Format: Paper presentations with discussion
Convenors:
María Laura Taddei Salinas, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e I.M.L., Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina, laurataddei@csnat.unt.edu.ar
Rosario Haddad, Instituto de Investigación en Etnomusicología, Dirección General de Enseñanza Artística (IIET-DGEART), Argentina, mrosariohaddad@gmail.com
Soema Montenegro, Colectivo Interdisciplinario e Intercultural de los Valles Altos de Catamarca, Argentina, cantoresonante@gmail.com
The body is a creative and emancipatory vehicle, a generator of knowledge and an archive of memory. However, it is its flesh, bones and visceral nature that allows it to be both a knowing and a sentient subject. The body facilitates contact and engagement with the world and is shaped by the historical processes we experience through it. Conceptualising the body as a territory allows us to rethink it in order to reconstruct a history through lived experiences and bodily responses. Among all the aspects of the contemporary world in which we are immersed—modern, moral, bourgeois, individualistic, patriarchal and capitalist—we want to highlight two aspects that have been overshadowed: the persistence of the sonic quality beneath the primacy of the visual and the feminine configuration of the landscape. In such contexts, sonorous epiphenomena—seemingly ephemeral—are an integral part of people’s embodied and practical experience of the world, persisting over time in various forms: memories, sensations and bodily expressions; sonorous traces such as instruments and/or sound-producing objects (geophones, lithophones, idiophones in general); and the sonorous qualities of landscape elements, whose cyclicality leads to memory and re-experience. Meanwhile, the feminine has traditionally been associated with caring, seemingly confined to the domestic sphere. However, women—especially in rural, peasant and Indigenous contexts—have extended this sphere to include home gardens, pastures, their livestock, and the supervision of play and recreational spaces for children and youth. In doing so, they have expanded domestic contexts into a continuous landscape, no longer naturalised or romanticised, but politicised as sites of sovereignty and resistance. In this session we invite to explore sonorous memories through the bodies of peasant and Indigenous women, the soundscapes they inhabit, and the ways in which sound and listening construct, contest and transform bodies.
Papers:
The Copla in the Soundscape of Andean High Valleys (Argentina): Materiality and Corporality from a Feminine Perspective
María Laura Taddei Salinas, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e I.M.L., Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina
Rosario Haddad, Instituto de Investigación en Etnomusicología, Dirección General de Enseñanza Artística (IIET-DGEART), Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Soema Montenegro, Colectivo Interdisciplinario e Intercultural de los Valles Altos de Catamarca (CIIVAC), Argentina
The soundscape of the high valleys of Catamarca is richly diverse. At times, it is subtle—like the whistling of the wind or the songs of birds—while at others, it is resounding—such as the roar of the river swelling with summer storms. Sometimes, these sounds serve as a mere background, while at other times, they function as sonic signals. However, one phenomenon distinctly interrupts the soundscape with its resonance and musicality: the beat of the caja, which first announces and then rhythmically accompanies women’s singing. The copla, one of the oldest forms of Andean musical expression, has been preserved by women as both a personal and collective heritage. Its composition spans from moments of leisure to profound reflections on the experiences of women in rural, peasant, and Indigenous contexts. The copla accompanies solitude during domestic tasks, is shared among comrades in everyday activities, and fosters a sense of community as it is transmitted both among peers and across generations. In this study, we reflect on the vital materiality of the caja, the embodied feminine experience of singing, and the role of the copla in women’s daily lives, highlighting its significance within the soundscapes of the high valleys.
Hearing the Stone, Carving the Sound: Creative Processes and Social Change in Tastil Rock Art (Argentina, UNESCO World Heritage)
Bernardo Gabriel Cornejo Maltz, Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina; Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
In this work we present the advances in documentation and analysis of one of the largest concentrations of rock art in Argentina which is of worldwide relevance and is composed of 8,000 stones with engravings (approximately 100,000 images) placed in the surroundings of the pre-Hispanic settlement of Tastil, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2014 as part of the Qhapaq Ñan (Andean Road System). This dense 17-hectare settlement was inhabited uninterruptedly from the 13th to the 15th centuries; however, we propose that rock art practices in the locality began at least four centuries earlier. Among these stones with art are included hundreds of cases of ‘sonorous rock art’: lithophones or rock gongs that were drawn and also played as musical instruments, probably fusing both expressions in the same act.
Through a multisensory (visual, auditory and performative), interdisciplinary and experimentally based approach, the different forms of interaction between people and stone surfaces are analysed, as well as the technical and expressive aspects of the creative process. Additionally, we evaluate how this interlacing of images and sounds defined spaces of memory and ritual in the local landscape, and its relevance for validating narratives and institutional agreements in changing socio-political contexts.
Sounds in the Clandestinity: Sensory Experiences of Detained/Disappeared Women at the Arsenal Miguel de Azcuénaga (Tucumán, Argentina)
Inés Agustina Luna, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e I.M.L, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (FcsNAT e IML – UNT); Instituto de Arqueología y Museo (IAM) – Grupo de Arqueología Histórica de Tucumán (GAHT), Argentina
It is estimated that during the last civil-military dictatorship, around 800 Clandestine Detention Centres operated in Argentina, one of them being the Arsenal Miguel de Azcuénaga in the province of Tucumán.
The way in which the repressors used the space is the key to understanding the advantages of clandestinity and its geographical location. To understand its construction, it is necessary to incorporate the idea of corporeality and, with it, sensoriality. If we take the case of the Arsenal, we identify that the built environment became a relevant element for the development of sensory experiences. From this perspective, sounds played an important role within these contexts of violence and captivity, where the detained/disappeared women were deprived of vision most part of the time and constricted in confined spaces. Thus, sound prevailed over the other senses, being the key in their perception of the environment in which they found themselves. A song, a cry, the sound of nature, words of encouragement influenced bodies in different ways. It is through sound that we can rethink the everyday life of clandestine detention centres. This paper will address how sound impacted the experiences of detained/disappeared women during their captivity.
Amai Yaé Eg O Aeké (Trascender en el tiempo)
Sergio Ardaix, Tá Ñaúl (Cacique)
Fabio Santana, Ahuekhet Mainoí (Gerrero)
Alejandra Burgos, Suaj Chalohuék (Líder espiritual)
Oscar Núñez, Suaj Chibí (Líder espíritual)
Somos la continuidad viva de la Hollendáu (Memoria) de nuestros ancestros, del Holl (lo mágico) como del Ten dik atei (Ser y Estar) de aquellos que poblaron y transitaron estos suelos, siendo cazadores, recolectores, pescadores junto al río, Huimén (Pueblo) de fuerte espíritu y guerrera rebeldía. El proceso Colonial vino para destruir a nuestros pueblos, el Genocidio para borrarnos.
La memoria y el legado ancestral perduró más allá del tiempo y se hizo eco en cada elemento vivo, nuestros Tavúk (flauta de tres agujeros) sigue sonando y llamando a los abuelos, el Traachú (tambor del Suaj= brujo) sigue invocando al Soychú (espíritu de la tierra) y el “Arco de Tacuabé”(mono cordófono con vara de frotación) sigue dando su medicina sanadora y de trascendencia. La Makahué (caracola) suena a los cuatro vientos buscando su orientación, saludando a cada uno y a nuestras entidades de la tierra. Somos tierra, todos somos iguales ante ella y nos complementamos. ¡Todos somos todos!
Nuestro Clan en la ocasión, comparte estos sonidos, pretendiendo trascender el tiempo y el espacio con su Ranlaéj (arte de la voz, canto o música) preservando y legando nuestra cultura.
¡Ateitén Soychú! (Somos el Espíritu de la tierra)
CLAN GUBAITASÉ CHARRÚA
Transcend Time
We are the living continuity of the Hollendáu (Memory) of our ancestors, of the Holl (the magical) and of the Ten dik atei (Being and Being) of those who populated and travelled these lands, as hunters, gatherers, fishermen by the river, Huimén (People) of strong spirit and warrior rebellion. The colonial process came to destroy our peoples, the Genocide to erase us.
Ancestral memory and legacy endured beyond time and echoed in every living thing. Our Tavúk (three-holed flute) continues to sound and call to the grandparents, the Traachú (Suaj (sorcerer’s) drum) continues to invoke the Soychú (spirit of the earth), and the ‘Arco de Tacuabé’ (a monochord with a rubbing stick) continues to provide its healing and transcendent medicine. The Makahué (conch shell) sounds to the four winds, seeking guidance, greeting each other and our earthly entities. We are earth; we are all equal before it, and we complement each other. We are all!
Our Clan, on this occasion, shares these sounds, seeking to transcend time and space with its Ranlaéj (art of voice, song, or music), preserving and passing on our culture.
Ateitén Soychú! (We are the Spirit of the Earth)
GUBAITASÉ CHARRÚA CLAN