An Indian child of three lay in a dusty courtyard under the brassy Andean sky, bony and emaciated, but big in the belly.
The visiting U.S. anthropologist, seeing at once that the child was suffering from an infestation of worms, asked the father's permission to take it to a doctor. The father shamefacedly stalled for a day, another day, and a third—until the child died. Then the reason for the father's reluctance became shockingly clear. The family and all the neighbors danced, sang and drank deep at a gay, all-night wake, planned days before and sanctioned by their belief that...
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