops to enable them to preserve their own visions of their culture. In this engaging book, Blankenship combines her sensitively observed photographs with an inviting text to tell the story of the most recent year she and her husband Michael spent living and working among the people of Cañar. Very much a personal account of a community undergoing change, Cañar documents such activities as plantings and harvests, religious processions, a traditional wedding, healing ceremonies, a death and funeral, and a home birth with a native midwife. Along the way, Blankenship describes how she and Michael went from being outsiders only warily accepted in the community to becoming neighbors and even godparents to some of the local children. She also explains how outside forces, from Ecuador's failing economy to globalization, are disrupting the traditional lifeways of the Cañari as economic migration virtually empties highland communities of young people. Blankenship's words and photographs create a moving, intimate portrait of a people trying to balance the demands of the twenty-first century with the traditions that have formed their identity for centuries.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One. Old Friends

Chapter Two: Killa Raymi: Festival of the Moon

Chapter Three: A House in Cañar

Chapter Four: The Day of the Dead

Chapter Five: La Limpieza

Chapter Six: A Dinner to Honor the Dead, and Us

Chapter Seven: The Meeting

Chapter Eight: Greeting the New Year

Chapter Nine: Life in Cañar at Three Months

Chapter Ten: Día de San Antonio

Chapter Eleven: This Camera Pleases Me

Chapter Twelve: The New Economy

Chapter Thirteen: A Death in Cañar

Chapter Fourteen: Carnaval

Chapter Fifteen: Betrothal, Cañari Style

Chapter Sixteen: Life in Cañar at Six Months

Chapter Seventeen: A Wedding

Chapter Eighteen: Mama Michi Goes to Canada

Chapter Nineteen: The Way Things Work

Chapter Twenty: A Birth in Cañar

Chapter Twenty-One: We Walk the Inca Trail

Chapter Twenty-Two: Saying Good-bye

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-292-79690-0

OCLC:

182530223