Ethnography in-sight: Amasonic politics

The photo captured in 2018 during a one-week stopover on a trip between two Central Rainforest regions of Peru is the point of departure for a reflection on the use of sound by Asháninka, Nomatsiguenga, and other rainforest peoples for “Amasonic” politics. A wide span of genres ranging from autochthonous songs produced by ensembles playing percussions and pan-flutes to school bands performing military marches is key when rainforest peoples exert pressure in the provincial capital to obtain land titles and other rights. Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga leaders also create soundscapes pervaded by politics at local gatherings to consume manioc beer and ally with supporters to enhance their demands. Disputes take place within these shared soundscapes, as evidenced by a Mother's Day celebrations at which Indigenous and nonindigenous school teachers chose diverging music and dances for their grades to perform because of disagreement about what is essential for the Peruvian repertoire

Editors’ introduction to Sound “Repatriation” in South America: The Politics of Collaborative Archive Reactivations

The introduction first gives insights into the state of the art of sound “repatriation” concerning the way historical and current recordings of verbal arts, music, and dance are brought back into circulation in originating communities. Sound restitution also seeks to level the epistemological divide resulting from conventional archiving. The groundbreaking, collaborative reactivations taking place in South America explored within the three articles in this journal issue are presented. External researchers and local co-researchers join forces to create shared soundscapes on an equitable basis; they develop innovative research designs for restitution and participate in webs of collaboration that take into account the recuperation of sound traditions that expert vocalists and instrumentalists, grassroots researchers, Indigenous leaders, and cultural entrepreneurs have independently initiated. Finally, the inclusion of co-researchers in the curatorship of museum exhibitions and the need to identify anyone who may claim rights to oratory, music, and dance is addressed

Shared soundscapes: The (re)activation of an institutional and individual archive of Peruvian music and dance

“Shared soundscapes” is a key concept that allows us to identify the multiplicity of agencies involved in historical sound recordings and their reactivation today. We use the notion to compare two very different Peruvian case studies concerning Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga peoples of the Central Rainforest and Muchik, Quechua, and mestizo peoples in the Lambayeque region, along with their respective music traditions. Part of their sonic legacy is stored in archives; one was created by an individual anthropologist, and the other is an institutional ethnomusicological archive. The comparison of historical and current soundscapes brings to the fore anthropological issues regarding how a web of actors—among them sonic activists from academia and these communities—have shaped these archives as a process and practice. It raises questions about collaborative approaches to decolonize repositories, which implies handing over rights to individuals and communities so that they can make decisions about their sonic legacies

“Adiós soccer, here comes fútbol!”: Transnationalization of the Mexican Sports Communities in the U.S.

This article discusses the sport dynamics of the Mexican communities in the United States in the context of soccer. From the analysis of Mexican groups which immigrated to the American territory, and from their soccer practices (of resistance), this research questions whether we would be witnessing a sportive “latinoamericanization” of the U.S. through the soccer practices. As a counter-response to a homogenization and subordination, the Mexican Americans (and, by extension, the Latinos in general) have created new cultural practices (and, among them sportive ones) that put together Mexican traditions with American values of society constituting, in that way, “a third space”, which extends beyond the borders of both national States. This paper, therefore, examines why a growing number of migrants strengthens relationships with their communities of origin in Mexico through the (re)creation of a soccer world itself, expressing thereby a “transnational mexicanity”, which is not “harmonic” by itself, but marked by conflicts. In this “new mexicanities” gender, class and ethnic, national and local conflicts – which occur simultaneously in the U.S. and Mexico, influencing each other – appear