Overview

The first in-depth, comparative, and interdisciplinary study of indigenous Amazonian musical cultures, Burst of Breath showcases new research on the dynamic range of ritual power and social significance of various wind instruments-including flutes, trumpets, clarinets, and whistles-played in sacred rituals and ceremonies in Lowland South America. The editors provide a detailed overview of the historical significance, scientific classification, shamanic and cosmological associations, and changing social meanings of ritual wind instruments within Amazonian cultures. These essays present a wide perspective that goes beyond better-documented areas such as the Upper Xingu and northwest Amazon. Some of the authors explore the ways ritual wind instruments are used to introduce natural sounds into social contexts and to cross boundaries between verbal and nonverbal communication. Others look at how ritual wind instruments and their music enter into local definitions and negotiations of relations between men, women, kin, insiders, and outsiders. Closely considering these instruments in their many roles and contexts-in curing and purification, negotiating relations, connecting mythic ancestors and humans today-this volume reveals the power and complexity of the music at the heart of collective rituals across lowland South America.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jonathan David Hill ,  Jean-Pierre Chaumeil
Publisher:   University of Nebraska Press
Imprint:   University of Nebraska Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.612kg
ISBN:  

9780803220928

ISBN 10:   0803220928
Pages:   440
Publication Date:   01 December 2011
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Overture, Jonathan D. Hill and Jean-Pierre Chaumeil I. First Movement. Natural Sounds, Flute Music, and Social Communication 1: Speaking-tubes: The Sonorous Language of Yagua Flutes (Jean-Pierre Chaumeil); 2: Leonardo, the Flute: On the Sexual Life of Sacred Flutes among the Xinguano Indians (Rafael Menezes Bastos); 3: Soundscaping the World: The Cultural Poetics of Power and Meaning in Wakuenai Flute Music (Jonathan Hill); 4: Hearing Without Seeing: Sacred Flutes as the Medium For an Avowed Secret in Curripaco Masculine Ritual (Nicolas Journet); 5: Flutes In the Warime: Musical Voices In the Piaroa World (Alexander Mansutti Rodriguez); 6: Desire in Music: Soul-Speaking and the Power of Secrecy (Marcelo Fiorini) II. Second Movement. Musical Transpositions of Social Relations: Gender, Affines, and Others 7: Archetypal Agents of Affinity - 'Sacred' Flutes in the Guianas? (Marc Brightman); 8: From Flutes to Boom Boxes: Traditions of Musical Symbolism and Change among the Waiwai of Southern Guyana (Stephanie W. Aleman); 9: From Musical Poetics To Deep Language: The Ritual of the Wauja Sacred Flutes (Acacio Tadeu de Piedade); 10: The Ritual of Iamurikuma and the Kawoka Flutes (Maria Ignez Cruz Mello); 11: Spirits, Ritual Staging and the Transformative Power of Music in the Upper-Xingu Region (Ulrike Printz); 12: An Inca Instrument at a White Man's Feast: Marubo Flutes and Categories of Ritual and Human Being (Javier Ruedas); 13: Arawakan Flute Cults of Lowland South America: The Domestication of Predation and the Production of Agentivity (Robin Wright) III. Coda 14: Sacred Musical Instruments in Museums: Are They Sacred? (Claudia Augustat); 15: Mystery Instruments (Jean-Michel Beaudet)

Reviews

"""This well-conceived and very well executed volume marks a major advance in discussions of the significance of aerophones and sound over a large area of South America.""—Anthony Seeger, Journal of Anthropological Research"

This well-conceived and very well executed volume marks a major advance in discussions of the significance of aerophones and sound over a large area of South America. -Anthony Seeger, Journal of Anthropological Research

This well-conceived and very well executed volume marks a major advance in discussions of the significance of aerophones and sound over a large area of South America. -Anthony Seeger, Journal of Anthropological Research -- Anthony Seeger Journal of Anthropological Research

This well-conceived and very well executed volume marks a major advance in discussions of the significance of aerophones and sound over a large area of South America./i>--Anthony Seeger Journal of Anthropological Research

Author Information

Jonathan D. Hill is a professor of anthropology at Southern Illinois University. He is the editor or author of several books, including Made-from-Bone: Trickster Myths, Music, and History from the Amazon. Jean-Pierre Chaumeil is a senior researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France). He is the author or editor of several books in Spanish and French.

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