Pathways of Memory and Power: Ethnography and History Among an Andean People (review)

Thomas Abercrombie’s three-part book investigates the ritual authority systems of the K’ulta people in the town of Santa Bárbara de Culta near lake Titicaca in Bolivia. Moreover, by way of studying the K’ulta Abercrombie considers much larger themes. He traces the creation of what he terms the Andean “interculture”, or the historical multiculture born of colonialism. In addition, he gives voice to the many forms of what he labels the “polysensual” history understood by Andeans, which relies upon many forms beyond the written or spoken word. And, finally, he explores the power of creating history to manipulate cultural identity. These major themes are interwoven throughout the book.

In part 1 Abercrombie details his personal experience in the field. This kind of explanation has become a part of many anthropological works in the past several years and serves to demystify the context of the research. Abercrombie describes the history and social structure of the Lake Titicaca region. He confesses his poor language skills at the beginning of his research, and the awkwardness of his first meeting with the town leaders of Santa Barbara de Culta. He illustrates the daily events he witnessed around him: courtship, envy, birth, and death, and he explains where he began to fit into these affairs. He was an outsider, a gringo, yet he became friends with an extended family, and through his connections he was able to learn the role of the fiesta-cargo system in everyday life.

In this section, Abercrombie uses the fiesta-cargo system to shed light upon the nature of what he calls the Andean “interculture”. He argues that the festivals, both the public and more private ones, fall somewhere along a spectrum of “more Andean” or “more Christian”. Andeans use both traditions to form “an understanding of the relationship between underworld and heavens, between more-Christian and less-Christian beings and powers, and between domestic and collective spheres.” (116) In this way, Andeans have incorporated multiple beliefs into their lives, but not into one large mixture, but rather into various overlapping spaces in their ritual practice.

In part II Abercrombie builds upon the complexities in the development of an Andean “interculture” when he describes the confusion resulting from the meeting of Andean and Western notions of history. He notes that, “More difficult to grasp for both Spaniards and Andeans...was the contrast between the Spanish emphasis involving two senses, visible writing and audible speech as mnemotechniques, and the polysensual Andean techniques of social memory.” (192) His study of the two histories leads to an explanation of the power of the written word and its implications for Andean culture and an Andean sense of history. The Spaniards, who wanted one grand narrative of empire written down for posterity, downgraded the history of the Andeans because it was not written, and then simply ignored, or tried to fit into oral history, all other kinds of Andean social memory such as the quipu, drinking, singing, dancing, and the rites performed at shrines. As a result of these differences and the hegemony of the Spaniards, the remaking of Andean myth/history brought a new version of Andean history which became the Andean “intercultural social memory”. (206)

Finally, in part III Abercrombie shows the ways in which the K’ulta keep their own memory paths, narrative and songs, libation sequences, and fiesta paths or fiesta-cargo careers. In their narrative history the K’ulta people tell a history that answers difficult questions about their past, particularly about colonialism, and about appropriate social roles and gender roles. In this section, Abercrombie shows the complexities of historical understanding and history making by actually showing the varied K’ulta “memory paths” which appear so irregular in comparison to western concepts of history.

If one were to seek fault with Abercrombie, it is only that he leaves the reader wanting more of his insightful...