From Native Bamboos to Indigenous Flutes

Applied Ecomusicology and Sustainability in Highland Flute Making in the Bolivian Andes

 

This project will be carried out by Dr. Sebastian Hachmeyer on a DFG-funded Walter-Benjamin position.

Research Blog: www.musical-bamboos.com

This research project aims to explore and implement concrete sustainability strategies in highland flute making in the Bolivian Andes, especially regarding the use of native woody bamboos. For this purpose, central work in natural resource management is used to include aspects of ecology and environmental protection, such as commons research, ecological niche theory and habitat models. Based on prior analytical and theoretical research on the Musical Bamboos on the Bolivian Andes, I will apply theories and methods of applied ecomusicology to focus on the conceptual exploration and practical implementation of concrete strategies and approaches for action that aim to achieve more sustainability in bamboo use, highland flute making and the Andean Aymara music culture in general. The central aim of my research project is to explore and implement concrete sustainability strategies in highland flute making in the Bolivian Andes, in cooperation with central environmental, cultural-political, musicultural and social actors ("stakeholders" such as flute makers, bamboo collectors, musicians, governmental and non-governmental institutions, etc.). I pay special attention to musical bamboos and a sustainable bamboo use, which is considered the basis for future socio-economic and musicultural transformations and dynamics within the Andean music culture. Regarding the further development of sustainability research in ethnomusicology, the research project aims to engage in a transdisciplinary research process, which imports the understanding of transdisciplinary sciences and sustainability research into applied ethnomusicology and ecomusicology. Transdisciplinary sustainability research is primarily concerned with problem solving against the background of sustainability as a normative guiding principle.

This project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the framework of the Walter Benjamin Programme with the grant number: 530324575.