Yanantin and Masintin in the Andean World: Complementary Dualism in Modern Peru

by Hillary S. Webb

Overview

Yanantin and Masintin in the Andean World is an eloquently written autoethnography in which researcher Hillary S. Webb seeks to understand the indigenous Andean concept of yanantin or "complementary opposites." One of the most well-known and defining characteristics of indigenous Andean thought, yanantin is an adherence to a philosophical model based on the belief that the polarities of existence (such as male/ female, dark/light, inner/outer) are interdependent and essential parts of a harmonious whole.

Webb embarks on a personal journey of understanding the yanantin worldview of complementary duality through participant observation and reflection on her individual experience. Her investigation is a thoughtful, careful, and rich analysis of the variety of ways in which cultures make meaning of the world around them, and how deeply attached we become to our own culturally imposed meaning-making strategies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826350732
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	05/15/2012
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Hillary S. Webb is the managing editor of Anthropology of Consciousness, the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness.

Table of Contents

Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: The Complement of Difference 1

Chapter 1 The Knower and the Known 19

Chapter 2 Mind and Body; Spirit and Flesh 35

Chapter 3 Of Time and Space 49

Chapter 4 Between Self and Other 63

Chapter 5 Chaupin 77

Chapter 6 The Lanzón 91

Chapter 7 On Good and Evil; Life and Death 105

Chapter 8 The Symbolic Versus the Actual 119

Chapter 9 Male and Female 137

Chapter 10 Perfection Versus Wholeness 151

Epilogue to the Narrative 167

Conclusions: The Global and the Local: Reflections on Yanantin 171

Notes 183

References 193

Index 199