Link to Allen article, "To Be Quechua" (due Thurs. Jan. 6)

Author:   Catherine J. Allen

Title:      "To Be Quechua: The Symbolism of Coca Chewing in Highland Peru." 

Journal:    American Ethnologist

Vol. 8, No. 1 (Feb., 1981), pp. 157-171

(article consists of 15 pages)
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/644493

The information above will take you to today's reading assignment.  You need to log on to the Rutgers' Library and from there find and open this article (or you can go to one of the Rutgers' libraries and use one of their computers, I imagine).  You may download it once you have it open, so I don't believe you need to pay to print it out.  


After logging on in the RU Library home page, I downloaded this article twice, using two different methods.

1) I used something called "citation linker" 

Put in some of the information on the top of this screen, and I got to an abstract of the article on "Wiley Online Library." On the right side of Wiley page, under "article tools", click on "Get PDF (944K)"

2) I also found it through the "Find Articles through Searchlight" link on the library home page (Again, put in some of the necessary info. highlighted in yellow above). 

QUESTIONS for Catherine Allen, "To Be Quechua"
1) Does the author express any political motivations?
2) What are the physiological effects of chewing coca?
3) How is the Christian idea of “The Virgin” associated with the indigenous story regarding the origin of coca chewing?
4) What is the “right way to chew coca?” (And what is a k’intu?)
5) Do you think that hallpay are actually similar to a coffee break as Catherine Allen says? In what way? (yes or no)
6) How do the Indians in this region (Andean highlands) view “place”? Put another way, what is the indigenous relationship to the land they live in? What sort of evidence is brought into the article to talk about the Indian connection with the land? (The answer to this question is not really located in just one place in this article).
7) As Catherine Allen says on p. 166, when a local official who is presented with a petition, then rejects the gift of coca offered, he is indicating that he has not accepted the petition. Why? What basic principal of life among the Quechua is involved in this social interaction?
8) Among friends or acquaintances of Sonqu, what does it mean about one’s ethnicity to refuse coca?