E-Book Overview
36 b/w photographs, 5 maps This beautifully written book weaves reflections on anthropological fieldwork together with evocative meditations on a spectacular landscape as it takes us to the remote indigenous villages on the shore of Lake Titicaca, high in the Peruvian Andes. Ben Orlove brings alive the fishermen, reed cutters, boat builders, and families of this isolated region, and describes the role that Lake Titicaca has played in their culture. He describes the landscapes and rhythms of life in the Andean highlands as he considers the intrusions of modern technology and economic demands in the region. Lines in the Water tells a local version of events that are taking place around the world, but with an unusual outcome: people here have found ways to maintain their cultural autonomy and to protect their fragile mountain environment. The Peruvian highlanders have confronted the pressures of modern culture with remarkable vitality. They use improved boats and gear and sell fish to new markets but have fiercely opposed efforts to strip them of their indigenous traditions. They have retained their customary practice of limiting the amount of fishing and have continued to pass cultural knowledge from one generation to the next--practices that have prevented the ecological crises that have followed commercialization of small-scale fisheries around the world. This book--at once a memoir and an ethnography--is a personal and compelling account of a research experience as well as an elegantly written treatise on themes of global importance. Above all, Orlove reminds us that human relations with the environment, though constantly changing, can be sustainable.
E-Book Content
LINES IN THE WATER
BEN ORLOVE
LINES IN THE WATER Nature and Culture at Lake Titicaca
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London
Frontispiece: Drawing of fishermen retrieving gill nets at Lake Titicaca, by Dominique Levieil. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2002 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Orlove, Benjamin S. Lines in the water : nature and culture at Lake Titicaca / Ben Orlove. p. cm. Includes index. isbn 0-520-22958-4 (cloth : alk. paper).— isbn 0-520-22959-2 (paper : alk. paper) 1. Titicaca Lake Region (Peru and Bolivia)—Description and travel. 2. Titicaca Lake Region (Peru and Bolivia)—Social life and customs. I. Title. f3451.p9 o75 2002 984.12 — dc21 2001035872 Manufactured in the United States of America 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication is both acid-free and totally chlorine-free (tcf). It meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48 –1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Dedicated to
alberto flores galindo césar fonseca m artel sylvia form an john hyslop libbet t crandon m alamud thierry saignes mich ael sallnow john tracey — colleagues and friends who walked the paths of the Andes and who died too young, leaving books not written, tales not told, songs not sung.
Contents
List of Illustrations
ix
Preface: Lakes
xi
1. Not Forgetting
1
2. Mountains
17
3. Names
45
4. Work
69
5. Fish
117
6. Reeds
173
7. Paths
209
Notes
241
Acknowledgments
277
Index
279
Illustrations
p h o t o g r a p h s a n d d r aw i n g s Morning light, Capachica Peninsula Cirilo Cutipa on a ridge between Socca and Ilave Two fishermen retrieving gill nets Carrying cloth from Capachica Cirilo Cutipa in the author’s apartment in Puno Family awaiting a ferry on a floating isla