#018: Fieldnotes, Khonkho Wankane (Stones & Stories). 07/04/06

Tuesday

6:15 pm

Uneventful morning. Woke up ~9:00 am, had breakfast and read some Altsvaldsson (article on cultural symbols and knowledge in Andes), finished fieldnotes from yesterday. Talked with the cooks, offered them popcorn (at their request) and they asked me what some words are in English – pot, hair, banana, apple, etc. They giggled at how funny the words sounded, especially when they tried to say them.

Good talk over lunch with one of the grad students about the colonialism in archaeology (oh, this again), and whether our coming here as archaeologists/anthropologists constitutes some form of social or economic coercion. We wondered, too, whether in personal relationships or any kind of encounter in this setting you can ever escape your persona, role and meaning as a “norteamericano”/white person. Doubtful, we agreed, but I told him I like to think that it is possible to break through it, make connections with people – real, genuine ones.

Had a delicious chicken lunch (starting to actually enjoy eating meat again…) and headed out to site with the director and some local dudes around 1pm. The Vice Minister was supposed to be out there today – turned out to be the Director of Cultural Heritage from the Ministry of Culture – taking a tour of the excavation. I followed along for a bit…wasn’t very interesting. Talked to one lady who works as a cook at our compound. As we circled one monolith I asked her whether this was the most important one of them all, and she said yes. I asked why, and she said because it has important things written on it: “writing, like the kind we have today…it’s the same.” She said she didn’t know too much about it, and I said I didn’t either. We laugh.

At around 2pm,, the not-Vice Minister called a meeting (“obligatorio,” people say) of all the workers and archaeologists. With great oration, in very clear Castellano, he talked about the importance of culture and cultural heritage as part of the plan for Bolivia’s development (Evo’s plan). It is necessary, he insists, to transmit culture to the youth, coordinate with central government and other communities. Kind of boring stuff, but I wrote down everything I coud understand in my notebook anyway.

After meeting, super tired and thinking of going back to camp to lie down, but walked with one of the grad students back towards his unit and he told me about an interesting conversation he had with his workers this morning about the history of the sun: In the time before the sun (“before Christ,” they said), the people heard the sun was going to rise in the West and built all their houses with windows facing west. When it rose in the east, all the houses burned and the people turned to stone – the Pusikala stones, four giant slabs which I’m told are right near the sight. Asked one older gentleman working in this grad student’s unit to recount the story after work was over and recorded it – once in Aymara, once in Spanish. Others watched and listened – he seemed to be happy to be telling the story. Told it very clearly, concisely.

The grad student suggested taking photos of informants after interviews and printing them as a thank-you gift.

Huge, pretty insane party at campo tonight – a Not-4^th of July party, in that none of us even realized the date until much later in the evening. When we did, somebody made a toast: A Bolivia! Y a America, sin Bush! (“To Bolivia! And to America, without Bush!”) and everyone laughed, and continued dancing and stomping on the worktable to Latin dance-party songs. The stress relief was much needed.