Geography of Northwest Argentinian Folklore: A Music between Man and Earth. The Case of Quebrada de Humahuaca

Abstract

The Norwest Argentinean folk music is at the same time acting and revealing multiple geographic relationships, both concrete and symbolic. The musical practices of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, now in full revalorization, continue to maintain a strong Andean cultural roots respecting to the representations of the relationship between nature and culture. In the actual Argentinian context of integration of the native cultural heritages and circulation of ideas and people between the «European» Argentina and the Andean region, the objective of this research is to understand the tangible and symbolic systems of the relationship between nature and culture articulated by the music, to then explore the cultural transmission hypothesis of relationships with nature that responds to a need for new environmental values.