Skip to content
1981

Notes on Studying Ecuadorian Independent Music: Endogenous Ethnography as Counter-Colonial Practice and the Politics of Affect

image of Notes on Studying Ecuadorian Independent Music: Endogenous Ethnography as Counter-Colonial Practice and the Politics of Affect

Ecuadorian independent music is a localized manifestation of global music genres that mix in multiple ways with local music cultures. Employing ethnography and media production, the author develops a nuanced understanding of the music's cultural significance and the complexities stemming from their mixed heritage. Ecuadorian independent music, encapsulating opposing elements, gives rise to liminal spaces where traditions and modernity, rural and urban, local and global converge. While potential misinterpretations may see Latino versions of international styles as threats to native music, the focus of the argument lies in highlighting the resilience and continual generation of diversity within subaltern locations. The author's ethnographic endeavor seeks to unveil the obscurity defining this musical scene and scrutinize the processes of marginalization. With ethnography approached as a flexible methodology, the author advocates for countering colonial and capitalistic logics, emphasizing a postcolonial/decolonial agency. Reflecting on the challenges of conducting endogenous ethnography, the author queries the thorough familiarity of alternative music experiences, ultimately suggesting the concept of an open-ended creative ethnography.

Keywords: decolonialism ; endogenous ethnography ; Global South ; globalization ; Latin American popular music ; liminality ; mestizaje ; music ethnography ; peripheries ; postcolonialism

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

Notes on Studying Ecuadorian Independent Music: Endogenous Ethnography as Counter-Colonial Practice and the Politics of Affect
Intellect , 183 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1386/9781835950579_14
/content/books/9781835950579.c09
/content/books/9781835950579.c09
Loading

Data & Media loading...

References

  1. Adoum, Jorge Eenrique (1998), Ecuador: señas particulares: ensayo, Quito: Eskeletra Editorial.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Appadurai, Arjun (1996), Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Bhabha, Homi K. (1994), The Location of Culture, London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Cachiguango, Luis (2014), ‘Aya-Huma: La Sabiduría del silencio en los Andes’, in Kuri-Muyu 6: Arte y Sabiduría en las Cultura del Abya-Yala, EDICIONES ELECTRÓCICAS ‘KURI-MUYU’ Ecuador.198
  5. Connell, John and Gibson, Chris (2003), Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity, and Place, London and New York: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Derrida, Jacques (1966), ‘The decentering event in social thought’, in Writing the Difference (trans. A. Bass), Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 278–82.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Fortun, Kim (2012), ‘Ethnography in late industrialism’, Cultural Anthropology, 27:3, pp. 446–64.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Gagnon, Terese (2019), ‘Ethnography for a new global political economy? Marcus (1995) revisited, through the lens of Tsing and Nash’, Ethnography, 20:2, pp. 284–94.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. González, Jorge (2018), Thinking about Music from Latin America: Issues and Questions, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. González, Margarita (2002), ‘¡Viva la Fiesta!’, Revista Diners, 242, July, n.pag.
  11. Gúber, Rosana (2004), El salvaje metropolitano: reconstrucción del conocimiento social en el trabajo de campo, Buenos Aires: Editorial Paidós SAICF.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Haraway, Donna (1988), ‘Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective’, Feminist Studies, 14:3, pp. 575–99.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Harding, Sandra (1993), ‘Rethinking standpoint epistemology: What is “strong objectivity”?’ in L. Alcoff and E. Potter (eds), Feminist Epistemologies, New York: Routledge: pp. 49–82.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Hill-Collins, Patricia (1990), ‘Black feminist thought in the matrix of domination’, in P. Hill-Collins (ed.), Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman, pp. 221–38.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Low, Setha (2017), Spatializing Culture: The Ethnography of Space and Place, London and New York: Routledge and Taylor and Francis Group.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Lyotard, Jean-François (1984), The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Marcus, G. and Fischer, M. (1999), Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Mignolo, Walter (2012), Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking (Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History), rev. ed., Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Murchison, Julian (2010), Ethnography Essential: Designing, Conducting, and Presenting Your Research, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Negus, Keith (1998), ‘Cultural production and the corporation: Musical genres and the strategic management of creativity in the US recording industry’, Media, Culture and Society, 20:3, pp. 359–79.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Quijano, Anibal (2019), Aníbal Quijano: ensayos en torno a la colonialidad del poder (El desprendimiento: pensamiento crítico y giro des-colonial), Del Signo.
  22. Skoggard, Ian and Waterston, Alisse (2015), ‘Introduction: Toward an anthropology of affect and evocative ethnography’, Anthropology of Consciousness, 26:2, pp. 109–20.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Smith, Dorothy (1987), The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology, Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.199
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Turner, Victor (1969), The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, London: Aldine Publishing.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. van Ginkel, Rob (1994), ‘Writing culture from within’, TNOFOOR, VII:1, pp. 5–23.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Viteri, Juan Pablo (2011), ‘Hardcore y metal en el Quito del siglo XXI’, Masters thesis, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Quito, Ecuador.
  27. Westbrook, David (2008), Navigators of the Contemporary: Why Ethnography Matters, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Wieseltier, Leon (2007), ‘Preface’, in H. Arendt (ed.) and H. Zohn (trans.), Walter Benjamin: Illuminations, New York: Schocken Books, pp. vii–x.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Wong, Ketty (2012), Whose National Music?: Identity, Mestizaje, and Migration in Ecuador, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
     [Google Scholar]

References

  1. Adoum, Jorge Eenrique (1998), Ecuador: señas particulares: ensayo, Quito: Eskeletra Editorial.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Appadurai, Arjun (1996), Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Bhabha, Homi K. (1994), The Location of Culture, London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Cachiguango, Luis (2014), ‘Aya-Huma: La Sabiduría del silencio en los Andes’, in Kuri-Muyu 6: Arte y Sabiduría en las Cultura del Abya-Yala, EDICIONES ELECTRÓCICAS ‘KURI-MUYU’ Ecuador.198
  5. Connell, John and Gibson, Chris (2003), Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity, and Place, London and New York: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Derrida, Jacques (1966), ‘The decentering event in social thought’, in Writing the Difference (trans. A. Bass), Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 278–82.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Fortun, Kim (2012), ‘Ethnography in late industrialism’, Cultural Anthropology, 27:3, pp. 446–64.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Gagnon, Terese (2019), ‘Ethnography for a new global political economy? Marcus (1995) revisited, through the lens of Tsing and Nash’, Ethnography, 20:2, pp. 284–94.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. González, Jorge (2018), Thinking about Music from Latin America: Issues and Questions, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. González, Margarita (2002), ‘¡Viva la Fiesta!’, Revista Diners, 242, July, n.pag.
  11. Gúber, Rosana (2004), El salvaje metropolitano: reconstrucción del conocimiento social en el trabajo de campo, Buenos Aires: Editorial Paidós SAICF.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Haraway, Donna (1988), ‘Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective’, Feminist Studies, 14:3, pp. 575–99.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Harding, Sandra (1993), ‘Rethinking standpoint epistemology: What is “strong objectivity”?’ in L. Alcoff and E. Potter (eds), Feminist Epistemologies, New York: Routledge: pp. 49–82.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Hill-Collins, Patricia (1990), ‘Black feminist thought in the matrix of domination’, in P. Hill-Collins (ed.), Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman, pp. 221–38.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Low, Setha (2017), Spatializing Culture: The Ethnography of Space and Place, London and New York: Routledge and Taylor and Francis Group.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Lyotard, Jean-François (1984), The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Marcus, G. and Fischer, M. (1999), Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Mignolo, Walter (2012), Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking (Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History), rev. ed., Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Murchison, Julian (2010), Ethnography Essential: Designing, Conducting, and Presenting Your Research, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Negus, Keith (1998), ‘Cultural production and the corporation: Musical genres and the strategic management of creativity in the US recording industry’, Media, Culture and Society, 20:3, pp. 359–79.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Quijano, Anibal (2019), Aníbal Quijano: ensayos en torno a la colonialidad del poder (El desprendimiento: pensamiento crítico y giro des-colonial), Del Signo.
  22. Skoggard, Ian and Waterston, Alisse (2015), ‘Introduction: Toward an anthropology of affect and evocative ethnography’, Anthropology of Consciousness, 26:2, pp. 109–20.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Smith, Dorothy (1987), The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology, Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.199
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Turner, Victor (1969), The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, London: Aldine Publishing.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. van Ginkel, Rob (1994), ‘Writing culture from within’, TNOFOOR, VII:1, pp. 5–23.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Viteri, Juan Pablo (2011), ‘Hardcore y metal en el Quito del siglo XXI’, Masters thesis, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Quito, Ecuador.
  27. Westbrook, David (2008), Navigators of the Contemporary: Why Ethnography Matters, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Wieseltier, Leon (2007), ‘Preface’, in H. Arendt (ed.) and H. Zohn (trans.), Walter Benjamin: Illuminations, New York: Schocken Books, pp. vii–x.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Wong, Ketty (2012), Whose National Music?: Identity, Mestizaje, and Migration in Ecuador, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
     [Google Scholar]

  • From This Site

    /content/books/9781835950579.c09
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
/content/books/9781835950579.c09
dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
-contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
10
5
Chapter
content/books/9781835950579
Book
false
en
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test