Collaborative Knowledge Production in the Territories of the Southern Cone

In recent decades, collaborative academic works have been produced in Latin America and in the Southern Cone territories of Argentina and Chile, prioritizing Indigenous epistemologies as well as reciprocal values and intercultural micropolitics, in conjunction with critical perspectives on hegemonic Western theorizations. In this ICTM Dialogues session, we present the following topics relevant to decolonization in – and through – ethnomusicology.

Juan Domingo Ñanculef Huaiquinao: “Ethnographic Writing and Representation Based on Collaboration and Co-authorship.” Due to my status as kimche (bearer of wisdom), zugumachife (spiritual interpreter of the machi, or ritual specialist) and ülkantufe (traditional musician), numerous researchers have contacted me to collaborate in their work, either as an “informant” through interviews, or in other ways such as dialogue. At the same time, I have developed my own career as a researcher, which has led me to publish several works on the Mapuche worldview, within which music is always an important dimension. I will reflect upon my experiences as both informant and researcher in relation to the production of knowledge about the Mapuche people and their music.

María Mendizabal: “Collaboration, Reciprocity and Applied Research with a Mapuche Community in the Puelmapu Territory.” This presentation addresses the experience of belonging to the Lof Vicente Catrunao Pincen, a community that ascribes itself as Mapuche-gününa küna and is currently undergoing a process of ethnogenesis. The Lof replicates the multiethnic and cross-cultural model of the original community (destroyed in the nineteenth century by a military incursion), integrating people of different ancestries, as in the case of this ethnomusicologist. It is worth clarifying that the author has joined the community not as an ethnomusicologist, but as a tayilme (singer of tayil) and as a lamngem (sister/friend) with multiple roles.

Anthropology of Body and Performance Research Team, U. Buenos Aires (Silvia Citro, Adriana Cerletti, Soledad Torres Agüero, Adil Podhajcer and Ema Cuañeri, Toba-Qom singer and teacher): “Two Long-term, Collaborative Research Projects with the Toba People of the Argentine Chaco, and with the Latin American Network of Andean Women Musicians.” These projects began with fieldwork documentation, transcription and analysis; subsequent stages have included collaborative, interdisciplinary research with Ema Cuañeri and other Toba collaborators, and with Andean women performers Nirvana Sinti and Judith López Uruchi, among others. The projects feature participatory, multimedia, and multi-genre workshops, and participatory production of videos, books, and CDs in a context of increasing multiculturalist ideologies and cultural heritage policies. We address each of these in stages of research in turn and, finally, outline an experimental process of artistic co-creation in a context of critical interculturality and decolonial questioning of scholarly knowledge.

La Producción Colaborativa de Conocimientos en los Territorios del Cono Sur

En las últimas décadas, se han venido produciendo en América Latina y en los territorios del Cono Sur de Argentina y Chile, trabajos académicos colaborativos, que retoman y revalorizan las epistemes indígenas, así como sus valores reciprocitarios y una micropolítica intercultural, en conjunto con abordajes críticos hacia las teorizaciones occidentales hegemónicas. Expondremos los siguientes temas relevantes a la descolonización en -y mediante- la etnomusicología.

Juan Domingo Ñanculef Huaiquinao: “Prácticas de escritura y representación etnográficas basadas en la colaboración y la coautoría”. Por mi condición de kimche (sabio mapuche), zugumachife (intérprete espiritual de la machi, o especialista ritual) y ülkantufe (músico tradicional), varios investigadores me han contactado para colaborar en sus investigaciones, ya sea como “informante”, a través de entrevistas u otros modos de interlocución. Al mismo tiempo, he desarrollado mi propia carrera como investigador, lo que me ha llevado a publicar varios trabajos sobre cosmovisión mapuche, dentro de los cuales la música es siempre una dimensión importante. Compartiré algunas reflexiones sobre mis experiencias tanto como informante e investigador en relación con la producción de conocimiento sobre el pueblo mapuche y su música.

María Mendizabal: “Colaboración, reciprocidad e investigación aplicada con una comunidad mapuche en el territorio de Puelmapu”. La exposición aborda la experiencia de pertenecer al Lof Vicente Catrunao Pincen, una comunidad que se autoadscribe como mapuche-gününa küna y que actualmente está en un proceso de etnogénesis. El lof replica el modelo multiétnico y transcultural de la comunidad originaria que fue destruida en el siglo XIX por el ejército, integrando personas de diversas ascendencias, como es el caso de esta etnomusicóloga. Vale aclarar que la autora se ha incorporado a la comunidad no como etnomusicóloga, sino como tayilme (cantante de tayil) y como lamngem (hermana/amiga) con múltiples roles.

Equipo de Antropología del Cuerpo y la Performance, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Silvia Citro, Adriana Cerletti, Soledad Torres Agüero, Adil Podhajcer) y Ema Cuañeri (cantante y maestra toba-qom): “Dos proyectos de investigación colaborativa de largo plazo con el pueblo toba del Chaco argentino y con la Red Latinoamericana de Mujeres Músicas Andinas”. Estos proyectos comenzaron con la documentación, transcripción y análisis en base al trabajo de campo, y las etapas subsiguientes han incluido una investigación colaborativa e interdisciplinaria con Ema Cuañeri y otras colaboradoras toba, y con las intérpretes mujeres andinas Nirvana Sinti y Judith López Uruchi, entre otras. Los proyectos incluyen talleres participativos, multimedia y multigénero, y la producción colaborativa de videos, libros y CD, en un contexto de crecientes ideologías multiculturalistas y políticas de patrimonio cultural. Finalmente, esbozamos un proceso experimental de co-creación artística, en un contexto de interculturalidad crítica y cuestionamiento de(s)colonial del saber académico.  

Reflections

In addition to the research and topic-specific reflections in the presentations, it is worth noting that four new members joined ICTM as a result of this panel. This growth in membership is intricately linked, in our view, with the purpose of ICTM Dialogues, which is nothing less than a move in the direction of the decolonization of music and dance studies. We invited participation by people not directly involved in ICTM, people who are important culture bearers as well as researchers in their own right. Recently established ICTM membership protocols facilitated their welcome as new members of ICTM. Hence, the topics covered in the panel dealt with decolonial theory and collaborative research, representing long-term research projects already well under way – and the panel itself was, in a real sense, a practical extension of the principles grounding the projects presented.

Questions to Consider

How can we generate research, research-creation and dissemination processes based on collaboration with and about the music and dance of the Indigenous peoples of the Southern Cone? Can reciprocity, as an ethical-political principal characteristic of these peoples, also become an epistemological and methodological principle capable of guiding these collaborative processes?

What are the guiding premises of an epistemological and ethical-political decolonizing paradigm of intercultural exchange? What limitations and what contributions do these paradigms have in our current geopolitical context of ethnic demands – and also of exoticizations and essentialisms that respond to multiculturalist policies?

How can the historical archives and contemporary creations of Indigenous music and dance be articulated? Is the logic of montage a feasible way to generate research and research-creation processes that are more respectful of this diversity of materials and, above all, a feasible way to avoid subsuming them to the hegemonic epistemological and aesthetic logics of modernity-coloniality?

To what extent can the study of Indigenous music contribute to a political engagement between academic knowledge and the traditions of Indigenous peoples and their cultural worlds? In this sense, what are the magnitude and potential of dissident music, born within the discord of modernity-coloniality, to co-create emancipatory knowledge?

What are the values of Latin American feminisms that are capable of promoting intercultural actions - actions that create other possible modes of sociability and communitarianism and, in turn, tackle mercantilism and cultural and material extractivism?

Further References