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speakers from other areas, revealing further dialect
similarities or differences. Transcriptions were then
exhaustively analyzed with regard to phonology, morphology,
morphophonemics, syntax, and semantics, including linguis-
tic postulates.

The key factor making possible my entry into
and acceptance in the several Aymara communities where
I conducted research was my previous training in field
methods and study of Aymara language and culture under
Hardman and the Bolivian Aymara linguists Juana Vasquez
and Juan de Dios Yapita. Carter (1972) has noted that
ethnographic research in a given community can succeed
only if it is desired by a leading member of the community;
this is true of linguistic research also. As the first
native speaker of Aymara to receive formal linguistics
training and to teach Aymara at universities in Bolivia
and in the United States, Yapita is such a leader. In
1972 he founded the Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara
(ILCA) in La Paz to encourage the development of scholarly
research conducted by and for members of the Aymara
community. My initial field work in Bolivia was under-
taken with his approval and support and with the help
of persons who had been his students or were otherwise
associated with him; subsequently my work contacts ex-

tended to persons who knew him only by reputation.