Toward a political Anthropology of Mission Sound: Paraguay in the 17th and 18th Centuries

WILDE, GUILLERMO

Music and Politics

University of California

Lugar: Santa Barbara, California; Año: 2007 p. 1 - 36

1938-7687

If our modern vision is not appropriate for understanding music of the colonial era, how shall we approach the sonic experiences of the past? What are the characteristics of the indigenous musical experience in missionary regions of Paraguay during the 17th and 18th centuries? In this article I will explore a few ways to respond to these questions. In the first section, I discuss analytical models for the ?sonic experience? in the missionary regions, putting special emphasis on what such models reveal about the native categories that define the limits of the sonic world.  I continue by describing concrete uses of sound in the daily routine and rituals of the missions, showing how it served as a hegemonic mechanism that reinforced regimes of temporality and corporality. In the third section I refer to what can be called ?counter-hegemonic uses of sound??that is, those instances in which sound is openly linked to indigenous acts of resistance. Finally, I conclude by presenting some considerations about ambiguous or hybrid zones, in which sound is used as a means of negotiation between Jesuit authorities and the indigenous population.