Dedication I dedicate this essay to my good friend and longtime colleague at Indiana University, Ilhan Basgoz. I have learned much from Ilhan, an astute student of culture, in particular, of narratives and the ways they shape people’s understandings of the world. I believe that the theme I develop in this essay, having to do with stories and systems of belief in an Andean society where I had the privilege to do ethnographic research, owes much to Ilhan’s influence on my thinking and scholarship.