South American musical instruments reflect population relationships


Date:
September 20, 2021
Source:
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Summary:
A new study provides a systematic review of musical instrument
diversity in the archaeological and ethnographic history of
the continent, suggesting cultural contact over long geographic
distances, and cases of recent extinction.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Music is an intrinsic expression of cultural diversity and a fundamental element of identity, ritual symbolism, and daily social interaction. The
study of material culture, and musical instruments in particular,
represents therefore a relevant and innovative tool to characterize
societies and reconstruct their historical trajectories and relationships
in time and space.


========================================================================== South America harbors a rich diversity of cultures and languages, which
are shaped by different demographic scenarios and adapted to a variety
of ecologies and landscapes. In this study, a joint project with the
University of Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of
Human History, researchers analyzed music diversity over the entire
South American continent with a systematic review of the different
instruments found in both the archaeological and ethnographic record,
with a focus on Indigenous knowledge and pre-colonial history.

Exceptional diversity from the archaeological record The authors started
by reviewing one of the most popular classifications of global organology
(the study of musical instruments): the system of von Hornbostel and
Sachs, assembled at the beginning of the 20th century. The classification breaks down from four main classes of instruments: idiophones (vibration
of the instrument itself e.g., a rattle), membranophones (vibration of
a membrane, e.g., a drum), chordophones (vibration of strings, e.g.,
a guitar), and aerophones (vibration of wind, e.g., a flute).

Gabriel Aguirre-Ferna'ndez, a paleontologist from the University of
Zurich and first author of the study, started his journey into musical diversity from a macroevolutionary perspective, interested in shapes and functions. Together with PhD student Anna Graff from the University
of Zurich and a team of South American-based ethnomusicologists
and archaeologists, they expanded and refined this classification, incorporating 40 years of work documented by ethnomusicologist and
coauthor Jose' Pe'rez de Arce from the University of Chile.

"One finding of our systematic review is the prominent role of aerophones
for South America in comparison to other continents, particularly in
the archaeological record," says Aguirre-Ferna'ndez. "Even considering
that not all materials used to make instruments have equal chances of
being preserved - - organic materials such as plants and bones do not
preserve as well as inorganic materials like stone and clay -- more than
one third of the aerophones in South America were found exclusively in archaeological excavations, with no records of usage in the more recent ethnographic record.

This suggests that many kinds of instruments went extinct, and are no
longer part of the musical repertoire of Indigenous populations. The
influence of European colonizers, who massively disrupted the local
cultural repertoire, is likely playing a part in these extinction events,"
adds Graff.



========================================================================== Cultural and linguistic connections From a cultural evolution perspective,
the sharing of instruments can testify to a shared historical path. The transmission of knowledge is influenced by two modalities: vertical transmission, with information passing within a group from one generation
to the next, and horizontal transmission, with information passing
through contact with peers or other groups.

Chiara Barbieri, a geneticist working at the University of Zurich and affiliated to the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
in Jena, works with the demographic and linguistic history of South
America. "We found groups who speak related languages and share the
same set of instruments, and this can describe particularly meaningful connections, with stable vertical transmission of cultural features
and materials," says Barbieri, who co-led the study. "We also recovered east-west connections across the Amazonian basin, with groups sharing
the same or similar instrument sets at long geographic distances. These findings, contextualized with historical, archaeological, linguistic
and genetic evidence, have a strong potential to illuminate past
chapters in South American history." "The panpipes are particularly interesting," adds Aguirre-Ferna'ndez. "We focused on them in a case
study because of their great diversity of forms and widespread presence
in the continent. By analyzing panpipe features in different societies,
we recovered relationships which mirror regional and cultural areas
of influence, corresponding to the northern Andes, the southern Andes,
and an Amazonian core." Digital catalogues of material culture Marcelo Sa'nchez-Villagra, paleontologist from the University of Zurich who
coordinated the study, highlights the importance of cataloguing human
artifacts into such systematic collections. By traveling to museums
and discussing his findings with musicologists and anthropologists,
he is convinced that this work is as relevant as existing research on
other artifacts, like ceramic styles, which are more commonly studied
at broad geographic scales.

"We hope to continue our study with more fine-grained mapping of
musical instruments and discussing the relevance of their features
for performance and music production. With an even more robust dataset
it will be possible to test questions of cultural evolution and apply
advanced models to the data," concludes Sa'nchez-Villagra.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Max_Planck_Institute_for_the_Science_of_Human_History.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Gabriel Aguirre-Ferna'ndez, Chiara Barbieri, Anna Graff, Jose'
Pe'rez de
Arce, Hyram Moreno, Marcelo R. Sa'nchez-Villagra. Cultural
macroevolution of musical instruments in South America. Humanities
and Social Sciences Communications, 2021; 8 (1) DOI:
10.1057/s41599-021-00881-z ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210920082137.htm

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